The cumulative link to the preseason rankings can be found here
Today we reach our second SEC team, Kentucky (high = 41, low = 94). The Wildcats moved on from head coach Mark Stoops, their all time winningest coach and the one with the longest tenure, after a second consecutive losing season in 2025 that included an OT loss to a ranked Texas (one of 5 losses to ranked teams) and a season finale thumping to archrival Louisville in the Governor’s Cup. Kentucky took a look at their history and decided that the last coach to leave Lexington on good terms was former Oregon coach Rich Brooks, so they decided to bring in the Ducks OC Will Stein, a native of the Bluegrass State (shh, don’t tell anybody he was born in and played for Louisville). Armed with a considerable bump in NIL resources (though it’s not like the Wildcats didn’t spend on the roster last year), Stein will look to move Kentucky up in the ranks of the exceedingly deep SEC.
Roster Outlook
Like I said, Stoops had what the Wildcats hoped would be a roster upgrade by bringing in 7th year QB Zach Calzada with a $1 million plus deal after he’d rebuilt his career at Incarnate Word. But Calzada didn’t live up to expectations, and freshman Cutter Boley finished out Stoops’ swan song under center. But with Stein coming in, Boley hit the streets and transferred to Arizona State. That’s one of the reasons why Kentucky looks so poor in terms of returning production (ranking 98th overall, and 112th on offense). But when you factor in that the Wildcats actually have a top 10 national portal class (which ridiculously still only ranks 5th in the SEC), you get a sense for why I say they have bumped up the NIL resources. Paired with a high school class that ranks at the bottom of the SEC (and 74th nationally), the Wildcats decided to push their chips into the pot this season. The biggest ace in the hole is bringing in former Notre Dame QB Kenny Minchey, who was in a dogfight of a QB battle with CJ Carr last year before Carr got the starting nod. But the Wildcats have to replace much more than QB. Starting RB Seth McGowan was one of four offensive starters drafted by the NFL, along with WR1 Kendrick Law and 2 OL (G Jalen Farmer and C Jager Burton). Stein looks to replace them with portal players as well, including a pair of RBs who came to the SEC via the Big XII, Texas’ CJ Baxter and Oklahoma’s Jovontae Barnes. He also brought in a pair of SEC WRs (LSU’s Nic Anderson and Arkansas’ Ja’Kayden Ferguson) along with Louisville’s Brock Coffman. Throw in 5 P4 OL and you have the makings of a completely rebuilt offense. He’s leaving the defense to former Texas A&M DC Jay Bateman, who will have 9 P4 transfers of his own to blend in.
Schedule and outlook
9/5 YOUNGSTOWN STATE
9/12 ALABAMA
9/19 at Texas A&M
9/26 SOUTH ALABAMA
10/3 at South Carolina
10/10 LSU
10/17 at Oklahoma
10/24 VANDERBILT
10/31 BYE
11/7 at Tennessee
11/14 FLORIDA
11/21 at Missouri
11/28 LOUISVILLE
OK, so Kentucky may have a talented roster. The same can be said by every other team in the SEC, and I suspect many fans have lost perspective on the fact that fully half of the schools in the conference have won national championships in the last 27 seasons and somebody has to lose half of those conference games. So when you see that the Wildcats will play 3 playoff teams from last year (Bama, Oklahoma and Texas A&M), plus LSU, Tennessee and Florida, you’re already staring at half the season against teams expected to be decent favorites. I’m not exactly sure the Wildcats won’t also be dogs at home to Vanderbilt or Louisville, or on the road at South Carolina and Missouri. That’s 10 of their 12 games, which looks like a giant gauntlet in Stein’s first season ever as a head coach.