Know Your Foe: UK football will open 2025 vs. opponent that smoked an SEC team in 2024
Scouting Kentucky football’s next opponent, the Toledo Rockets:
Game details
Kentucky (4-8, 1-7 SEC) will open its 2025 season vs. Toledo (7-5, 4-4 MAC) on Saturday, Aug. 30, at Kroger Field (seating capacity of some 61,000) on the campus of the University of Kentucky in Lexington.
Coach Jason Candle’s Rockets are hoping to receive a bowl invitation and play one more game in the 2024 season.
History and trends
Kentucky leads the all-time series with Toledo 1-0.
UK coach Mark Stoops is 1-0 against Toledo.
Rockets head man Jason Candle is 0-1 vs. Kentucky.
Stoops is 9-3 in season openers as UK coach.
Candle is 7-2 as Toledo head man in season openers.
Kentucky under Stoops is 11-0 vs. teams from the Mid-American Conference.
Toledo under Candle is 1-6 vs. teams from power conferences.
Most recent meeting
In the 2019 season opener, Kentucky quarterback Terry Wilson threw for 246 yards and two touchdowns and Kavosiey Smoke and AJ Rose each ran for a score to lead UK to a 38-24 victory over Toledo at Kroger Field.
Kentucky punter Max Duffy had a major impact on field position in the contest, punting six times for an average of 54 yards a kick.
Ex-UK running back Bryant Koback ran for 73 yards and a touchdown for Toledo.
Pride of the program
In three seasons (1969 through 1971) as the Toledo starting quarterback, Chuck Ealey never tasted defeat.
Ealey quarterbacked the Rockets to a 35-0 mark that included three straight Mid-American Conference titles and three consecutive Tangerine Bowl victories.
In 1971, Ealey became the first MAC player to receive meaningful consideration for the Heisman Trophy, ultimately finishing eighth in the voting with 168 points.
Ealey finished his college career with 5,275 passing yards and 45 touchdown passes, at the time both school records.
The College Football Hall of Fame inducted Ealey in 2022.
Three things to know
1. On Sept. 14, Toledo recorded a road blowout over a Southeastern Conference team when the Rockets opened a 28-3 halftime lead en route to pummeling Mississippi State 41-17 in Starkville.
Offensively, Toledo outgained MSU 454 to 385 yards. Defensively, the Rockets recorded five sacks.
With the win over Mississippi State, Toledo is now 2-4 all-time vs. SEC teams.
In addition to MSU, Toledo is also 1-0 vs. Arkansas. The Rockets are 0-1 vs. both Florida and Kentucky and 0-2 against Missouri.
2. Toledo quarterback Tucker Gleason shined in the win at Mississippi State, completing 23 of 28 passes for 285 yards and three touchdowns.
Assuming he stays at Toledo for 2025, Gleason will be a first-game test for what will be a retooled and youthful Kentucky defense.
A 6-foot-3, 245-pound junior who began his college career at Georgia Tech, Gleason finished the regular season with 2,457 passing yards with 22 touchdown passes vs. only seven interceptions.
The Tampa, Florida, product also ran for 330 yards and six scores.
3. Toledo stood 7-3 after blowing out Central Michigan 37-10 on Nov. 10.
However, the Rockets misfired over their final two games, falling 24-7 to Ohio University and 21-14 at Akron.
In spite of limping to the finish, Toledo still shows up in many 2024 bowl projections.
SI.com projects Toledo in the Bahamas Bowl vs. Western Kentucky. That would be a rematch of WKU’s 26-21 win over the Rockets in Bowling Green on Sept. 21.
USA Today has Toledo in the Idaho Potato Bowl vs. Colorado State.
Athlon foresees the Frisco Bowl for Toledo against Texas State.
