Wildcats football is back ladies and gentlemen! The Cats are coming off of a ten win season, but also lost stars Josh Allen and Benny Snell. With college football officially back, I am going to preview Kentucky’s week one matchup with Toledo.
Last season the Rockets finished with a record of 7-6 while they were 5-3 in conference play. That was good enough to finish in a three way tie for second place in the MAC West division. In the MAC’s preseason media poll, Toledo is projected to make the conference championship game.
As far as the Toledo offense, it seems that the ground game will be the main point of attack. Their returning leader in yards from scrimmage is running back Bryant Koback. Koback, who finished with 940 yards and 14 touchdowns last season, started his collegiate career with a redshirt season in Lexington. The team has yet to announce a starting quarterback for week one, but Mitchell Guadagni is expected to be named the starter. Coming off of a broken collarbone, Guadagni finished last year with 13 touchdown passes and only three interceptions with just over 1,000 yards. Their receiver group is very inexperienced, which is great for the Cats’ inexperienced secondary.
Their defense returns a few of their starters from the year before. Defensive linemen Jamal Hines and Nate Childress combined for 82 tackles (10.5 for loss) and 3.5 sacks. Linebacker Jordan Fisher finished with 59 tackles himself along with three forced fumbles.
This will not be a team that Kentucky will walkover at all. My final prediction for the game is Kentucky gets the win 24-17.
