The 10 coaches and players under the most pressure in 2025 KY college football
Since Western Kentucky moved to the FBS in 2008, there has been an enduring reality to college football in the commonwealth: It is rare when all three of our state’s Football Bowl Subdivision programs — Kentucky, Louisville and WKU — are good in the same season.
In the 17 years since Western gave the state of Kentucky three programs at college football’s highest level, all three have had winning seasons in the same year only four times.
Last year, U of L (9-4) and WKU (8-6) were on the positive side of the ledger but UK (4-8) limped through a dreary season.
That backdrop serves as context for the following: On my list below of the 10 players and coaches in (state of) Kentucky college football who are under the most pressure in 2025, there are three UK figures in the top four:
10. David Gusta, Kentucky. After a season at Washington State in which he was credited with a robust 22 quarterback hurries, the 6-foot-3, 317-pound defensive tackle was evaluated as the second best interior d-lineman in the transfer portal by On3. As UK seeks to replenish a defensive front that lost multiple key players from last year, the Wildcats very much need Gusta to live up to his portal hype.
9. Ron English, Louisville. In the Cardinals’ four losses last season, the U of L defense surrendered an average of 38.8 points a game. That turned up the scrutiny on the job performance of English, the Cards’ veteran defensive coordinator. In 2025, the task for English is to field a defense that is consistently worthy of Jeff Brohm’s high-octane offense.
8. Maverick McIvor, Western Kentucky. Over the past decade, Western Kentucky football has become synonymous with prolific quarterback play. Brandon Doughty, Mike White, Bailey Zappe and Austin Reed are among the QBs who have posted massive passing numbers for the Hilltoppers. Now taking the WKU QB baton is McIvor, who transferred to Western after throwing for 3,828 yards and 30 touchdowns (vs. only seven interceptions) last season for Abilene Christian.
7. Caullin Lacy, Louisville. In 2024, a broken collarbone sabotaged the season of the prolific wide receiver who had transferred to U of L from South Alabama. In 2025, Louisville needs Lacy back at the form he showed for South Alabama in 2023 — when he caught 91 passes for 1,316 yards.
6. Tyson Helton, Western Kentucky. WKU went 5-7 during “the COVID season” of 2020. Otherwise, Helton has led the Hilltoppers to either eight or nine wins in all five of the other seasons since he became Western head man in 2019. While that is good work, Western Kentucky backers want Helton to get the Hilltoppers back to the double-digit-win heights that Jeff Brohm reached twice (12-2 in 2015; 11-3 in 2016) while coaching in Bowling Green.
5. Jeff Brohm, Louisville. One can turn on sports talk radio from the Derby City and hear spirited chatter about U of L’s College Football Playoff aspirations in 2025. Yet the Cardinals were tabbed fifth in the ACC in the league’s preseason media poll and the venerable Phil Steele College Football Preview predicts the Cards will finish sixth in the league. If it turns out the national perspective on Louisville is closer to accurate than the local view, Brohm is in a tricky spot vis a vis fan expectations.
4. Zach Calzada, Kentucky. UK is banking on the experience and moxie of the seventh-year quarterback to help spark a Wildcats offense that was punchless in 2024. A former starter at Texas A&M who put up big passing numbers (3,791 yards, 35 touchdowns vs. nine interceptions) last season at Incarnate Word, Calzada needs to “hit” if Kentucky is to reverse its fortunes in 2025.
3. Miller Moss, Louisville. Formerly at USC, Moss follows in the footsteps of Jack Plummer and Tyler Shough as veteran quarterbacks plucked out of the transfer portal by Jeff Brohm to start for Louisville. U of L can only hope Moss performs for the Cardinals at the level he played against Louisville in the 2023 Holiday Bowl — when he threw for 372 yards and six touchdowns to lead USC past the Cards 42-28.
2. Bush Hamdan, Kentucky. A season ago, in Hamdan’s first year running the UK offense, things did not go well. Against power conference opponents, the Wildcats averaged a paltry 14.1 points and 269.9 yards a game. A need for continuity in a program that had seen its offensive coordinator position turn over five times in five years bought Hamdan another chance. UK’s fortunes in 2025 rely heavily on Hamdan engineering a more adept offensive attack.
1. Mark Stoops, Kentucky. After leading Kentucky to a 33-17 mark from 2018 through 2021, Stoops has seen his program regress to a combined 18-20 over the three previous seasons. While a massive contract buyout makes it unlikely Stoops is coaching for his job in 2025, it would behoove the UK head man to put an improved product on the field.
