First Scouting Report: Kentucky football will open 2021 against former SEC head coach
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An early look ahead to Kentucky’s 2021 football season opener:
The opponent
Kentucky (5-6 in 2020) will open its 2021 season against Sun Belt Conference foe Louisiana Monroe (0-10 in 2020) on Sept. 4 at Kroger Field.
The Warhawks finished a grim 2020 season with a 48-15 loss at Arkansas State on Dec. 5.
Two days later, it was reported that head coach Matt Viator, 19-39 in five seasons, had been fired.
Most recent meeting
Patrick Towles threw for 216 yards and three touchdowns and Boom Williams ran for 104 yards and a score to lead Kentucky to a 48-14 pasting of ULM on Oct. 11, 2014, at the venue then known as Commonwealth Stadium.
Series history
Kentucky leads 4-1 and has won the past four meetings.
Know your foe
1. The 2021 season opener will be the first game as ULM head coach for a familiar face. Former Auburn head man Terry Bowden, 64, is the new Warhawks coach.
Bowden is 175-114-2 as a college head coach, and 82-69-1 as an FBS head man.
He went 47-17-1 as Auburn coach from 1993-98, including 2-0 vs. Kentucky. Bowden beat the Wildcats 41-14 in 1994 at Jordan-Hare Stadium and 42-21 the following year in Lexington.
The son of iconic, ex-Florida State coach Bobby Bowden, Terry Bowden’s most recent head coaching job was at Akron, where he went 35-52 from 2012-18.
2. ULM’s 2020 season contained a dubious distinction beyond going winless. The Warhawks never led in any game for the entire season.
According to USA Today, it was the first time in the 21st century that an FBS team never led over the course of a full season.
3. The Warhawks pinned one of the most dispiriting losses in Kentucky history on the Wildcats.
Then known as Northeast Louisiana and transitioning upward from the division then known as I-AA, the Warhawks hung a 21-14 defeat on Coach Billy Curry’s Cats on Nov. 12, 1994.
It was one of the low points in a 1-10 season for Curry and UK.
This story was originally published January 2, 2021 at 3:54 PM.
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