Erik Ainge and Robert Meachem stand on the verge of school records. Meanwhile, Kentucky is headed to Neyland Stadium.

That's like being really hungry and somebody hands you a free pass to a pizza buffet.

In the big picture for Tennessee, Kentucky has been as close to a mortal lock as there is in college football.

The Vols have counted a victory over the Wildcats for 22 consecutive years. There's no reason to think it won't be 23 by sundown Saturday.

Furthermore, UT fans who are so inclined might want to bring a pen and paper and track the game within a game.

Ainge is on track to become the most accurate passing quarterback Tennessee has ever had in any given season.

And, yes, that includes Peyton Manning.

Meachem is poised to become the all-time school leader for receiving yards in a season. It might not take him past the first quarter.

By this point, we should mention Kentucky's defense.

Or, lack thereof.

The Wildcats are 7-4, bowl-bound and riding a four-game winning streak.

But no thanks to their defense. It stinks.

Kentucky ranks 119th -- dead last -- in the nation, allowing 468.7 yards a game.

The Wildcats are the total package: 115th in rushing defense; 103rd in scoring defense; 119th in passing defense.

"Do I look like I'm happy?" defensive coordinator Mike Archer said Saturday after Kentucky stopped a two-point conversion run to preserve a 42-40 win over Louisiana-Monroe.

Louisiana-Monroe, a winner of two games, gouged the Cats for 501 yards, one week after Vanderbilt gouged them for 621 yards.

So you get the idea what Tennessee's up against Saturday.

Meachem is sitting at 1,149 receiving yards. That's a mere 22 yards short of the school record of 1,170 set by Marcus Nash in 1997.

Meachem also would need 17 receptions and four touchdowns to break those respective records, both set by Nash in '97, a tall day's work even against Kentucky.

Ainge, meanwhile, can hardly avoid breaking the season record for completion percentage.

Who thought back in August we'd be reading that sentence come November?

"He's become a true student of the game,'' head coach Phillip Fulmer said Sunday night.

Returning from a sprained ankle, Ainge completed 21 of 26 attempts against Vanderbilt on Saturday, improving his accuracy to 67.99 percent.

The most on-target passer of the T-formation era was Heath Shuler in 1993, at 64.6 percent (184-of-285).

Manning's best mark was 64.2 percent as a sophomore in 1995 (244-of-380).

Other notable efforts: Jeff Francis, 64.4 percent in 1986; Casey Clausen, 64.1 percent in 2001.

Ainge has hit 189 of 278 attempts for 2,482 yards. If he manages 11 completions Saturday to get to 200 he'll be in elite company in the SEC record book.

Among quarterbacks with 200 completions, only Kentucky's Tim Couch has registered a more accurate season than Ainge.

Couch set the standard at 72.3 percent in 1998. Steve Taneyhill of South Carolina ranks No. 2 at 67.1 percent in 1995.

Ainge isn't the only SEC quarterback with a laser. JaMarcus Russell of LSU is red hot at 68.77 percent. But nobody has come farther from last year than Ainge.

As a true freshman in 2004, he completed a credible 55.1-percent of his throws prior to the season-ending shoulder injury.

Then he dipped to 45.5 percent in the misbegotten 2005 season, losing both the starting job and his confidence.

And now here he sits, one David Cutcliffe later, about to go in the school record book.

He has devoured lesser defenses: 24-of-29, Air Force; 23-of-27, Memphis; 21-of-26, Vandy.

He's shown up big against some good ones: 11-of-18, Cal; 25-of-38, Georgia; 21-of-29, South Carolina.

Alabama wasn't his best day, but at 28-of-46, he became the only UT quarterback other than Manning to win a game in which he threw 40-plus passes.

LSU, 1-of-6 on a bum ankle before retiring, should be a mulligan.

His "worst" day, 17-of-32 (53 percent) against Florida, wasn't exactly a clunker. The Gators rank 11th nationally in pass-efficiency defense.

"There's just a lot of bright things ahead for him,'' said Fulmer, "if he'll continue on the path he's on.''

Yes, and playing Kentucky's defense is one of them.