Five things you need to know from Kentucky’s 48-23 win over Eastern Michigan
READ MORE
Gameday: Kentucky 48, Eastern Michigan 23
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Saturday’s Kentucky-Eastern Michigan football game at Kroger Field in Lexington.
Expand All
Five things you need to know from Kentucky football’s 48-23 win over Eastern Michigan:
1. Cutter Boley puts a spark in the UK offense. In his second college start at quarterback, Kentucky’s Cutter Boley had a nice showing.
The 6-foot-5, 220-pound redshirt freshman completed 12 of 21 passes for 224 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions.
With the caveat that Eastern Michigan appears to be one of the worst defensive teams in the FBS, Boley gave Kentucky the big-play dynamic the Wildcats had lacked in the season’s first two games.
The UK offense entered the game having only created four explosive plays of 20 yards or more combined in its first two games.
Boley matched that in Saturday’s first half, completing passes of 23 and 34 yards to Josh Kattus, of 31 yards to Hardley Gilmore and 25 yards to Willie Rodriguez. In half two, Boley hit Fred Farrier for 33 yards on an outside screen and Ja’Mori Maclin with a 36-yard completion on a fly pattern.
A UK attack that had yet to throw a touchdown pass in 2025 got two in the first half from Boley, both to tight ends. He hit Rodriguez with a 2-yard scoring toss, then came back and found Kattus for a touchdown from 4 yards out.
Eastern Michigan entered the game having given up an average of 542.5 yards a game in their losses to Texas State and Long Island. EMU had especially struggled to stop the run, surrendering an average of 311.5 yards rushing. Eastern Michigan was giving up 231 yards a contest through the air.
It was a much better showing for Boley than in his first college start. He completed only 6 of 15 passes for 48 yards with two interceptions in UK’s 41-14 loss to Louisville in last season’s battle for the Governor’s Cup.
Mark Stoops told the UK Sports Network prior to the game that Zach Calzada, Kentucky’s starting QB in this season’s first two games, could have played Saturday night in an emergency. Calzada left the game late in last week’s 30-23 loss to then-No. 20 Mississippi with a shoulder injury.
Even allowing for Eastern Michigan’s defensive deficiencies, Boley likely showed enough Saturday night to merit another start when Kentucky next plays Sept. 27 at South Carolina.
2. Seth McGowan’s elevating TD count. Kentucky transfer running back Seth McGowan ran for 104 yards and three touchdowns on 18 carries against EMU.
McGowan, who played last season for New Mexico State after starting his college career at Oklahoma, has added one TD run to his tally in each contest he has so far played for UK.
The 6-1, 215-pound McGowan ran for 78 yards and one TD in Kentucky’s season-opening win over Toledo. In last week’s loss to Ole Miss, McGowan went for 93 yards rushing and two TDs.
If you are wondering, the last Kentucky player to run for four touchdowns in one game was quarterback Will Levis in UK’s 52-21 win over Louisville in the 2021 regular-season finale.
McGowan’s 104 rushing yards Saturday gave him only the second 100-plus performance of his college career. Last Nov. 9 while playing for New Mexico State, he carried 15 times for 113 yards in a 41-28 loss to Western Kentucky,
3. Another ex-Cat faces the Cats. For the second time in the first three games of the 2025 season, Kentucky faced off against a former UK player.
On three targets, Eastern Michigan tight end Tanner Lemaster caught two passes for 16 yards against his old team.
The 6-foot-6, 247-pound Lemaster was on the UK roster during the two seasons prior to this, although he appeared in only one game as a Wildcat.
In Kentucky’s 24-16 win over Toledo in the season opener, ex-Cats running back Chip Trayanum ran 14 times for 41 yards against the Wildcats and caught three passes for 42 yards.
After an open week Sept. 20, Kentucky will face another of its former players when it visits South Carolina. Ex-UK tight end Jordan Dingle is using his final season of eligibility to play for Shane Beamer’s Gamecocks.
4. Stoops still perfect vs. the MAC. With Kentucky’s win against Eastern Michigan, Mark Stoops is now 13-0 as Kentucky head coach against teams from the Mid-American Conference.
After starting his UK coaching career 5-2 against opponents from the Group of Five conferences, the victory over EMU means Stoops has now won the past 17 such games in a row.
5. Two “oh-fers” roll on for EMU. With its defeat, Eastern Michigan is now 0-12 all-time against teams currently in the Southeastern Conference — 0-3 vs. Kentucky; 0-2 against each of Florida, Missouri and Vanderbilt; and 0-1 against each of Arkansas, LSU and Vanderbilt.
The loss also makes the Eagles 0-8 all-time when playing inside the commonwealth of Kentucky — EMU is 0-3 at UK, 0-2 at Eastern Kentucky and 0-1 each at Louisville, Murray State and Western Kentucky.
UK football fashion police
For its third game of the 2025 season, Kentucky wore white helmets with blue jerseys with white numbers and letters and blue pants.
It was the first time since Nov. 20, 2021 — a 56-16 win over New Mexico State— that UK wore the white-blue-blue combination in a game.
Since the start of the 2015 season, Saturday was only the fourth time UK has worn white helmets over all-blue uniforms.
During that time frame, the Wildcats are now 3-1 in white-blue-blue.
This story was originally published September 13, 2025 at 11:02 PM.
