It is not easy to win big at Kentucky. This is not a football school; it is a basketball school. The culture is geared toward one sport and not another. Recruiting for football just doesn\u2019t carry the same prestige as it does at other SEC schools which value football, such as Alabama, LSU, Georgia, Auburn, and Florida. That said, coach Mark Stoops has done a reasonably good job at Kentucky. He won 10 games in the 2018 season, which is a remarkable achievement at Kentucky. Even when Kentucky won those 10 games, the Wildcats did not win the SEC East Division. Georgia did, coming close to the College Football Playoff. In order for Kentucky to win the SEC East, everyone else has to be mediocre. The goal, then, is not to win the division, but to win 10 games \u2013 basically, beating everyone other than Georgia and Florida. Is Kentucky ready to achieve at that level? Obviously, the pandemic has reduced the length of the regular season, so Kentucky\u2019s goal this season will be to win nine games instead of 10.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Offseason Changes<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Wildcats lose offensive lineman Logan Stenberg, who was a nasty and forceful presence for this team on the field and a leader in the locker room. The Wildcats lost quarterback-receiver Lynn Bowden, who single-handedly carried them to a Belk Bowl win over Virginia Tech this past December. They will also enter the 2020 season without linebacker Kash Daniel, who was the heart and soul of their defense last year. All three were special players who will not be easily to immediately replace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Wildcats Will Succeed If\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Terry Wilson can evolve as a passer. Wilson can run well, and he is respected by his teammates for his toughness and resolve, but he is not a polished passer. That reality has left Kentucky\u2019s offense underequipped in recent seasons, especially 2019. Lynn Bowden was moved from receiver to quarterback in place of Wilson last season, and Bowden enabled the offense to function at a more improved level. Wilson is a hard-working, determined athlete, but his passing skills leave something to be desired. If he can make a considerable jump as a passer \u2013 especially on downfield routes \u2013 Kentucky\u2019s offense would have a lot more resources to call upon this season. The Wildcats would shore up one of their main weaknesses and become a harder team to deal with for SEC East opponents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Wildcats Will Fail If\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Landon Young can\u2019t max out at left tackle. Wilson is going to need help, and with Logan Stenberg no longer on the team, Landon Young has to be a superstar-quality offensive lineman. If Young becomes a dominant figure who can take on a lot of responsibilities, that will reduce the pressure on all of his fellow offensive linemen. The offense can become more cohesive. Wilson will feel less anxiety in the pocket. Everyone will be able to fit into roles more neatly and confidently. Young is truly a pivot-point player for the Wildcats, because their offense desperately needs reinforcements with do-everything skill player Lynn Bowden now gone to the NFL.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Prediction<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Wildcats\u2019 offense has been painfully limited for most of the past few seasons. Whatever Kentucky has been able to achieve has been mostly on defense. If this offense can raise its level of play a few notches from 2019, this could be a special season, but it is hard to see that happening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Prediction: 4th in SEC East<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It is not easy to win big at Kentucky. This is not a football school; it is a basketball school….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":13567,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[133],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ncaaf"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13564"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13564\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13568,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13564\/revisions\/13568"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}