Monday Huddle: Kentucky is in position to make some real noise

Kentucky was reeling heading into November. The Cats sat at 2-5 (0-5) with three double-digit losses in SEC play. Hot seat chatter was at a fever pitch. We felt just one loss away from a major change for this football program occurring. There was no denying that the Auburn-Florida stretch was the most critical of the season for the Wildcats. There was a loser leaves town match and one final chance to end an embarrassing home losing streak.

What happens after you ace your biggest test of the season? We’re about to find out.

Mark Stoops and his football team stayed in the fight. The Cats came out swinging after a very tough October. They landed two blows and just played one of the most complete SEC games of the Stoops era in a 38-7 thrashing of Florida. Now UK enters the final three-week stretch of the 2025 season with some momentum and a chance to make some real noise.

College football seasons can swing on a dime. Kentucky has created an opportunity for itself. Can the Cats take advantage? KSR is back to start another football week.

First Down: Kentucky has found the efficiency button on offense

Kentucky’s offense went north of 30 points in an SEC game for the second time this season on Saturday. The Wildcats finished with at least six yards per play in each of those games. For the first time since Ray Davis ran wild against Florida in 2023, UK rushed for over 200 yards against a power conference opponent. We’ve seen Bush Hamdan‘s second offense in Lexington make some legitimate improvement almost weekly since the debacle against South Carolina. The Wildcats are moving the chains, extending drives, establishing ball control (No. 23 nationally in time of possession), and now scoring some points.

They are doing it all without explosive plays.

Kentucky enters Week 12 ranked No. 84 nationally in EPA/play and No. 127 nationally in 20-plus yard plays. The Cats are just 7-of-48 (5.1 yards per attempt) on throws of 20-plus air yards. Seth McGowan (8.8%), Dante Dowdell (7.9%), and Jason Patterson (11.4%) each have posted paltry explosive run rates. The Cats aren’t getting many extra-base hits — but their on-base percentage continues to improve.

UK has found the efficiency button on offense.

Over the last four games, Kentucky is 3-1 in the success rate battle and has gone over 40 percent on offense three times. The Cats logged a very high success rate (59%) in the blowout victory over Florida. What does this mean? Kentucky’s offense is winning the play-to-play fight and constantly playing ahead of the chains. That is either helping them dominate field position (see the Auburn win) or create multiple scoring opportunities like we saw against Texas, Tennessee, and Auburn.

Cutter Boley is helping driving this efficiency train. In home starts, the redshirt freshman quarterback is completing 73.7 percent of his 29.5 passes per game on 8.4 yards per attempt with nine touchdown passes and three interceptions. Boley has cleared a 70 percent completion rate in three consecutive SEC home games. The Wildcats are prioritizing the short passing game and chasing completions. That has helped them play ahead of the sticks as the offense faced top-10 run defenses against Georgia, Texas, and Auburn. Well, those are a thing of the past. The Cats are now starting to find some balance.

In the last four power conference games outside of these top-10 foes, UK has rushed for an average of 182.7 non-sack yards on 5.0 yards per rush with a 51.7 percent success rate. The Cats have hit at least five yards per rush against South Carolina, Tennessee, and Florida. The Wildcats have some legitimate balance.

Kentucky has a clear splash play problem, but they have been able to overcome that due to the offensive efficiency. After a woeful start to the season that included a sloppy win over Toledo, a three-and-out party against Ole Miss, and a turnover fest against South Carolina, Kentucky has constructed a winning recipe. Mark Stoops has the offense he wants. Kentucky can play real ball control because of their balance.

The Cats have snuck into the top 50 nationally in success rate. After three consecutive years of finishing sub-90 in this important metric, UK has found a path forward. Boley is finding completions and this has become a good traditional run team when not facing top-10 run defenses.

Kentucky is having success on offense without big plays. They are playing to the Mark Stoops identity — but in a different way.

