2023 Kentucky Football Schedule Preview (Game-By-Game Analysis)

we are Chris Lee and Blake Lovell of Southeastern 14 continuing our football preview series of schedules for 2023 we get to the Kentucky Wildcats and Blake we've talked about how brutally tough the SEC schedules are year in and year out Mark Stoops has brought Kentucky football to a continued level we've not seen in a long long time one way he has done that is to take sometimes less than challenging approach to the unconference schedule outside of the annual game with Louisville which is a tough one usually he has done that again this year the cats start off with Ball State Eastern Kentucky and Akron uh two teams you can see from the FCS or excuse me the FBS in Ball State and Akron they're expected to be among the bottom 20 teams in the FBS Plus a team not Roy kids vintage EKU this team is seven and five or comes off a seven in Five Seasons so the cats again should be 3-0 out of the gate and if not there'll be problems I think yeah I would think so um yeah there will definitely be issues I think we have high expectations for Kentucky which we'll talk a lot about as we do our our previews for the the rest of the off season we'll we'll dive into our team preview for Kentucky and probably some game by game picks and all that but just as a whole looking at the schedule yeah I think given the expectations and at least in my opinion I've got Kentucky third in the east at the moment so that could change behind Georgia and Tennessee I mean there are some people who think Kentucky can LeapFrog Tennessee in terms of where they're at I don't think anyone's gonna pick anybody ahead of Georgia just yet um probably is the two-time defending national champion but high expectations for Kentucky and to reach those expectations you got to win these three so a couple of interesting ones coming after that the road trip to Vanderbilt on September 23rd remember that was a game where Vandy went in in November and snapped what was it a 26 game SEC losing streak I'm sure Kentucky has not forgotten that that was a will Levis was banged up game and the offensive line could not block anybody game we'll see how that changes vanity should be getting better that'll be an interesting one in our backyard of Nashville and in the game with Florida if you remember a year ago Kentucky it crept into the top 10 I think by the end of September part of that was because the cats went to Florida or excuse me yeah they did go to Florida that was in Gainesville and beat a Florida team that had just upset Utah and so that's one where Florida may be wanting a little Revenge too but I'm just not sure if the Gators have the the players to pull it off there early in the rebuild stage uh under a coaching change and so I don't know how that one's going to go but those two are games to circle is very interesting games for different reasons yep they are for sure like you said just kind of the the nature of those SEC games that you're used to and we've already started talking about the 2024 schedule we're recording all that kind of in the same window here but um yeah it's just the games that you're used to and like you said I don't think Kentucky is going to forget about Vanderbilt's win last season and kind of what that did just to get the the monkey off their back for the Commodores to stop losing streak and such and yeah the the Florida game um another one that just given where Florida's at I think all of us have kind of talked about when we've done our previews for Florida we don't know what to expect from the Gators this season it's hard to know exactly in Billy Napier's second season and so um again I think to me a very fine setup for Kentucky be 5-0 heading into a a showdown uh in Sanford Stadium against the the two-time defending national champion so yeah let's not forget Kentucky one of the few teams to slow Georgia down last year that game was 16-6 uh in Kentucky expected to be pretty good defensively again this year Georgia will be halfway through I wouldn't call it a rebuild but a Reload with a different quarterback don't know how that's going to go with Carson Beck as opposed to Stetson Bennett so that one could get interesting especially if UK comes into that one 5-0 which is certainly possible the game with Missouri you remember that was one of these stranger games in NCAA football last year that that one punt play on the on the bot snap ended up having adverse consequences from Missouri Kentucky wins that one in Columbia 20-17 we'll see a rematch of two what could be pretty evenly matched teams and then the game with Tennessee that was one we circled last year as is a game that a lot of people had their eyes on thought that Kentucky could compete in that one that is not how that one went it was 44-6 Tennessee so we've got a couple of games there and then the Mississippi State game that's one that Kentucky won 27-17 last year's state of course changing coaches with Zach Garnett for The Departed the deceased Michael each and so that's going to change how they run their offense uh you'll be seeing tight ends you'll be seeing more of a running game don't know how that's going to be going I'd rather play State earlier than later but that one slotted at November 4th I know by the way the bye week between Missouri and Tennessee so that is going to be a very interesting um excuse me run of games right there those ones that I just broke down for you Blake I mean like I said earlier I mean if it's if you're going to take that next step and maybe be an SEC East title Contender you know the Georgia and Tennessee games are as important as any you know if you assume you win the others and yeah I mean so what can you do and like you said I think getting Tennessee in Knoxville last year was just a it was a very unexpected result as we said I don't think you know we knew Tennessee was