Five things you need to know from Kentucky football’s 10-3 win vs. Auburn
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Gameday: Kentucky 10, Auburn 3
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Saturday’s Kentucky-Auburn football game in Auburn, Ala.
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When Kentucky looked in danger of another collapse, a freshman made the key play
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Let’s set aside Mark Stoops’ future to salute a UK football team that hasn’t quit
Kentucky football snaps SEC losing streak with third-ever win at Auburn
Five things you need to know from Kentucky football’s 10-3 win vs. Auburn
See stats from Kentucky football’s 10-3 win over Auburn
Five things you need to know from Kentucky football’s 10-3 win against Auburn:
1. Mark Stoops is not going down without some fight. Kentucky’s upset of Auburn snapped a number of negative Wildcats streaks.
The UK victory ended a 10-game losing skid in SEC games.
It was Kentucky’s third victory in its past 17 Southeastern Conference contests.
For the Wildcats, it was their fourth win in their past 23 games against power-conference opposition.
One victory in the midst of so many negative trend lines does not mean UK football “is back” — nor is it likely to pacify a highly restive fan base.
What it does, however, is give Stoops and his team a chance to make some late-season noise that could change how their 2025 season is viewed.
UK has home games remaining with Florida and undefeated Tennessee Tech, followed by road games at No. 9 Vanderbilt and No. 16 Louisville.
Florida has an interim head coach, Tennessee Tech is from the FCS and UK has beaten Vandy four straight in the Music City and U of L four straight in the Derby City.
That said, there’s no guarantee that Kentucky will win any of its final four — but by upsetting Auburn, Stoops and troops kept open a path to making something positive of this season.
2. A rare victory over Auburn. Because the Wildcats and Tigers have not played as often, UK’s long-running futility against Auburn does not get as much attention as Kentucky’s dismal returns against Alabama (Cats are 2-39-1 all-time), Florida (UK is 4-34 in the past 38 games, though 4-3 in the past seven) and Tennessee (3-38 in the past 41).
With its win Saturday night, Kentucky is now 2-19 in its past 21 contests against Auburn.
Interestingly, both UK wins in that stretch have come at Jordan-Hare Stadium. The other came in 2009, a 21-14 Kentucky win sparked by Derrick Locke and Randall Cobb.
3. Seth McGowan’s return. Kentucky’s standout running back — 476 rushing yards, seven TDs, 5.1 yards a carry entering Saturday’s game — was back in action Saturday night after missing last week’s 56-34 loss to Tennessee due to a shoulder injury suffered the prior week in UK’s 16-13 overtime loss to Texas.
Against an Auburn run defense that entered the UK game seventh in the FBS against the rush (surrendering only 84.3 yards a contest), McGowan 21 times for 53 very tough yards.
4. Cutter Boley’s development. Kentucky’s redshirt freshman quarterback entered the Auburn game on a bit of a roll.
In three straight starts against ranked opponents — then-No. 12 Georgia, then-No. 21 Texas and then-No. 17 Tennessee — the 6-foot-5, 220-pound Boley completed 71.3% of his throws (82 of 115) for 813 yards with seven touchdown throws versus three picks.
On Saturday night at Auburn, Boley’s numbers were not as gaudy, and he threw two picks — one costly and one potentially so, except Auburn fumbled the ball back to UK on the interception return with 2:56 left in the game.
Boley finished 18 of 29 passing for 161 yards with one touchdown (a 13-yard screen pass to Kendrick Law) and the two interceptions.
5. The UK defense dominated. Auburn entered the game last in the FBS in sacks allowed, having given up 30.
Kentucky took full advantage, sacking Auburn’s two-headed QB rotation of Ashton Daniels and Jackson Arnold seven times, recording seven other QB hurries and making 12 tackles for loss.
Leading the “sack party” for UK was senior defensive tackle Kahlil Saunders and senior linebacker Alex Afari, who each were credited with 1.5 sacks.
Fashion police
For its eighth game of the 2025 season, Kentucky wore blue helmets, white jerseys with blue letters and numbers and blue pants.
Since the start of the 2020 season, UK is now 2-5 in its blue-white-blue color combo.
This story was originally published November 1, 2025 at 10:45 PM.
