Kentucky Football Early 2021 Predictions and Preview | Kentucky Wildcats

Intro guess what everyone we are back with yet another sec 2021 early predictions video today we got the kentucky wildcats i tried to put some kind of blue on i have the nice blue jays new blue jersey back there i don't have anything kentucky because i'm a big south carolina fan i know i got a penn state hat on i just root for them i'm not a big penn state fan just had the hat and i thought it would Overview match well or whatever but let's get into talking about kentucky in this 2021 season we're going to go over recap of last season go over their gains and losses from in between seasons and then go over their schedule and the wins losses and toss-ups i have for these kentucky wildcats and if you watch this channel before especially if you're a kentucky wildcats fan i don't want to beat around the bush and i don't want to lie to you guys but i think we all have this team that we're just really hard on and that team for me is the kentucky wildcats i am way harder on kentucky than most people are and i don't give them the credit that they do deserve sometimes i don't know it's weird i don't understand it it might be because my dad grewing up he was a kentucky fan kentucky basketball so i kind of grew up i wasn't a huge supporter like he wasn't a massive kentucky supporter but i did grow up watching some kentucky basketball and it might be like i have the same feeling about north carolina even though kentucky plays in the sec and they go up against south carolina and basketball i like kentucky basketball same thing with north carolina i like north carolina basketball both of those football programs i don't like it might just be because i feel like they're basketball programs and i don't like or i it just doesn't feel right in my mind or whatever when i see them in the top rankings as football so i have to be honest with you guys straight off if i come off as a bit hard on kentucky it's just who i am it's just how i've been so i'm gonna try to be as completely non-biased as possible in this video kentucky's had some great years like back in you look back at 2018 they beat penn state in the citrus bowl and one of the best seasons that they've ever had in a while had a top 10 overall pick and josh allen and you all said benny snell who was an amazing running back and continues to be a good running back for the pittsburgh steelers kentucky produces they don't just produce on the court they produce on the field too and kentucky's got a pretty good football team so let's break it down first off going through their 2020 season because this was a team that started off at the beginning of the year ranked i didn't think that they Last Season would finish rank because first of all you only had sec acc and big 12 teams as the power five teams who were ranked big 10 and pac-12 had not entered at that point i think kentucky was like 23rd in the nation or something like that start off losing auburn then they lose to ole miss in overtime i remember watching that game they beat mississippi state they beat tennessee then they lose to missouri lose to georgia and what was a very low scoring boring just bad game for georgia you beat vanderbilt by three in a very very close game then you get absolutely clobbered by alabama which who had didn't get clobbered by alabama this season other than florida everyone got their fair share of serving from alabama you lose to florida 30 40 10 and then you'll beat my south carolina gamecocks which they were the better team in that game i can't i can't even lie i can't make up some excuses on why south carolina lost that game kentucky was way better team way better and then you finish off the season with a gator bowl victory against nc state that's a pretty good season for covent and everything for a team in my eyes that i predicted to be a lot lower than they were i think i predicted them like fifth or maybe even sixth in the whole scc east last year obviously i was wrong about that they finished fourth in the sec east obviously that's not like top three that's not anything that's gonna really make you open your eyes but in my opinion kentucky put together a pretty pretty good season for the roster that i thought they had they were better than i thought the only games again this might be another reason why kentucky for me i look at them and i'm like i don't think this team is any good i don't have that much exposure to them like i cover sec i usually watch the biggest games in each and every week so just hit a cowbell i don't know why i have that on my desk right now but that's awkward sorry about that okay so we'll cut back i was talking about why i'm a bit biased towards kentucky and the fact that i cover scc football i usually watch the biggest games of the week and all my south carolina gamecock games obviously and kentucky just doesn't get that media attention that they do that they get in basketball they just don't get that national attention that you'd see other teams like alabama you see teams like georgia florida texas a m auburn lsu teams like that get the media attention so it's kind of like those teams are forced into my mind that i have to pay attention to them kentucky's a team that just slips under the radar much like i think missouri last season who missouri was a really good team they just didn't get the media attention that they deserved and that's why they were a team that like shocked a lot of people last year even though they had a very very talented team the only games of kentucky i watched this season i remember watching the end of the ole miss game i watched the florida game and then obviously the south carolina kentucky game so it's not like i watched an overload of kentucky games it's not like this is a team that i know super super well i got a glimpse at them i've watched lots of highlights of course during all the games you constantly see during all the games on sec network you see oh update down in lexington uh kentucky or update down in knoxville kentucky's picked off jared garantano a bunch of different times and they are taking a huge lead against tennessee like i see the highlights i see what's going on around the league but it's not like i'm dissecting and watching kentucky football 24 every single saturday 24 7. it's just not what i do so going on from 2020 schedule let's get into their 2021 schedule let's bring that up right now because Schedule they got a slate cut out for them they got some decent opponents but it's definitely not the hardest it could be for an sec schedule there's some teams that have much harder schedules than kentucky but nonetheless they got a pretty good stretch in here so you start off louisiana monroe at home then you go missouri at home on september 