Monday Huddle: Where does Kentucky go from here?

The college football calendar has moved to Week 7. For the second year in a row, it feels like the season is over with multiple games left on the schedule for the Kentucky football program. The Wildcats are once again sputtering and have lost their first three power conference games this season by a combined score of 100-50. UK was not competitive in losses to South Carolina and Georgia. UK hung with Ole Miss at home but this program’s power conference losing streak has now reached nine games.

Things feel bleak. The fan base is upset. Mark Stoops drew a line in the sand with his postgame “zero chance” comments. So what happens next? All we really know is that UK will play seven more games this season and that there are four remaining contests at Kroger Field where fans will get to choose to support the team or publicly express their frustration either verbally or by not going. This year has quickly turned into a disaster after the 2024 season ended in disaster.

The second bye week has arrived with Stoops choosing to skip his weekly radio show. We will not hear from this program’s leader until Wednesday. With basketball season unofficially starting up with media day, pro day, and Big Blue Madness all on the schedule, odds are high that this football program keeps a low profile and combats the outside noise with radio silence.

So there is a lot going on. What happens off the field once the season ends seems more important than what will happen on the field once games start up again next week. Expect plenty of twists and turns. Smokescreen season is not going away. Everyone got a good taste of that on Sunday with the rumors that Bush Hamdan had been let go by Kentucky. There will be some more craziness.

KSR will be here every step of the way to keep the Big Blue Nation locked in with what is going on with this program and this program’s future. Many are understandably hyperfocused on Stoops’ job status but the chances that UK makes a move during the season are extremely low. The games will be played and Stoops will attempt to guide his team through this rigorous schedule.

Is there any reason for hope? Monday Huddle is taking a look at what player could help change the program’s current narrative, what is ahead of Kentucky, and why the defense could be a bigger problem than the offense at this point.

First Down: Cutter Boley could change everything

This season has gotten off the tracks. Kentucky’s offense still has massive scoring issues and a winless season in conference action currently feels possible if not likely. Getting to a bowl game feels impossible. That means everyone is or needs to shift into evaluation mode for the future. That is trickier in the transfer portal era.

That evaluation for the future officially started when Kentucky pressed the backup quarterback button this season after just two starts for transfer Zach Calzada. Cutter Boley stepped up during Week 3 and had a promising performance against Eastern Michigan before the wheels fell off against South Carolina. Add that in with the Louisville start last year and there were some concerns about what things could look like for this offense long-term. But we saw some real improvement at Sanford Stadium.

Kentucky rushed for only 52 non-sack yards on 2.6 yards per rush, did not score on two red zone possessions, and was just 3-of-11 on third down. Yet, Boley took a step forward.

The redshirt freshman completed 25-of-41 passes for 225 yards and two touchdowns. With the traditional run game sputtering without Seth McGowan in the game for most of the second half, Kentucky asked a lot of the young quarterback (45 dropbacks in 64 snaps). The former four-star recruit delivered.

Boley did a terrific job with sack avoidance throughout the game, made good decisions with the football (only interception was on fourth down attempt), and connected on four completions of 20-plus yards. Offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan made a concerted effort to get the ball out of Boley’s hands quickly to begin this game. That led to the redshirt freshman playing with some confidence. After struggling in his other two power conference starts, Boley looked the part on Saturday. The Lexington (Ky.) Christian Academy product played like someone you can potentially build around. This program desperately needs someone it can rally around right now.

The offense has issues. There is a lot riding on Boley’s development. Kentucky needs him to be good. They need him to be a playmaker. Saturday’s performance was a positive development for an offense that hasn’t had many positive developments since Liam Coen left.

Quarterbacks can change an outlook at anytime. Is there a path for an in-season turnaround for Kentucky in 2025? That feels unlikely but those chances increase if Boley keeps developing and improving. UK is all-in on this young quarterback both for the present and in the future. This program desperately needs him to provide stability at a position that has been a huge weakness over the last decade-plus.

No matter what happens this season, Kentucky football needs Cutter Boley to continue to improve and to become a true pillar for this program in the upcoming years. His development is the No. 1 storyline moving forward and should be something that every supporter of this program should be cheering for.

