How many of our 22 starters will move on to another school. When you take graduation/draft out of it. Who is going to stick around from our top 22 guys?

I’m curious how many starters we are expected to lose to other schools.

to this year's team in 2025.

From KSRadio-

"Netflix's SEC Football series featuring Kentucky will come out next summer

You may recall that Kentucky was one of several SEC schools Netflix chose to feature in its new docuseries about SEC football. Film crews were in town throughout the season to document Mark Stoops’ squad, specifically the weeks of the South Carolina and Louisville games. We now have a few more details about the series, including when it will be released"

I had no idea this was going on, and I'm not paid to know, but just the fact that they were in our facilities with cameras tells me why this team fell apart (aside from bad playcalling, time management, and execution). No wonder our receivers got big heads and hurt their team with untimely penalties

I predict the Cats will be 12-1 and ranked #1 or #2 and Florida will still be unbeaten and ranked in the top five. Rupp should be rocking for that one.
I'm hoping with the new excitement with Pope's style of play and the fact that Kentucky fans are so in love with this team that we get back to whether
it's only a question of whether we lose one game in a year at Rupp or zero. I know that's going to be difficult this year with the league not only being the strongest ever in relation to other conferences but maybe the strongest league ever in relation to other conferences. I could see us maybe winning the regular season with 2 home losses if we went 5-4 on the road but, even as tough as the league is this year it might take 13-5 to win it so we really need to hold court at home.

1 Tennessee
2 Auburn
3 Alabama
4 Florida
5 Iowa State
6 Kentucky

DEC 17...this is the SEC

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Truly nice to see our coach "get the assignment."

I hope he can keep winning- he's the coach we need.

Per Twitter

That’s the buyout after next season, so I STILL can’t see Mitch paying the $35 million either.

So, are we stuck with Stoops for at least 3 more seasons no matter how bad it gets???

I don't think this is some life raft trying to get out, it's a school he played at and he wants to see succeed. I think Brad White might be on the way out.

Vote and tell me why you chose your answer. I chose a portal QB to compete against Boley for the job. If we bring in a sure fire starter, Boley won't get many game reps and won't be able to grow as a QB. You can't develop a QB if they aren't getting meaningful snaps.

And please spare me with the it doesn't matter who we bring in. Stoops sucks, etc. Save it for all of the other threads.

OT Gunnar Hansen to Florida State and LB Reginald Hughes to Colorado. I know both had been scheduled to visit. Don't think they are big losses or anything but I wouldn't have been upset to get Hansen.

Have you guys noticed that the service is getting slower and slower when dining in? Chick Fil A used to have very quick service but now it’s worse than McDonalds
I don’t blame it on the employees, I blame the fact that to go like uber eats and drive through have about 90% of the attention

Folks the information is flying left and right. I'm sorry for having so many posts, but it's a busy time and things change. This is all the latest, and I'm confident of it.

***

Kentucky feels very good about Zach Calzada. There have been a lot of rumors out there but I am confident of this. The quarterback board at the end of the regular season looked like this:

1. Darian Mensah (Tulane)
2. Zach Calzada (Incarnate Word)
3. Kyron Drones (Virginia Tech)
4. Maalik Murphy (Duke)

Mensah was someone they really liked a lot but he went to Duke. You remember we mentioned Calzada very early on. So I am confident he was No. 2 on the wish list.

Apparently Calzada was thinking about going into the 2025 NFL Draft. Scouts had given him as high as a 4th round grade, some between 5th and 7th, others that he was in that conversation.

The combination of Calzada's arm ability, decision making, experience, and running ability made him high on their wish list. He went 8-4 with Texas A&M, and 4-4 in the SEC. Other A&M quarterbacks didn't do better than that for Jimbo.

Calzada would have started at A&M again but Jimbo got fired.

During Austin Davis' short stint as Auburn's offensive coordinator at the end of 2021 going into 2022, he targeted Calzada as the guy he wanted to be the Tigers' quarterback after watching him with Texas A&M. But Calzada was injured, hurt his shoulder, and that's the reason he never got a chance there.

Fast forward to Incarnate Word, he could have come out and had FBS opportunities last season but he stuck around and became a more coveted commodity. That is the case for Calzada, and there is a sense that Incarnate Word has done a good job developing quarterbacks.

As for the Nebraska running back, Dante Dowdell, I'm hearing that he's someone that Kentucky likes and it seems like it could definitely happen. At the same time, there are some mixed feelings on Chip Trayanum leaving. He was brought in because they did like him but he got hurt and that's why he didn't get more of a workload. But again, it was a given they were going to take a portal running back. Would certainly cost a lot less than Ahmad Hardy, who has been/was reported to be visiting soon as well.

Finally, keep an eye on that Illinois tight end I told you about, Hunter Boyer. Could beef up the run blocking significantly (6'7, 265).

Additionally, I have heard of an offensive tackle, possibly a LT, who hasn't gone into the portal but is someone who might go in and there would be interest.
So here is where things stand, in my view.