11th then you go chattanooga at home on september the 18th then you go to williams bryce to take on my gamecocks on september the 25th you got october 2nd at home vs the florida gators you got october 9th at home versus lsu you got october 16th taking on the georgia bulldogs that's going to be in sanford stadium in athens georgia then you got your bye week on the 23rd the 30th you go on a way to davis wade stadium to take on the mississippi state bulldogs then you go you're back home in lexington against the tennessee volunteers then you're back away on the 13th to take on the vanderbilt commodores back home for november the 20th to take on the new mexico state aggies and then finishing off against your in-state rival away at cardinal stadium in louisville kentucky and then maybe who knows i throw this in for every team but we don't know yet december 4th the sec championship could we see kentucky get back there i don't think that it's that likely especially with teams like georgia and florida in it this year but who knows who knows there was a spot Losses last year like if you look back two years ago kentucky was one win away from georgia to beat from being in that game so and that wasn't a team that like people predicted to be in that spot at the beginning of the season so we all have no clue that's kind of the interesting thing about sec football is you have surprising teams each and every year who really shock you so kentucky could be that team this year moving on to talking about their losses who they lost and then who they gained this season and who they need to step up and everything so obviously you look at losses you look at the guys like obviously your quarterback terry wilson he's gonna be gone you have rose one of your running backs he i think he was the second best bec best running back for kentucky behind rodriguez he's gone and then of course your big big loss in my opinion has to be davis like you look at the guy who is your defense basically he was a top 10 player in the sec last year he was one of the best defensive players in the best conference in all the sec the kid could play and he's going to be a huge huge miss for that linebacker position for kentucky and a huge hit to the defense which played decent last year like other than games against like alabama and alabama and florida who were offensive powerhouses you allow 14 to conte uh georgia you allowed like tennessee to seven uh obviously ole miss was a good offense too so they ran up the scoreboard an awful bit but like this defense wasn't all that bad and they had one of the best scoring defenses in all the sec i think it was like the third best scoring defense in the sec last year on top of that you're also losing bohana on the defensive front so that's gonna be a huge loss for you and getting pressure on the quarterback but you know it kentucky defense i think that their defense has really helped them in the coming years like the past couple years and i don't see like losing players yes it sucks but if you have the coach ability and you have the same coaches around constantly coaching up this same style of play that you've been playing the last couple of years i might just be spitting nothing right now but because again i'm not that educated on kentucky i don't follow kentucky as much as you kentucky fans probably do but i think kentucky definitely has the right pieces if that makes sense the right coaches or whatever just going from what they've shown the last couple years that they could still be putting up they they still got some great players on this defense the linebackers you got right and you got square and you got tisdale who are all gonna need to step up this game because you're losing the massive hole with davis going out to the nfl and probably being a top prospect in the nfl in my opinion one of the best linebackers in the draft those guys have got to fill that hole you got to have pascal you got to have mccall and you got to have rogers especially mccall he's the big guy he's going to be the guy who's replacing bohanna for kentucky he's the guy who's going to have to get to the quarterback and really he's not going to have to he's just got to put the pressure on the quarterback because he's the nose guard he's the nose tackle you're going to be the first because when that offensive lineman snaps the ball and you're on the nose if you're the nose tackle your pressure that you put on the quarterback is gonna be right in his face that's gonna make him panic as soon as that happens so mccall is gonna have a really really big impact for how kentucky does this year defensively you look at offensively who's gonna go in that quarterback is going to be beau allen or is it going to be gateway i don't know yet i'm not educated enough to make this decision honestly i don't i don't know i don't think it really matters at this point because kentucky has never really been in the last couple years a passing threat they're more focused on the running game and as they should be they got a very good offensive line very experienced offensive line and you got a really good running back in rodriguez too who had a very very good season last year you look at the amount of touchdowns rushing to the amount of passing touchdowns that kentucky had last year i think it was 19-7 you have 19 rushing touchdowns and you have seven receiving touchdowns for um kentucky this is a running team the quarterback yes it's going to be important but as long as you're able to stick to your identity of the russian game whoever you throw in there as long as he can be a system guy and make the passes that are crucial this offense isn't going to change that much from last season even though you do lose terry wilson and you do lose rose you still have rodriguez you still got your main receiver in ali back and then you got your tight end in upshaw who led the team in receiving touchdowns last year with three so the core of this offense in my opinion is still there the offensive line is still there the russian game is still there the passing game the receivers and everything is still there it's just that quarterback position and in my opinion he doesn't need to be some guy to go out and go throw 30 plus touchdowns this season for kentucky to be successful this is a rushing team and i think they got to own that identity let's go take a look at kentucky's recruiting class this season they finished 12th in the sec in recruiting right now i think auburn was before so if you watch my auburn video and you're like no you said auburn finished 12th i'm filming this this the auburn one i did before signing day this is after signing day so now kentucky has four four stars coming in they got burton coming in an offensive guard who is the 10th best offensive guard in