Kentucky players to watch against Toledo

The college football season has finally arrived. Our long wait for football time in the Bluegrass will finally come to an end on Saturday afternoon when toe meets leather at Kroger Field. Mark Stoops and his Kentucky staff will finally unleash their brand new roster in Week 1.

On the other sideline, Toledo will begin the season with very high expectations. The Rockets are the favorites to win the MAC and have a very favorable schedule. This team is a win on Saturday away from becoming a legitimate College Football Playoff contender. That helps create a fascinated matchup.

We’ve attacked this matchup from multiple angles at KSR. Now it’s time to see which Kentucky players will enter the spotlight on Saturday afternoon. These are the individuals that the Cats will need to play well in Week 1.

A new starting tailback

Kentucky’s expected RB1 in 2024 (Chip Trayanum) will be suiting up for Toledo on Saturday. On the other sideline, we will finally get to see a player the program has gushed about throughout the summer. It’s officially Seth McGowan time at Kentucky.

The former blue-chip recruit out of Texas spent his first season in college football at Oklahoma before being dismissed from the program following an off-field arrest. McGowan then began a long journey back to power conference college football that included stops at junior college and New Mexico State. After a productive season in C-USA, McGowan became a spring transfer portal addition for UK who is expected to play a big role.

Everyone in the program has praised McGowan’s skill level and the veteran will open the season as the starter despite missing some time in fall camp. The multi-time transfer has produced 67 missed tackles on 201 career carries and has been a productive receiver throughout his career. In what appears to be a matchup advantage at the point of attack, UK will likely try to force-feed the ball to their tailbacks.

Nebraska transfer Dante Dowdell will have a role but McGowan will be featured.

We’ve heard nothing but good things about the spring transfer portal addition. Now we will get to see what McGowan can do with the football in his handing after producing 1,100 yards from scrimmage on 175 touches last season.

A new starting quarterback

Kentucky has a first-year starting quarterback again. For the fifth time in eight seasons, a transfer will be QB1 in Week 1. Things did not go well last year for the offense in any capacity. Offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan will lean of Zach Calzada to provide some stability.

Staying ahead of the chains, ball security, and eliminating mistakes appear to be the biggest emphasis for the Kentucky offense this season. The Cats had too many self-inflicted errors last year and it led to a lot of bad situations for the offense. Kentucky is likely going to ask Calzada to prevent those situations from happening.

It does not sound like UK wants Calzada to carry the offense. Instead, they want to see the quarterback play on time within the structure of the offense and keep everything on schedule.

Kentucky wants a game manager. Can Calzada be that? We will have a better answer on Saturday as this veteran makes his 33rd career start.

Year two at linebacker for Alex Afari Jr.

The former blue-chip recruit from Cincinnati is one of only two players from the 2022 signing class remaining on the roster. After playing the hybrid big nickel position for UK in his first two seasons, Alex Afari Jr. made a full-time switch to Will linebacker in 2024.

There were some up and down moments for a veteran who has accumulated 131 total tackles in 21 career starts.

Afari has been a havoc creator (20 career tackles for loss) during his career and gives UK some second-level playmaking. The program now need to see more consistency and comfortability in the box from the veteran. Linebacker depth is a question mark entering the season. That could be solved if Afari can become a consistent player for the middle of this defense.

In a matchup against an offense that is going to look to establish the run early and often, improved play from Afari at the Will position could help Kentucky create a lot more passing downs where UK’s pass rush could feast in this matchup.