Monday Huddle: Kentucky enters rivalry week with another critical offseason right around the corner

Kentucky erased some of the bad taste leftover from the 2-5 start during a three-game winning streak in November. The Wildcats were playing good football and looked like a different team. That all went out the window on Saturday afternoon in Nashville.

Vanderbilt showed why they are playing for a playoff bid in the final week of the season. Kentucky showed why they have a losing record in 2025. That creates a situation where the Wildcats find themselves needing a win over Louisville in the final game to get to a bowl game. This same situation arrived in 2014 and 2015. UK lost both of those games.

Mark Stoops and Kentucky were very proud of the eight-year bowl streak that ran from 2016-23 and want to get back there. To do that, they face a true must-win game on Saturday afternoon. The Cats will need the Governor’s Cup to go bowling. This is an important game for the program, but a critical offseason is right around the corner.

Kentucky has some work to do.

First Down: Kentucky’s defense will have a better matchup this week

Vanderbilt is a top-10 offense in college football. The data proved that. The eye test from Saturday proved it even more. This offense has taken a huge leap in the passing game and that played out in the 45-17 win.

Diego Pavia threw for over 300 yards for the third consecutive game. Vandy now leads college football in yards per play (7.40), EPA/play (0.27), and ranks No. 2 nationally in success rate (50.1%). Kentucky had no answers for this offense. They should have some answers against Louisville.

Jeff Brohm‘s third offense enters Saturday ranked No. 45 in yards per play (5.97), No. 91 in EPA/play (-0.02), and No. 57 in success rate (42.2%). It is also an offense that is not trending in the right direction as the season comes to a close.

Louisville has scored 23 points or less in regulation in three consecutive games. The Cardinals have only gotten to 30 points once since September and that was against a 1-10 Boston College team. This passing game has recorded 214 yards or less in five consecutive games. Louisville has only posted over seven yards per attempt once this season. This attack ranks sub-100 in numerous key passing stats.

Brohm decided to make a quarterback change last week after Miller Moss suffered a strange injury. It ended up being the worst offensive performance of the season as this offense did not finish with a touchdown. There is also the fact that leading rushers Isaac Brown and Keyjuan Brown both missed last week with injuries. Their status is extremely up in the air this week. RB3 Duke Watson left the SMU game with an injury and has been battling injuries all year. Louisville is left with a wide receiver and walk-on after them. This offense is depleted at tailback.

A strong rushing attack has been eviscerated due to injuries. The passing game has been a struggle all season. Louisville has some massive issues on offense. This will be a bounce-back opportunity for Kentucky’s defense.

Second Down: Kentucky cannot afford another offensive clunker

In three possessions in the fourth quarter against Vanderbilt, Kentucky scored two touchdowns and created another red zone possession. The Cats rolled up 8.2 yards per play and 12 first downs. That made the final box score look much improved.

The fact of the matter was that UK was dominated for three quarters against Vanderbilt. The Cats could not get drives started (five three-and-outs in the first nine possessions), did not handle Vandy’s post-snap movement well at all, and could not run the football (43 non-sack rushing yards). This was against a defense that ranked sub-70 in yards per play, success rate, and EPA/play.

For as bad as Kentucky’s defense played in Nashville, the offense dropped just as big of a clunker. It was clearly the worst offensive performance of the season until those garbage time touchdown drives.

Kentucky cannot afford another clunker.

The Cats enter this week with a tougher matchup on paper. Louisville ranks No. 20 in EPA/play, No. 22 in yards per play, and No. 31 in success rate. Similar to Vanderbilt, this 4-2-5 structure will use plenty of post-snap movement to try and create pressure. Odds are high that defensive coordinator Ron English taps into that after watching the Vandy tape. Offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan and his unit have to figure out some solutions this week because they are going to see something similar on the field this Saturday.

Kentucky has to run the football better, and they have to do a better job of finding answers post snap when presented with a pressure look that was not shown pre-snap. Since the second bye week, this offense has done some good things and recently started getting some true run-pass balance. That went away against Vanderbilt.