The only path for running it back is likely tied to what Boley does over the last seven games. If a change is made, the attractiveness of this job could improve based on what Boley does. Much is riding on the young quarterback.

Second Down: Kentucky is a projected underdog in every power conference game

Everyone knew that life out of a division structure would be difficult for Kentucky. It’s only going to get tougher when the league shifts to a nine-game format in 2026. The season looked extremely tough on paper due the schedule.

Some teams are not as good as expected (Georgia, Texas, South Carolina) while others are better than expected (Ole Miss, Tennessee, Vanderbilt). Meanwhile, UK is currently coming up short of preseason expectations that are not very high. That has led to a schedule that is pretty much as difficult as we all throught.

UK was a double-digit dog against Georgia. We will likely see the Cats be a double-digit underdog five more times this season. Using numbers from ESPN’s SP+ rankings, this is what the projected spreads currently are for the remaining games on the schedule.

• Texas at Kentucky (+12)
• Tennessee at Kentucky (+16.5)
• Kentucky (+13) at Auburn
• Florida at Kentucky (+7)
• Kentucky (+15.5) at Vanderbilt
• Kentucky (+13) at Louisville

Auburn, Louisville, and Texas all appear to be flawed football teams at the moment but they have all played better than Kentucky. Games against Tennessee and Vanderbilt feel like tall tasks currently. The home game against Florida is the most winnable on the schedule.

The safe bet would be for Kentucky to finish the season with an 0-9 record against power conference foes. That will be hard to bounce-back from. If Mark Stoops is going to make a run and ultimately safe his job, his team is probably going to have to pull off a couple of upsets.

This is the new world order. Kentucky is currently the worst team in the Southeastern Conference. The worst team in this league is going to take a lot of losses no matter what year it is.

Third Down: Kentucky’s defense is a massive problem right now

Kentucky wants to play a certain brand of football under Mark Stoops. That includes a run-heavy offense and a zone-heavy defense that masters in big-play prevention. The Cats want to win in situational football and shrink games. This is a program that is defense-first and wants to be defense-first. That means the defense needs to be good. That means Kentucky needs to be a top-half SEC unit for this program to win games.

Kentucky really isn’t anywhere close to that right now.

Georgia became the second SEC offense to scored 30-plus points against Kentucky’s defense on Saturday. The Bulldogs needed just nine non-kneel possessions to get there. Mike Bobo‘s offense averaged 6.2 yards per play and finished the game with a 52.2 percent success rate. If felt like they could have gotten to 45 points if they needed to.

The Cats have issues on defense.

Tackling remains a major concern, UK has slipped to No. 82 in defensive success rate (41.3%), and No. 84 in EPA/play (0.02). QB run has done a number on the Cats over the last two games and the secondary is struggling. This is not a good development. There was not path for success unless UK had a top 25-35 defense or better. The Cats are currently ranked No. 54 in SP+’s rankings. That would be the program’s worst defensive finish since 2017.

Will some personnel changes be made soon? It’s probably something that UK will be considering during the bye week. UK’s offense is receiving its fair share of blame for the program’s current slide, but the defense has to be better. If it doesn’t get better, this season will only get uglier.

Kentucky cannot win with these defensive results.

The week ahead at KSR

Kentucky does not have a game in Week 7 but that does not mean our coverage will stop at KSR. Throughout the week, we will be taking a look back at what we have learned in five games into the season before switching into preview mode for Texas in the first Keeneland + Kroger Field double-dip opportunity of the season.

Mark Stoops is scheduled to meet with the media on Wednesday after practice. We will have full coverage of his only scheduled meeting with reporters outside of the weekly teleconference. However, KSR’s podcast lineup is not changing. Stay tuned for the “KSR Football Podcast” on Monday afternoon and another episode of “11 Personnel” on Wednesday night.

Is there a path out of this hole? Is this era over? We will mostly be playing the waiting game over the next two months but the season rolls on. KSR will be here to cover it all. It’s a good idea to be on KSBoard as we discuss what is real, what is fake, and what could happen over the next few weeks.

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