Like most teams ahead of the 2024 college football season, some questions arise for the Kentucky Wildcats.
Can Georgia transfer Brock Vandagriff live up to the hype as a five-star quarterback out of high school, and can Ohio State transfer Chip Trayanum off-set the loss of Ray Davis (1,129 rushing yards a season ago) at tailback?
Can the team improve on back-back-back 7-6 seasons? If so, who will the wins come against? According to ESPN’s 2024 College Football Power Index, the Wildcats have the fourth toughest schedule in the nation.
One thing that’s not in question is that Kentucky has one of the best coaches in the SEC — indeed, all of college football — in Mark Stoops. With Nick Saban retiring in January, Stoops is now the dean of SEC coaches with 2024 set to be his 12th season at the helm in Lexington.
Because of Stoops, the Wildcats had a consensus Top 25 recruiting class in 2024 from 247Sports, On3 and ESPN. 247Sports currently has Kentucky’s class of 2025 at No. 17 nationally.
Stoops’ track record includes two 10-win seasons and another 9-win campaign. During his’ tenure, the Wildcats snapped a 31-year losing streak to conference rival Florida in 2018, secured two victories over Tennessee — including the Wildcats’ first win in Knoxville since 1984 — and earned New Year’s Day bowl victories over Penn State and Iowa.
Those feats, coupled with Stoops’ longevity and his ability to find good players at a program not accustomed to winning many recruiting battles against SEC football blue bloods, give Kentucky a coach that rates No. 6 in a recent ranking of SEC coaches from CBS Sports entering the 2024 season.
Per CBS Sports’ Will Backus:
“Stoops has settled into a comfortable groove at Kentucky. The Wildcats will always make a bowl game and sometimes achieve even more. Stoops has two 10-win seasons in the last six years and hasn’t had a losing record, outside of the COVID-shortened 2020 campaign, since 2015. It is hard to envision the Wildcats competing for much more. That isn’t necessarily an indictment of Stoops. He’s done a great job winning at a program that hasn’t so much as made it to an SEC Championship Game since the conference split into divisions.”
Georgia’s Kirby Smart was ranked No. 1 among SEC coaches with LSU’s Brian Kelly at No. 2, Texas’ Steve Sarkisian at No. 3, new Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer at No. 4, and Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin at No. 5.
Among all 134 FBS coaches, CBS ranked Stoops at No. 20, one spot ahead of Missouri’s Eli Drinkwitz and one below Louisville’s Jeff Brohm.
Kentucky opens the 2024 season on August 31 against Southern Miss at Kroger Field. Kickoff is set for 7:45 p.m. EDT. The game can be seen on SEC Network.
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