The 2024-25 Kentucky football roster is one that has seen improvement on all sides of the ball, seeing new talent join the offense and defense, but the question remains: Will the final record reflect that?
With new additions from top to bottom, one would think the roster improvements will lead to a more successful season than last year’s 7-6 finish with a Gator Bowl loss to Clemson, but with the schedule the team will face this year it’s likely that actually be the case.
Starting with the most important position in football, this year’s QB room is loaded with talent.
Transfer quarterbacks Brock Vandagriff and Gavin Wimsatt should provide at least one better option compared to last year’s Devin Leary, who led the SEC in interceptions and had a lackluster 56.3% completion percentage.
Florida offensive lineman transfer Jalen Farmer was also brought in to help protect the quarterbacks. The 6-foot, 5-inch 314-pound lineman was a top 35 offensive line recruit coming out of high school and will surely start right away for Kentucky.
The “Big Blue Wall” was once a prominent position group for the Kentucky offense but has struggled in recent years, sliding guys into new spots and learning by trial and error.
Even then, will the addition of Farmer and the returning experience of Eli and Marques Cox, as well as Jager Burton, be enough to hold up against three of Pro Football Focus’ (PFF) top 10 defensive lines in the country in Georgia, Ole Miss and Texas?
Another question mark for the offense is the receiving corps, which led the SEC in drops a season ago and is set to face some of the top cornerbacks in the nation between the Georgia and Texas secondaries.
If Kentucky stands a chance at improving its record this cannot be a recurring problem but questions remain about whether the additions of Ja’Mori Maclin and Fred Farrier II — plus a new QB — can solve the mistiming and drops.
Maxwell Hairston, Michigan transfer DJ Waller Jr. and the rest of the Kentucky secondary will have their hands full when playing teams like Ole Miss, which has a top 10 wide receiver in Tre Harris returning and a premier tight end.
Despite losing key players to the NFL Draft, both Georgia and Texas were active in the transfer portal, landing pass catchers that also landed them in the PFF top five receiving corps headed into the season.
Also, working against the Wildcats is not just the strength of schedule, but the way it’s laid out.
Unlike recent years, Kentucky’s schedule gets tough early with the first SEC game coming in week two versus South Carolina and immediately being followed up by Georgia, leaving no time for early mistakes.
Later down the road the Cats will be tested in three consecutive weeks, facing Florida, Auburn and Tennessee with only the Auburn game being held at Kroger Field.
Only having four away games is ideal, but not when the squad is walking into some of the rowdiest environments in college football like Ole Miss and Tennessee, who are also teams Kentucky has failed to get a win against in its last three matchups.
Kentucky fans should hope those games are noon games and not night kick offs as playing in the heat may be favorable to an energized prime-time crowd.
Even though Kentucky added star studded names in the transfer portal and saw the return of key players from the ‘23 season, the Wildcats will struggle to match up with powerhouses on their schedule.
Between the dominance of Georgia and Texas, the emergence of Ole Miss and Tennessee and even matched teams like South Carolina, Auburn and Florida, Kentucky may be better in every single way compared to last season but still go 7-5 or worse.
Not all seasons are created equal, as Florida State’s 2024 College Football Playoff exclusion proved, and as far as Kentucky is concerned, it may have been dealt one of the dead man’s hand.
