Scouting Report: Kentucky

Only two regular season games remain for Texas in the 2024 season. The Longhorns will welcome Kentucky on senior day as the Wildcats look to pick up their second SEC win of the season. The journey for Mark Stoops’ squad has been a rollercoaster ride. The Wildcats opened SEC play by putting a major scare in Georgia (13-12 loss) and beating Ole Miss on the road (20-17), but have since dropped 4 conference games in a row, with 3 defeats coming by 10 or more points.

Offense

Offensive coordinator Liam Coen departed in the offseason for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the dropoff has been substantial. In addition to a new coordinator, the Wildcats also had to break in a new quarterback in Georgia transfer Brock Vandagriff. Vandagriff has not played well this season, completing only 58% of his passes with 9 touchdowns and 7 interceptions. He has been sacked 23 times.

Freshman Jamarion Wilcox is the best RB on the roster and is averaging almost 7 yards a carry. He has recorded 30 combined carries in the last two games and appears to have taken over the starting job. Demie Sumo-Karngbaye leads the team in rushing TD’s (5) and will serve as more of a bruising back at 210 pounds.

The Wildcats actually have a pretty good receiver room, but it has been a struggle to get the ball to the playmakers. Barion Brown, who is also electric in the return game, was expected to be one of the top receivers in the conference but has only 307 yards on the season and has battled injury. Leading receiver Dane Key (686 yards and 2 TD’s) is a good player and will be targeted a lot.

RT Gerald Mincey has been ruled out for Saturday with an injury, making a shaky offensive line even shakier. Kentucky has allowed 27 sacks as a team, including 4 last week to FCS Murray State.

Defense

If Kentucky is going to hang around for 4 quarters in Austin, it will be on the backs of their defense. The Wildcats will welcome back their best pass rusher, JJ Weaver, from injury (5 sacks), along with massive DT Deone Walker, who did not play against Murray State. The Wildcats only allow 188 yards passing per game (3rd best in the SEC) but have struggled to stop the run (133 yards allowed per game, 13th in the SEC).

Georgia transfer Jamon Dumas-Johnson leads the team with 54 tackles and has also registered 3.5 sacks. The Wildcats have a respectable 23 sacks on the year, including 4 against Ole Miss and 5 against Auburn. Will the dial up the pressure after what Quinn Ewers has shown the last month?

The secondary has been hit by the injury bug but has a pair of solid cornerbacks in Maxwell Hairston and Jonquis Hardaway. The Wildcats have picked off 10 passes and only allowed 7 passing touchdowns.

Final Thoughts

Kentucky has shown the ability to play up against the best teams in the country, but consistency has been lacking and it will have been 3 weeks since the Wildcats played a legitimate opponent (bye week, Murray State the last two weeks). Mark Stoops has proven to be a good coach but he certainly has not maximized the hand that was dealt to him this year. Can he get his team up for another big-time opponent?