Kentucky appears in Athlon Sports preseason top 25

The talking season is just around the corner with SEC Meetings set to begin on Tuesday. There could be some legitimate news that comes out of that event but the early preseason top 25 season is not over yet.

Yours truly jumped in on the fun with KSR’s post-spring top 25 and Kentucky made an appearance just outside of the top-20. Athlon Sports has published their own edition of rankings and the Wildcats check at No. 21 overall.

“Mark Stoops has raised the bar for success in Lexington,” writes Athlon’s Steven Lassan. “The Wildcats have won 10 games in two out of the last four years, and Stoops needs just two victories to pass Bear Bryant as the winningest coach in school history. Despite some key losses on both sides of the ball, optimism runs high thanks to the return of quarterback Will Levis and a deep backfield anchored by Chris Rodriguez Jr.

Athlon Sports has been publishing a national college football preview magazine for years as their magazine reaches a near 300 pages and previews every team in the FBS. This year’s edition will be available nationally on June 7.

Questions surround Kentucky football

As Kentucky players report to campus for summer workouts in June, some questions that surround the program. News broke this week that Alabama transfer Javon Baker will not be enrolling at Kentucky, and that news was followed by a report that Chris Rodriguez Jr.’s future with the program is currently up in the air.

Expectations will be high for Stoops and his program in 2022, but the team is dealing with some turmoil at the moment and must figure some things out before the fall camp arrives in August. The ceiling remains high, but this has been a somewhat rocky offseason.