2013-14 Preview (SEC) Kentucky
It has been awhile since there was any reason to be excited about Kentucky football but with the hire of Mark Stoops as head coach they may have finally found someone who can get the program back to some level of sustained success.
Kentucky Wildcats (Team Link)
Coach: Mark Stoops
2012 Record: 2-10
Odds of winning BCS Championship: +2000 (field)
In the final years of Rich Brooks they had winning records 4 years in a row but his handpicked successor Joker Phillips couldn’t come anywhere near that level of success. Stoops is much more accomplished and comes from a prominent current football family.
They are already seeing some results on the recruiting trail.
Check out our in-house Handicapper!!! Buy Razor Ray’s College Picks in 2013!
Looking ahead to this season it is going to be tough to improve on last year’s two victories though. Obviously there wasn’t a lot right about last year’s team,but right or wrong there isn’t a lot coming back to campus this season.
They might not win a league game and other than a date with FCS Alabama State at mid-season there isn’t a game you can point to as an obvious win, not even Western Kentucky who they lost to last season and is now lead by enigmatic coach Bobby Petrino.
Last season the Wildcats had the worst scoring offense in the SEC averaging just under 18ppg. They were weak in all facets of the attack and this year new offensive coordinator Neal Brown is bringing back the pass heavy “Air Raid” attack that delivered some success during the Hal Mumme days on campus.
The question is whether they have the personnel to pull that off. The starter at QB is presumed to be sophomore Jalen Whitlow but he didn’t show much as a freshman and really the strategy this year might really be to get him as ready as possible for the future.
That might be the strategy for the entire offense which features only a few senior starters and will be half filled with freshmen and sophomores. It might make for some awful play against the top defenses in the SEC but it is unreasonable to think that this team was really going to compete this season so building for the future is a smart strategy.
Plus this is Kentucky so really they are just looking for games their cheerleaders can practice at until Midnight Madness.
On defense the Wildcats were only marginally better last year, ranking low in the SEC but in the middle of the pack nationally. 5 starters return on this side of the ball none more important than middle linebacker and tacking machine Avery Williamson.
DE/OLB Bud Dupree is also a player and the only Wildcat to make a preseason all conference team (2nd). Considering all the top defensive players in the SEC that is quite an accomplishment. [soliloquy id=”82219″]
2013-14 Record Projection: 1-11
I like the hire of Stoops but the cupboard is pretty bare this year at UK. The non-conference schedule is tough with games against WKU and Louisville, even Miami of Ohio at home is no gimme for this team. Beginning in late September the Wildcats will play back to back to back to back games against Louisville, Florida, South Carolina and Alabama.
That is about as tough a stretch as any team in the country will have all season long and this team will be lucky to score a TD in each of those contests the way they are looking right now. The defense might be respectable but the offense has struggled for the last two years and is now going through another transition within the toughest league in America, with a schedule that does it no favours this season.
The best thing to do is to ignore UK football this year because from a handicapping perspective any game they are is a mismatch that might be hard to quantify.
I think they will fight hard for their coach though.
2013 Wildcats Schedule:
AUG 31 – Western Kentucky
SEP 7 – Miami (O)
SEP 14 – Louisville
SEP 28 – Florida
OCT 5 – @South Carolina
OCT 12 – Alabama
OCT 24 – @Mississippi State
NOV 2 – Alabama State
NOV 9 – Missouri
NOV 16 – @Vanderbilt
NOV 23 – @Geogia
NOV 30 – Tennessee
