Against Miami, Kentucky can take first step toward new history by avoiding old history.
With a pair of 10-win seasons in the last four years, Kentucky football has the opportunity to have another big season and flip the script on a program that has been somewhere between unlucky and downright cursed in much of the last 65 years before Mark Stoops came to town. The key? Avoiding an early stumble.
Plenty of promising Kentucky teams opened the season with a clunker of a performance that all but doomed the season in Week One. Take 1978, when Kentucky followed a 10-win season with a Week One tie against South Carolina. Or 1985, when Kentucky followed a 9-3 campaign with an opening loss to Bowling Green. Both of those promising teams had losing seasons. There are many more examples, but the good news is that Mark Stoops has been mostly immune to the ghosts of Wildcat football past.
Miami of Ohio went 7-6 last year and won something called the Frisco Football Classic, which is apparently a bowl game. They return veteran QB Brett Gabbart, who passed for 2,648 yards and 28 touchdowns a year ago. And wide receiver Mac Hippenhammer is both a pretty good player and one of the greatest names in college football. A year ago, as an 18 ½ point underdog in week two at Minnesota, Miami lost a 31-26 cliffhanger in which they outgained their hosts by 54 yards. They’re a 16-point underdog Saturday in Lexington.
But make no mistake, the days when Kentucky could reasonably lose to a team like Miami of Ohio should be long gone. Yes, the Wildcats will be breaking in some new players, including standout freshmen Dane Key at wide receiver and defensive lineman Deone Walker. But given returning stars like Will Levis and J.J. Weaver, Kentucky has more than enough talent to outlast the Redhawks.
This game is interesting to Kentucky mainly as a test of focus. Will the Wildcats be okay without all-SEC running back Chris Rodriguez? Can the new tackles hold up against a pass rush? Will the UK defensive line go from talented young players long on potential to actual standouts? The answers have less to do with talent—with UK has over Miami—than with focus.
Under Mark Stoops, the Wildcats have won 16 consecutive non-conference games. For a veteran coach who is about to tie Bear Bryant for UK’s all-time wins record, there’s no reason this weekend shouldn’t mark the 17th. Except for the ghosts of negative history and the tendency of 18- to 22- year-old kids to lose focus. The guess here is that UK will handle it.
Kentucky 31, Miami 17
Other SEC predictions:
Texas A&M 52, Sam Houston State 0
Georgia 28, Oregon 17
Arkansas 31, Cincinnati 28
Ole Miss 35, Troy 21
Utah 35, Florida 27
Auburn 49, Mercer 6
Vanderbilt 42, Elon 7
Alabama 59, Utah State 7
Mississippi State 38, Memphis 14
South Carolina 35, Georgia State 20
Joe Cox is contributing editor for KySportsStyle.com Magazine. He grew up in Letcher County and Bell County, and has written or co-written nine books. His most recent, "A Fine Team Man: Jackie Robinson and the Lives He Changed," was released in February 2019 and can be ordered on Amazon or at many local bookstores. Joe is an attorney and lives in Logan County with his wife and children. You can reach him at jrcox004@gmail.com.
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