Thursday Night Blue Collar Kentucky Football Notes

Hello friends. It’s another frigid Thursday around the Commonwealth. The college football season just ended on Monday. Let’s sift through some of what’s happening around the Kentucky football program.

Your First Look at New Kentucky Wildcats

The players are back on campus, which means they’re back in the weight room. The folks over at UK Athletics were kind enough to share snapshots of some of the new guys in the weight room. They’re rocking Blue Collar shirts while they’re lifting, clearly an offseason message from the Head Coach.

Kentucky Signs Four Transfers

Sometimes it can take some time to get all of the proper ducks in a row when players make moves from school to school. UK announced the official addition of four new players from the transfer portal on Wednesday.

DL David Gusta
EDGE Mi’Quise Grace
OT Shiyazh Pete
WR Troy Stellato

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Mark Stoops is on the Road

Vince Marrow spent his day recruiting players in Cincinnati. It’s not just the assistants who are seeing prospects in person. Mark Stoops was spotted with a 2026 tight end in South Florida on Thursday.

Great seeing @UKCoachStoops again @JohnGarcia_Jr @RivalsCamp @CoachRack75 @TovaniMizell @FootballHotbed @TheCribSouthFLA @MohrRecruiting @On3sports @DaviBelfort pic.twitter.com/MkOEc2vYfx

— Hunter Ratkevich (@13_Shotz) January 23, 2025

Not a Great Ranking

While most publications have already moved onto Way Too Early Top 25 lists for the 2025 season, The Athletic has one more retrospective on how every FBS team performed in 2024. As you might imagine, the 4-8 Cats are near the bottom.

The Athletic ranked Kentucky as the No. 79 team in the FBS in 2024, two spots behind Western Kentucky. Mississippi State is the only SEC team ranked lower, coming in at No. 104. The Wildcats’ only SEC win last season was over Ole Miss. As Matt Jones likes to say, “Kentucky ranks No. 49 in everything. Thank God for Mississippi.”

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