Second Down: Kentucky has found something on defense

Ole Miss, Georgia, and Tennessee each went over 30 offensive points against Kentucky’s defense this season. All three of those teams averaged at least six yards per play. The tackling was bad against the Rebels and Bulldogs. UK simply could not cover Tennessee’s wideouts. Meanwhile, the tackling and coverage problems also showed up against Eastern Michigan and South Carolina. Things were not trending in the right direction for Kentucky’s defense.

That has changed in recent weeks. Outside of the Tennessee debacle, UK is throwing some gems on the defensive side of the football. The Wildcats have cleaned up against three consecutive top-40 offenses.

Texas, Auburn, and Florida all finished under four yards per play against Kentucky. None of those units scored more than one offensive touchdown. Texas and Florida both needed a drive that immediately started inside the red zone to punch in a touchdown against UK. The Cats are simply dominating offenses that have real flaws right now.

We will dig more into Tennessee Tech (45.2 points per game, 7.2 yards per play) this week, but UK will face another top 10-offense when they make the trek to Vanderbilt. The season finale will be against a Louisville offense that seems to have more in common with Texas, Auburn, and Florida than it does with Ole Miss, Georgia, and Tennessee.

Kentucky is stopping the run at a very good rate right now, and the pass defense has made some strides since the ugly performance against Tennessee. The Cats have to play good defense to win games. That is a huge chunk of this program’s winning recipe. We have seen that play out in recent weeks. This is a major part of the team’s resurgence.

After consecutive dominant performances, we will now see if UK can back that up against consecutive offenses that have been more explosive this season.

Third Down: Kentucky has set themselves up to close strong

Since knocking off Iowa to claim a 10-win season for the second time in four years back in 2021, we’ve seen the Kentucky football program struggle to handle success. Whenever something big happened, it UK fumbled that momentum almost immediately. It was everything from the Ole Miss loss in 2022 to the mistake-riddled home loss to Vanderbilt in 2024. This program struggled to make good things happen in consecutive weeks.

That changed last weekend at Kroger Field when UK won a consecutive SEC games outright as an underdog. For the third consecutive week, we saw this football program end a bad streak. The two touchdowns or less streak (vs. Tennessee), the long SEC losing streak (vs. Auburn), and the home power conference losing streak (vs. Florida) all were ended in consecutive weeks. UK now has some real momentum because of these recent performances.

This program has a chance to close the season very strong.

Drawing a Tennessee Tech squad ranked in the FCS top-five and riding a 15-game winning streak is a tricky challenge, but UK will be a double-digit favorite for a reason. The Cats then get a swing at Vanderbilt in a game that could officially knock the Commodores out of the playoff. Oh, the Vince Marrow Bowl looms large on Thanksgiving weekend as Louisville starts their own three-game gauntlet this week with big conference clashes against Clemson and SMU before hosting UK.

Mark Stoops and his team have earned a big opportunity. There is a clear path to get back to a bowl game. UK came out swinging despite having to eat some punches and dealing with some early season adversity. Some of those swings landed and that has created a chance for the Cats to close strong.

UK is not competing for a College Football Playoff spot, but they will be playing in some games that matter down the stretch with a team that has young talent and continues to ascend. The Cats truly have a great chance to “Remember November” in 2025.

What would a strong close mean for the future? There are a lot of variables at play.

[The latest intel on Mark Stoops, Kentucky’s season, and the future can be found on KSBoard.]

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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 Saturday afternoon at Kroger Field. Kentucky’s final home game of the season has arrived in Week 12. Can UK end Tennessee Tech’s long winning streak on Senior Day?

We will have full coverage of Stoops’ press conference on Monday. From there, practice reports and daily podcasts will take over as Saturday quickly approaches. However, there will be no availability report this week. The might not be a notable update on the status of Sam Greene, Tavion Gadson, Alex Afari Jr., and Jordan Lovett if Stoops refuses to comment on Monday.

College football is a game of momentum and waves. Kentucky is currently riding a strong wave. How long will it last? The Cats have a real chance to finish this season very strong and change the direction of the program heading into 2026.

The end of November just got a lot more interesting.