College Football Predictions – Kentucky Wildcats 2020 College Football Preview
2019 Recap
Record – 8-5
ATS – 9-4
The Wildcats booked their fourth consecutive winning season and rattled off eight wins highlighted by a beatdown of their rival, Louisville (W 45-13) and Belk Bowl win over Virginia Tech. They were unable to pull a major upset like they did in 2018 (Florida) but did really well considering that they had all kinds of trouble keeping their QBs healthy.
Let’s check in with the CATS and see if they have a shot to contend in the SEC East.
2020 MEGALOCKS Opening Power Rating
East Division – TBD
SEC – TBD
Kentucky Wildcats 2020 Outlook
OFFENSE
Kentucky had one of the most devastating rushing attacks in college football a season ago and proved that you could do damage with a WR playing QB! They led the SEC in rushing (279 YPG) and averaged an impossible 6.3 YPA. TOUCHDOWN TERRY WILSON is scheduled to be the starting QB this year and he is very effective when healthy. It’s hard to know what kind of targets he’ll have in the THROW GAME given that the group didn’t get much work a season ago. The strength of the offensive will once again be the ground game. They return their top-3 RBs in A Rose, K Smoke, and C Rodriguez who combined for almost 2,000 yards and 18 rushing TDs in 2019. The offensive line is one of best and most physical in the SEC.
The Cats have averaged between 25.5 and 27.2 PPG over the past three years. We’ll call for close to 30 PPG in 2020.
DEFENSE
Kentucky allowed fewer than 20 PPG for the second consecutive season and were particularly stingy vs the pass allowing just 9 (!) TD passes all year (#T1 FBS; Ohio St). They displayed a bit of a SOFT UNDERBELLY vs the run (#11 SEC rush D) and will look to improve on that statistic in 2020. Seven starters return to the stop unit including five of their top six tacklers. The talent and depth up front gets better every year and they have a talented and experienced LB corps. The strength of the D might be in the secondary where the return three starters, but to be fair, all three levels of the defense appear to be above-average. Also note that the Cats have bagged 30+ sacks in three consecutive campaigns after being poor in that regard for a long time.
This is one of the better defenses in the SEC.
SPECIAL TEAMS
FGs were a bit of an adventure LY (9/14) and they’ll need to be better in that department. They have an absolute WEAPON at punter in Ray Guy Award winner Max Duffy (44.6 net).
Schedule Analysis
Overall – They start out with a tough, but winnable game (at Auburn) and face the Rebels, Miss St, and Tennessee before a yuuuuuge game with Georgia. It’s not unthinkable that they enter that game with a mark of 4-0. They draw ROLL TIDE from the SEC West.
Potential ATS Trouble Spot – at Missouri (October 31st)
Might be a letdown spot as this game follows the aforementioned tilt with Georgia. Not sure we’ll wanna lay points with Kentucky on this occasion.
Season Win Total
Over 5 -150
Under 5 +120
MEGALOCKS says:
We like the ‘over’. Hard to see these guys losing six games.
MEGAmazing Tidbit
Kentucky’s all time record is 623-626-44 (.499) so we suppose it’s not surprising that Mark Stoops has a record of 44-44 (.500). #DESTINY
MEGALOCKS Outlook:
Mark Stoops has built this team into a legit SEC East squad that should challenge for the division for the foreseeable future. They’re physical, talented, and CHOCK FULL of young talent thanks to stellar recruiting as of late. Kentucky is a longshot to win the division but we’d be surprised if they didn’t pull at least one big upset along the way.
Want more Kentucky football ?
WEBSITE
https://ukathletics.com/index.aspx?path=football
FORUM
http://www.thecatsdomain.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=forum;f=8
https://kentucky.forums.rivals.com/forums/wildcat-lair-football-forum.22/
http://kentucky.247sports.com/Board/Kentucky-Wildcats-Message-Board-Forum-296
NEWS
http://www.kentucky.com/sports/college/kentucky-sports/
http://www.espn.com/college-football/team/_/id/96/kentucky-wildcats
TWITTER
Hashtag – #WeAreUK
Accounts to follow