SEC · Will Stein, year 1 (2-1) · Kroger Field · 61,000 · 60,993 avg in 2026
LastW 31–21 at Texas A&M · Sat Sep 19 · CJ Baxter 87 rush yds, 2 TD, 28 rec yds
Nextvs South Alabama · Sat Sep 26 · 12:45 pm ET · Kroger Field · Kentucky by 20.5 · Game preview
Updated Tue Sep 22 · through week 3
| Wk | Date | Us | Opp | Line | Opponent | Result | Record | Conf |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sep 5 | #102 | #147 | -22.5✓ | Youngstown State | W 45–13 127 | 1-0 | 0-0 |
| 2 | Sep 12 | #100 | #21 | +9.5✗ | Alabama | L 17–45 127 | 1-1 | 0-1 |
| 3 | Sep 19 | #97 | #6 | +16.5✓ | @Texas A&MTop 10 win | W 31–21 138 | 2-1 | 1-1 |
| 4 | Sep 26 | #87 | #65 | -20.5 | South Alabama | |||
| 5 | Oct 3 | #86 | #23 | @South Carolina | ||||
| 6 | Oct 10 | LSU | ||||||
| 7 | Oct 17 | @Oklahoma | ||||||
| 8 | Oct 24 | Vanderbilt | ||||||
| 10 | Nov 7 | @Tennessee | ||||||
| 11 | Nov 14 | Florida | ||||||
| 12 | Nov 21 | @Missouri | ||||||
| 13 | Nov 28 | Louisville |
| Date | Opp | Result | Yds | TO | TOP | EPA/play | Success% | Explosive% | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 19 | @Texas A&M | W 31–21 | 408 | 0 | 29:35 | +0.450 | 52.7% | 135.8% | Most explosive |
| Sep 12 | Alabama | L 17–45 | 209 | 3 | 27:46 | -0.342 | 32.8% | 96.1% | Season-low EPA/play |
| Sep 5 | Youngstown State | W 45–13 | 506 | 0 | 29:52 | +0.562 | 60.7% | 119.8% | Season-high EPA/play |
| Season average (3 games) | 374 | 1.0 | +0.224 | 48.7% | 117.3% | ||||
Kentucky is the basketball blue blood that spent a decade making football matter under Mark Stoops — then fired the winningest coach in its history rather than slide back, betting a 36-year-old can keep the gridiron alive in a basketball state.
Fans are sick of hearing their school described as a basketball place that tolerates football — they remember the Stoops climb made the league take Kentucky seriously, and they refuse to be filed…
The season in chapters
What fans said
Real posts from the day of the game, chosen by community score · usernames not shown
What it is like to watch them2025 · 5-7 · last season
✓ measured from 12 games · ranks are among SEC teams the same season
Recent form · last 10 games · incl. 2025
Cooling. 5-5 over the last 10, and won the last one.
He wasn’t able to finish. Nothing from an injury standpoint. It just wasn’t able to go at the end there in the fourth quarter, which is disappointing
Next Sep 26
vs South Alabama · at home
✓ fact on line · ~ our read on style
Market outlook
Sportsbook consensus · best odds across multiple books · 2026-09-22
the open questionis the portal class enough to move the needle?
Mark Stoops' highest-ranked portal class on record arrives as Kentucky's 5-7 losing season fades — Kenny Minchey (QB) and 29 additions aim to fix a roster with only 27% of production returning.
our readdeveloping
Will Stein inherits a 5-7 losing record at Kentucky, a football program struggling to establish identity amid its basketball legacy.
our readdeveloping
Will Stein inherits a 5-7 roster and a 27% production return, but the program's identity as a football school now demands more than just rebuilding — it demands proving it belongs.
our readdeveloping
Mark Stoops enters his 10th season with a 5-7 losing record, as Kentucky's football program clings to its hard-won SEC foothold amid coordinator-driven reshaping.
our readbackground
Hardley Gilmore IV is a real deep-ball threat -- a high share of his targets come on throws past the sticks.
our readbackground
Kendrick Law is used almost exclusively underneath -- a low share of his targets are downfield shots.
our readbackground
Kentucky dropped 21 spots in SP+ under Mark Stoops — a middle-tier program's arrival in the 2010s now faces its first sustained test.
our readbackground
Outcome band · Kentucky · 2026
Floor, base and ceiling come from the season-path projection, which plays out conference title games and the CFP — so a ceiling can run past 12 games.