Kentucky must find its mojo again this weekend. Louisville has a well-rounded defense that can swallow UK up if they don’t have a better drive starting plan this week. This could be a game where not a lot of points will be needed to win. A solid bounce-back performance could put the team in good shape.

Third Down: Expect a crazy December

A huge game will be played on Saturday. We will cover that from every angle at KSR. But an even bigger offseason will begin immediately after the game is over on Saturday afternoon. Buckle in. It’s officially head on a swivel season.

The early signing period is a week from Wednesday. FCS and Division II players that have finished their seasons are already announcing their portal intentions. That will only increase once games are played this weekend as FBS players start to move. December is a quiet period in recruiting but things will get busy as soon as the calendar tuns to January. There will be a mad rush to get transfers on campus, committed, and enrolled in school quickly. You better have your ducks in a row by Christmas. Keeping players on the roster will be the first order of business for everyone. This is also a time where there will be assistant coach movement. December is going to be a ridiculously busy month. Kentucky needs a good plan and they must execute that plan.

All signs point to this early signing period being a calm one for Kentucky — but also a small one. This is trending to be the smallest and lowest-ranked class of the Mark Stoops era. It certainly feels like the program wants to lean heavily on the transfer portal to build rosters moving forward. The individuals in charge of helping build those rosters need to get locked into roles.

Defensive coordinator Brad White, special teams coordinator Jay Boulware, co-defensive coordinator Chris Collins, tight ends coach Derek Shay, defensive line coach Anwar Stewart, linebackers coach Mike Stoops, and safeties coach Frank Buffano are all working on expiring contracts. That’s seven coaches who need to be renewed or replaced. These decisions — and potential job searches — will all need to be done in December.

The next month will include plenty of moving and shaking for Stoops. The long-time head coach will need to lock-in his staff and build a transfer portal plan with Eddie Gran and the rest of Kentucky’s scouting/player personnel staff to attack the portal and address roster needs. That plan must be ready to go by Christmas. During all of this, UK could be preparing to play in a bowl game. Two possible bowl destinations (Liberty Bowl, Duke’s Mayo Bowl) take place on Jan. 2. Why is that an important date to know? Because that is when the transfer portal opens. From Jan. 1-Jan. 4, transfers will be allowed to visit schools. There will be a mad rush of visits during this time. If Kentucky is playing in a bowl game during that window, that will create quite the pickle.

Things are about to get chaotic. Before anything happens, Stoops and Kentucky athletics director Mitch Barnhart will have their yearly season review meeting to discuss how the program did this year and what the path is to move forward. If any big changes (front office, program marketing, big coaching changes, money distribution, etc.) are made, they will be agreed upon in that meeting. That discussion will set the table for Kentucky’s offseason.

College football has the longest offseason in sports’s but everything is really crammed into a two-month window. Most of the movement with players and coaches occurs while postseason games are still being played. Kentucky again must move swiftly, aggressively, and purposely to build the 2026 team in December.

A huge month awaits.

The week ahead at KSR

Game week is here, and KSR will provide the Big Blue Nation with in-depth pregame content from now until kickoff arrives on Thanksgiving Saturday. The final game of Kentucky’s 2025 regular season has arrived.

Can the Cats bring the Governor’s Cup back to the Joe Craft Football Training Facility?

We will have full coverage of Mark Stoops’ press conference on Monday. From there, practice reports and daily podcasts will take over as Saturday quickly approaches. There will be no availability reports with this being a non-conference game.

Kentucky can end an up-and-down season on a high note on Saturday before a critical offseason arrives in December. Getting back to a bowl game was a top goal for the program this offseason. They can do that with a win this weekend. Meanwhile, another loss to your heated in-state rival could send the Big Blue Nation into a tailspin. This is a game that the program really needs to win to help calm the waters after that brutal performance against Vanderbilt.