Is Kentucky football in the process of fixing its biggest problem?
The questions that surround Kentucky football as the Wildcats prepare to enter the 2025 season are multiple:
How much improvement can UK coax from its reconstructed offensive line following a season in which a lack of pass protection and a dearth of success in short-yardage running situations were integral to the Wildcats going 4-8 in 2024?
Will a Kentucky defensive line that lost four veteran stalwarts from last season hold up against the run in 2025?
With veteran transfer Zach Calzada expected to assume the starting quarterback role, does UK — after a series of what have appeared to be mostly “one-read” QBs — finally have a signal caller who can work through pass progressions to find the most-open receiver?
Yet as the Wildcats enter their preseason camp in advance of the Aug. 30 season opener vs. Toledo, the biggest question that is facing Mark Stoops and troops as they aspire to a bounce-back season is none of the above.
Whether UK can return to playing a sound, clean brand of football is the primary key to Kentucky’s hopes of reviving its fortunes in 2025.
A big difference between the UK teams that went a combined 33-17 between 2018 and 2021 and the Wildcats that have gone 18-20 in the subsequent three seasons is the level of on-field discipline with which the Wildcats have played.
Since 2022, UK has too often been derailed by sloppy play.
Last year, Kentucky was 109th out of 133 FBS teams in turnover margin, coming in at minus-7. UK was 114th in quarterback sacks allowed, surrendering a robust 35.
In what proved to be the turning point of UK’s 2024 season, the Wildcats faced Vanderbilt and its ball-control offense in a contest that was all but assured to be a low-possession grinder.
Needing to play with maximum efficiency, Kentucky instead committed 12 penalties for 105 yards and lost by a touchdown.
The previous season, a messy showing by UK at South Carolina — minus-three in turnovers, seven penalties, almost all at crucial times — led to a maddening 17-14 loss to a Gamecocks team that would finish 5-7.
Facing Clemson in the 2023 Gator Bowl, four Kentucky fourth-quarter turnovers turned a 21-10 UK lead into a 38-35 Wildcats loss.
Going back to 2022, a Kentucky illegal procedure penalty nullified what would have probably been the game-winning touchdown pass in the final minute of what became an agonizing 22-19 loss at Mississippi.
A UK illegal hands to the face penalty canceled what would have been a game-clinching interception in what instead became a three-point loss to Vanderbilt.
Over the past three seasons, the motto of Kentucky football has too often seemed “Self sabotage is us.”
For those hoping to witness a return to sound football from the Cats in 2025, an anecdote Stoops shared at his preseason news conference Monday was intriguing.
The UK coach said he has been told by the Kentucky strength and conditioning staff that the demonstrated buy-in from the current Wildcats in doing the work to get prepared for the coming season has been at the highest level in all of the 13 years Stoops has been the top Cat.
“This is probably the first time in 13 years that we had absolutely 100% participation,” Stoops said.
In one instance, Stoops said a UK freshman was late “a couple times” to his training sessions. “His unit grabbed him and straightened it out and got him right back on track,” Stoops said.
Whether the heightened off-field dedication displayed by the Kentucky players this offseason translates into a return to disciplined play on the field remains to be seen, of course.
But for those who have come to believe that the sloppy play UK football has too often put on the field in the past three seasons reflected an “accountability problem” within the program, the reports of a greater offseason buy-in from the Wildcats seem encouraging.
“Coming off a season where we were not very pleased, failed to meet our expectations, our own expectations, and didn’t play at the level that we wanted to, we got to have a heightened sense of awareness,” Stoops says. “And we got to just have a greater sense of urgency.
“Guys have put their head down, have worked extremely hard. ... The fact that we’ve been so consistent this summer, (it) says a lot about the team. As far as working with the players all summer, I like this football team a lot.”
The schedule Kentucky will face in 2025 will include the teams ranked No. 3, No. 4, No. 13, No. 19, No. 22 and No. 24 in ESPN’s “Way Too Early Top 25.”
It goes without saying, UK’s odds of finding some success against that loaded slate would be boosted by putting a cleaner brand of football on the field.
