First Four Kentucky Football Games Allow for Personnel and Coaching Developments

Kentucky’s 2023 football schedule can be broken down into four-game stretches. The first four are contests that the Cats should win. Note that I said should, not will. Nothing is guaranteed in college football. More importantly, those outings can also serve as a proving ground for personnel and coaching developments that will be necessary prior to entering full-time conference play. Let’s get into it. 

September 2: Ball State

Kentucky kicks off the 2023 season with a visit from the Ball State Cardinals. The MAC program produced a 5-7 record a year ago and finished fourth in the conference’s West Division. Wins came against Murray State (31-0), Northern Illinois (44-38), Central Michigan (17-16), UConn (25-21), and Kent State (27-10). Ball State serves as a desired opponent to open the season. MAC foes are normally physical, prepared, and well coached. I expect that from the Cardinals, which will give the Wildcats a good week one test. 

September 9: Eastern Kentucky 

The EKU Colonels will make the short trip up I-75 to take on the Wildcats in Lexington. Let’s hope for their sake that a police escort accompanies the team from Richmond to Kroger Field because we all know the traffic situation on that road. Sorry, I had to get that in there. I hate that highway. Back on topic. 

Thankfully, head coach Walt Wells overcame a serious health scare to lead his team to a 7-5 record. Eastern Kentucky is an opponent that UK should play on a regular basis. Wells is a former UK staffer and well-traveled coach with deep connections. The Colonel leader has re-energized the fan base, embraced Roy Kidd, and welcomed football alumni back to Richmond. It appears that the proud Colonel program is poised for a return to the FCS’s upper-level. 

EKU scared the heck out of Kentucky a few years back under Dean Hood. This is a game that the Wildcats should win, but I’m secretly pulling for our neighbors to put on a good show. We are fortunate in this state to have Walt Wells at EKU and Dean Hood at Murray State. Both are excellent at their jobs and first-class dudes. 

September 16: Akron

This is the giveaway Saturday if you’re a season ticket holder. Most likely a noon kickoff and a computer game, Akron is bad at football. A 2-10 slate in 2022 was as awful as it looks. The Zips beat Saint Francis 30-23 in the opener Sept. 1 and didn’t win another game until defeating Northern Illinois on November 26. Former Mississippi State head coach Joe Moorhead leads Akron and is a familiar name. But, the Cats should roll here prior to taking on its first SEC opponent. 

September 23: At Vanderbilt 

This pains me to say, but this is a payback game for Mark Stoops. Vanderbilt beat the Cats on Kroger Field in an embarrassing 24-21 game last season. The Commodores whipped up on the then 24th-ranked Wildcats on November 12, 2022. The last time Vandy had won a conference game was way back on October 19, 2019. Again, I’ll use the same word in the same paragraph; embarrassing. 

That stadium can lull opponents to sleep. That best not be the case. UK should storm the field with a giant chip on their collective shoulders and fire in their bellies in order to avoid another meltdown against the SEC’s traditional basement dweller. If not, Clark Lea could add another conference win to his record and make an argument that the SEC East’s natural order is in danger. 

What Does All This Mean? 

Back to the personnel and coaching developments that need to take place in the first four games. Let’s start with the offense. Coordinator Liam Coen resumes responsibility of an offense that threw up clunker after clunker in 2022. This frustrated the BBN and this writer. Coen will have a new quarterback in Devin Leary. If you’ll remember from 2021, Will Levis took a few games to become comfortable running Coen’s NFL system. Leary will be afforded the luxury of four winnable games to begin his Wildcat career. 

The Big Blue Wall wasn’t the Big Blue Wall last season. Uncharacteristically, Kentucky’s offensive line was a liability instead of a strength. This is priority No. 1 for the new play caller. Expect position changes and competition at all spots along the line of scrimmage. The Portal led to a couple of nice pickups in Tanner Bowles (Alabama) and Marques Cox (Northern Illinois). Kenneth Horsey will kick back inside to guard and may be the only sure-fire starter of the bunch. There’s a great deal of work to be done on the OL and it must happen quickly. Open spring practices will provide a more accurate picture of how this unit will look in 2023. 

Additionally, for the first time in seven seasons, UK’s running back depth chart won’t include Benny Snell or Chris Rodriguez Jr. That duo smashed records and helmets on their way to becoming all-timers. Ironically, former Vanderbilt RB Ray Davis should sit atop the depth chart. I’ll be interested to see Coen’s strategy in terms of him favoring the inside vs. outside zone runs when utilizing the Cats’ new running backs.  

Brad White’s defense will likely be another Brad White defense. That means that Kentucky should place in the upper-echelon in the SEC and be yet another nationally ranked unit. However, cornerbacks will be new and unproven. I wrote about the position’s importance a while back. JQ Hardaway, Jantzen Dunn, Andru Phillips, and more will fight it out to earn run with the ones. This is the most important positional competition to monitor in spring and fall camp as well as in the season’s first four games. The Wildcats bring back experience at most other spots. 

Scheduling is a thankless job and a no-win scenario. Some would argue that Kentucky should play an additional Power Five opponent instead of playing multiple MAC schools. I see the point, I really do. But, UK is program that needs the best chance for non-conference wins as possible. A nine-game SEC slate is on the horizon. Playing in the nation’s top league should suffice on the strength of schedule argument. 

Pundits that criticize Kentucky’s schedule are normally not SEC-affiliated and their teams don’t have to take a bite out of Alabama, Tennessee, Florida, and Georgia in the same season. Complaints will follow as usual, I understand. But, I prefer the schedule as is which for now includes Louisville at the end. 

Kentucky has a high probability of starting the 2023 season with a 4-0 record. The rest of the schedule is daunting and could include three Top 10 opponents in Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee. A fast and undefeated start would go a long way in the final Win/Loss column.