the country first in the state of kentucky so they pick up they're able to recruit the state really well you got magwood coming in as the 86 best wide receiver in the nation you got love it coming in safety three-star safety 54th best in the country then looking back at some more of your four stars you got trayvon wallace coming in the ninth best interior linebacker in the nation then you got crowdis coming in at wide receiver the 49th best wide receiver in the nation and then finally you have another wide receiver kristin lewis 55th best in the nation 11th in the state of alabama seems like wide receiver position is going to be stacked for the kentucky wildcats in the coming seasons you're bringing in a court uh linebacker four-star linebacker that's going to help this class though isn't enough to compete with the big boys just yet you're going to have to recruit way way more than that if you want to be up there with the big boys like 12th in the sec the class is decent trust me i take this class over what south carolina has right now because we have the worst uh class in the sec right now now that doesn't mean that i want to get rid of any of the players that south carolina has right now because i think we've got some great guys still i just want to add way more depth and to take four four stars for kentucky maybe this is just me being a south carolina fan i wouldn't be complaining about that Tossups wins losses toss-ups the moment that you've all been waiting for is now here so let's get into that let's pull this up on my screen because this is what has been getting me the most hate or the most love depending on what team you cheer for and i feel like people don't listen to me when i talk so that's why i have people just see the graphic and they take the graphic for what it is that's why i had to put the percentages down below so i can explain myself and people will hopefully listen to me those percentages mean the amount of confidence i have in that team to win so you look at the wins the win category those are games that i feel like i'd have over a 75 chance or 75 chance of confidence in kentucky winning that game toss-ups i go anywhere from 74 to 26 really that i was gonna do 70 to 30 because that's what more what i mean but then if i did 100 to 80 i was going to do than 70 to 30 then 20 to zero you would have been like oh you completely missed some percentages no like what are you doing this looks like a joke so i just had to make the number weird just for it to even out so that's my toss-up category and then losses are games that i have 25 or less confidence in kentucky to win that game starting off with the wins louisiana monroe chattanooga and then new mexico state you got two group of five teams in louisiana monroe and then you got new mexico state and then you got the fcs team in chattanooga actually no new mexico state might be fcs now so i think that new mexico state is fcs so you have two fcs schools one group of five and then you obviously have vanderbilt going through a new coaching situation vanderbilt is not a good team they have the second worst recruiting class coming in and they don't really have the talent on that team so i think that kentucky has that game even though they go to vanderbilt vanderbilt's never really had a home field advantage that i would worry about so i'm taking kentucky in all four of these games with over 75 confidence in all those toss-ups this is where it gets confusing this is where i have to explain myself to you guys that i'm like okay this game is worth this much this game is worth that much and this blah blah blah blah so you get it missouri florida more looking at the florida because florida fans were so mad at me that i put this in the toss-ups but honestly i don't think i can mark that down as an automatic win you got the game at home for kentucky and i think that florida's losing a lot of weapons lots of florida fans even though i supported florida fully last year they really really did not like me after i put that game in the toss-ups but i have a 70 chance uh confidence in florida winning that game but if kentucky won this game i wouldn't be entirely shocked that's why i threw this in the category missouri i think that that's a 50 50 or maybe 60 40 for missouri in that game south carolina i think is a true 50 50 and that's not just me being biased louisville i don't know i don't watch enough louisville football to have an opinion on them the only louisville game i watched last year was the miami louisville one so i'm gonna say that's a true 50 50. i take kentucky over tennessee so that's probably 60 40 and i take kentucky over mississippi state and i'm feeling that at like a 70 30. so those are my toss-ups those are my breakdowns for my toss-ups lsu georgia they get lsu in a really really bad stretch you go to south carolina you play florida at home and then you get lsu and then just after that you have to travel to athens georgia i think that that game just gets caught up in a bad situation and a game where you're going to be looking ahead to that game in georgia and i think lsu is actually going to be a decent team this year they're going to bounce back so that's why i have that as under 25 confidence in kentucky and then georgia georgia georgia this season if you watched my preview that was the last um game that i had for them or that was the last preview or prediction show i did for them i think that they're going to be really good this year so best case scenario worst case scenario in realistic let's get into that worst case scenario i think you add this team at what five and seven so that means you take all your wins you take one of the toss-ups because i think that they'll definitely take one of those toss-ups and then you lose the rest realistic games to win for the toss-ups mississippi state tennessee south carolina i think if they were to win one just one of those toss-up games it would definitely be those three best case scenario for kentucky i think you go for eight and eight and four maybe nine and three reaching at nine and three like that's you have high ceiling and then you have punching through the ceiling nine and Outro four is that punching through the ceiling for kentucky and then lastly realistic realistic i'm gonna go six and six six and six you take all your wins you win at least two toss-ups and then you lose the rest you make a bowl game you're happy so thank you so much for tuning into this video guys that is my kentucky preview for today thank you so much for tuning in i hope you guys enjoyed that if you are a college football fan a kentucky fan because we do lots of sec content do me a favor hit that like button and hit that sub button down below thank you guys so much for watching and definitely come back next time