riding high at that point in Kentucky had had their inconsistencies but to lose that game the way that they did I think that you know Stoops will certainly have them ready for that one uh come October 28th and so yeah look at those games and I think you just want to see how you stack up against the projected top two teams in the East and depending on how they play against George in Tennessee that'll tell us a lot I think about Kentucky entering that final stretch but you know again it's the the weird game sometimes as you said against the Vanderbilt or a Missouri games like that can sort of those are the ones you kind of have to win if you're going to to be able to do that knowing what else is on your schedule which oh by the way it's not just Georgia Tennessee but uh there's another team they have coming up on their schedule here in Alabama that uh getting all three on those you know top 10 three top 10 teams potentially never an ideal thing when you look at the schedule as a whole so yeah that Alabama game I'm gonna be very interested to see what the state of both Kentucky and Tennessee is or excuse me Kentucky and Alabama is coming into that one because I I'm just not convinced with Jalen hurts gone that the quarterbacking situation at Alabama is going to be what it's been I mean of course it's not you're going to fall off from from where it's been the last few guys that they've had Bryce young Departed the NFL I may have said Jalen hurts I didn't mean to do that um but anyway Alabama loses the number one pick you got Jalen milro who's the the running quarterback I don't think in my mind up to the standard is some of the guys before him but it's early we're not going to write him off yet they got Simpson behind him uh could Alabama have made a quarterbacking change by that point I don't know defensively they're supposed to be better maybe in the trenches uh Kool-Aid mckinstry may be the best corner in the league but um you know you don't have Will Anderson either who's one of the the legendary defenders in the history of the SEC so I'm going to be very interested to see what Alabama is and Kentucky is at that point if that's one of these games we've got circled and there's an ESPN game day or if it's just Alabama going back to being Alabama and rolling into Lexington is a double-digit favorite so going to be very interested to see how that one goes South Carolina next that was a game that the Gamecocks won 24-14 a year ago this one is going to be in Columbia that that one I would Circle as a toss-up as we do this in June and then at Louisville which is slated to be better this year I think maybe than it was a year ago made a coaching change and so that is a fascinating three-game stretch to end the season yeah it is for sure I mean I I think the road games now that we look at the schedule as a whole at Vanderbilt at Georgia which I think the Georgia one's hard one but um it's in terms of probably not projected to win that game but that Vanderbilt at Mississippi State out South Carolina I'm most curious to see what are the spreads on those three games at those different points of the season um because again that'll tell us where Kentucky is but it also tells us kind of where the opponent is at that point so those three Road games in particular are very fascinated by and then of course the Louisville game at the end like you said coming off an eight and five season um and just kind of seeing where where Louisville is at that point but to go back to it the Georgia Tennessee Alabama on the schedule but to get Tennessee and Alabama in a span of what two or three weeks basically all at home in Lexington that's just uh if you're gonna have them on the schedule hey it's nice I think to have those two because in all honesty and this is not to knock those two teams but if we're ranking them right now right in terms of most winnable Georgia's going to be at the bottom of that you're going to say Georgia is the least winnable game of those three so if you if you just did it by opponents if you took location out of it you would say George is probably the least winnable game I would say um but it's like okay so in whatever order you want to put Alabama and Tennessee in at least both of those games are in Lexington and so um you know again all bets are off at that point not saying Kentucky couldn't challenge Georgia but um still I think that's a that's at least a nice setup to have and so you don't like having all three on the schedule ever because just adding Alabama to the rotation of Georgia and Tennessee but um it could be worse in terms of maybe having to go to Alabama to you know Georgia then it just yeah it's not ideal so yeah I would say if you're ranking most to least winnable obviously you've got you got some pretty easy decisions at the end of the spectrum uh Ball State Eastern Kentucky Akron are your three most winnable those are right away uh Georgia at Georgia and Alabama probably your two least winnable uh and then you start looking at games you you feel better about probably Vandy and Missouri or you're next to uh but those were were challenges a year ago so that that makes for an interesting schedule yep it does so we'll see what happens with the cats so we're previewing all the schedules in the SEC we may be done by the time this one goes up uh we've got them all there we've already started looking ahead to the 2024 SEC schedule because why not I mean it's only Chris a year and a couple months away I mean come on we're we got to pick up the pace here a little bit so yeah it's all on the channel we'll have our preview for Kentucky uh we'll do position previews we got all kinds of stuff coming so hit that subscribe button yeah thank you for watching tell a friend he's Blake Lovell I'm Chris Lee we're Southeastern 14. stay tuned for more coverage of SEC football baseball and men's basketball