Kentucky signed a top-9 transfer-portal class — 31 additions headlined by Kenny Minchey (QB) from Notre Dame and Callum Wither (QB) from Laurier. It is program's highest-ranked portal class on record. Portal pickups are proven college players — the split isn't about development, it's about whether they fit the scheme and win their position battles. Coverage is split on whether volume or positional fit is the bigger story.
The off-field storyline driving the noise right now. Not analysis — the soap opera, and that's the point.
The 'portal class fills the gaps' believers -- upgrades at real positions of need.
The 'portal is a gamble' counter -- departure losses and the 'plug-and-play doesn't work' read.
This event was in 44 of 1997 board posts (2%) over the last 60 days — engaged but not consumed. Fan text shown verbatim, attributed to the community not the individual poster.
Board health this week (229 posts): 32% positive · 39% neutral · 29% negative. Team-level weekly mood — not specific to this event. The boards ≠ the fanbase: a self-selected vocal slice.
The off-field storyline driving the noise right now. Not analysis — the soap opera, and that's the point.
The optimistic read: momentum, and the 'this is real' takes.
The analytical counter: rankings, results, and 'the hype is ahead of the tape' takes.
Nothing in our corpus yet — this door stays open for when there is.
This event was in 134 of 1997 board posts (7%) over the last 60 days — engaged but not consumed. Fan text shown verbatim, attributed to the community not the individual poster.
Board health this week (229 posts): 32% positive · 39% neutral · 29% negative. Team-level weekly mood — not specific to this event. The boards ≠ the fanbase: a self-selected vocal slice.
Fan mood index · most recent r/cfb data
More in this tab
Kentucky is the basketball school whose football program arrived in the 2010s and now refuses to leave.
The program ledger
since 2025Afari joins eligibility lawsuit
Four NFL departures, a CB room under pressure, and a class sitting at #60 nationally — Afari joining the eligibility lawsuit is the kind of wildcard that could quietly reshape what Will Stein's rebuild actually looks like this fall.
Tovani Mizell out for season
Mizell's season-ending injury hits a CB room already under pressure — four draft departures and a #60 class rank don't leave Stein with much margin to absorb another body at a position that was already thin.
Hardley Gilmore IV dismissed from Kentucky
CB depth was already a pressure point with 4 NFL Draft departures and a #60 class — losing Gilmore IV before Stein's first fall camp makes a thin room thinner.
Afari closer to eligibility
CB room already bleeding from four NFL departures, and Afari's eligibility clock ticking toward active — Stein needs that corner depth before the SEC schedule starts asking real questions.
WKU player dismissed for failure to report
WKU's dismissed player doesn't solve Kentucky's CB pressure problem on his own — but Stoops picks up a warm body for a room already thin after four draft departures drained the depth chart.
Kentucky Nike deal criticized
Nike deal backlash lands on a program already absorbing four NFL exits and a CB room under pressure — optics matter when you're still convincing recruits Will Stein's rebuild is real.
Top 3 commits
Recruiting Footprint · 2026
AL leads the 2026 class with 3 commits. National footprint reaching 13 states.
Where they recruit · 2023-2026
89 signees across 21 states, 2023-2026. KY leads the pull.
That is 18.8% of every high-school FBS signee KY produced over those cycles — dead level with Louisville as the state's biggest signer. The full map →
Miles from home · 2026 roster
The median Kentucky player grew up 325 miles from campus.
Half this roster came from closer than that; half came from farther.
Straight-line distance from each player's listed hometown to Kroger Field. Hometowns are placed at city-centroid precision, not street address — fine at this scale, but a player's true door-to-door number can differ by a few miles. 106 of 115 listed players have a geocoded hometown. Source: CFBD roster hometowns.
Top community posts · last 12 months · r/cfb
Fan confidence in a typical range for this program right now
72nd percentile among FBS programs
The bounces have gone their way on their own fumbles: 60% recovered, vs. ~52% expected.
3 of 5 own fumbles recovered themselves, 2026 only.
Cashing in at a normal clip: 19% of disrupted passes intercepted, close to ~19% league-wide.
4 interceptions of 21 disrupted passes (17 deflected, 4 intercepted), 2026 only.
The flags haven't favored them: 21 penalties committed vs. 14 drawn on opponents, 116 yards behind.
199 penalty yards committed vs. 83 drawn on opponents, 2026 season total.
Outcome band · Kentucky · 2026
Recruiting Footprint · 2026