QB - Likely Calzada
RB - Likely Dowdell
WR - Likely Law from Alabama and then size from elsewhere, maybe Bowick?
TE - Boyer
OT - Still need a LT but that's about it

Those are the offensive needs. Still dialed into what's happening with the defense.

Have heard that Kentucky has interest in Georgia defensive lineman Jamaal Jarrett. Eric Wolford was his lead area recruiter when he was around the first time. However I have not heard of a visit and there has been talk of visits elsewhere.

Jacob Polacheck had a report on Ball State CB Myles Norwood who is likely to visit Kentucky. TBD on where he falls on the wish list as there are several corners they've been looking at.

UK's also looking at 6'3, 303-pound Louisiana Tech defensive lineman David Blay. He was a first team All-Conference USA selection this year and I hope to have more on him soon but can confirm some interest.

@JRowland - can you provide us with the list in order of who UK’s top targets at Left Tackle have been thus far?

As great as Butler played Saturday night he has got to improve his free throw shooting. Not really sure, just asking but have we had another point guard shoot free throws at a 62.8% clip? There was a thread that stated that we were the best in the nation, my thought is that we could be but having a team average of 70.3% is well below the 73 -75 national percentile. Even though it was a good win it should not have been that close, of the 10 free throws missed Butler missed 5.

Kid been around started his career at Texas A&M then went to Auburn and finally the last 2 years in FCS at Incarnate Ward.

Interim HC for West Virginia. Good dude. Played and coached here.

Seeing on X that Oscar has been hospitalized. Anyone heard why?

Discuss….

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Been looking for a reputable report on numbers. This gives some insight on the ceiling:

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“On Friday, a five-star recruit in the Class of 2023 signed an agreement with a school’s NIL collective that could pay him more than $8 million by the end of his junior year of college, The Athletichas learned. He’ll be paid $350,000 almost immediately, followed by monthly payouts escalating to more than $2 million per year once he begins his college career, in exchange for making public appearances and taking part in social media promotions and other NIL activities “on behalf of (the collective) or a third party.”

The player is never named but I assume it’s a DE, DT, or QB

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I know they were at Kentucky for the South Carolina game and I believe 1 or 2 others. Should be interesting

** You may remember that we mentioned landing Landyn Watson would likely help UK's chances with Chris Murray, Sam Houston State's defensive lineman, and with Watson on board that is still the vibe I'm getting.

** We told you to pay attention when Bowling Green OL Alex Wollschlaeger when he went into the portal. He visited Indiana and has visited Kentucky. I am now calling for the Wildcats to land Wollschlaeger and believe it's going to happen. Wollschlaeger played 773 snaps for Bowling Green this year and scored 76.6 on PFF (75.3 pass sets, 74.2 run blocking). He scored 64.3 on 62 snaps against Texas A&M early in the season.

** While no offensive commitments are announced yet my belief is Kentucky has things wrapped up with C Evan Wibberley (WKU), OG Joshua Braun (Arkansas), and OT Alex Wollschlaeger.

** Assuming this info is correct, UK just needs one more offensive tackle and should be thought of as having five portal guys wrapped up. It is significant that they have been able to do as much work from the portal as they have on the offensive line in the early part of the process. I thought that was important, to lock up most of your guys there early so you know what you're working with and you aren't waiting and hoping later on.

** Hearing that Illinois TE Henry Boyer is likely to take a visit to Kentucky tomorrow (Monday). Kentucky is likely to take one tight end from the transfer portal. Boyer played 135 snaps for Illinois this year and was a solid run blocker. Didn't get many opportunities in the passing game. He's 6'7, 265 pounds.

** I still think Kentucky has been in contact with Liberty QB Kaiden Salter but am not saying that he is the guy they end up with. Just think it is interesting that contact has been ongoing.

Sorry if I missed any news ... is Wilcox staying? Do we know yet?

I said years ago that I wished some of the “traditional basketball schools” could form a conference. It would make basketball season awesome, and in football, the conference would be extremely competitive pretty much from top to bottom. And we would have a chance to actually WIN the league most years in football (basketball too, obviously).
Take 10 teams…play everybody in football, leaving 3 OOC games…play everybody twice in basketball (18 conference games). So here’s my ten teams:

1-4…UK, Kansas, UNC, Duke…those four are non-negotiable.
5 and 6…Louisville and Indiana…both schools with historically better basketball than football programs, and both traditional rivals for UK.
7-10…this is where it gets harder to choose. But my picks would be Purdue (fairly close at 250 miles from Lexington), Vandy (traditional rival and close for south and western Ky fans), Michigan St (good basketball tradition for the last 25 years) and Illinois (pretty high in all-time basketball win percentage).

Near misses: Syracuse (too far north), UConn (football program is not quite competitive enough), UCLA (too far west)

Now, as I said in the thread title, this is (unfortunately) a hypothetical, a pipe dream, but MAN I think it’d be a fun schedule every year!

Would this be your ten teams? Should we go with 12? Just interested to see what my fellow fans think