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Kentucky vs Ball State: TV/Streaming Info, Keys to the Game, and Predictions

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Kentucky Wildcat football team celebrating in the endzone at Kroger Field.
UK Athletics

The last time the Kentucky Wildcats played on the football field, they put on a dismal showing against Iowa, losing in a 21-0 shutout in the Music City Bowl. That capped off what was overall a disappointing season, especially on the offensive side of the ball.

After nine long months, the Wildcats will have an opportunity to put a much better product on the field this season, starting with the Ball State Cardinals this Saturday.

Both teams are coming off of seasons that didn’t end well, losing four of their last six games, and are looking to improve this season. However, Kentucky has a clear talent advantage, which is why they are favored by nearly four touchdowns.

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Given this is Week 1, there is a lot to be seen from each team. With that said, let’s preview the matchup.

Big Offensive Day

Bringing back Liam Coen as offensive coordinator, Kentucky is looking to rebuild an offense that finished last in the SEC a season ago. Combine Coen’s (re)addition with an overhauled offensive line, running back depth, a top transfer quarterback, and arguably the best-receiving core of the Mark Stoops era, and they are expected to do just that.

Looking at Ball State’s defense, they were average last season, ranking 70th in team defense and giving up nearly 400 yards per game. They do return a lot up front and have one of the best 1-2 linebackers punches in the MAC, in Clayton Coll and Cole Pearce. However, they did lose three pieces from the secondary to the NFL.

Given the level of competition, don’t expect to see Coen open up the playbook much, but there are a lot of new pieces, and there is a need to establish a foundation in a game. Look for players like Izayah Cummings and Tayvion Robinson, who are here to play for Coen, to get some targets early and get comfortable.

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Also, this will be the first year since 2015 that there is no Chris Rodriguez Jr. or Benny Snell in the Kentucky backfield. The Wildcats do have depth and versatility at RB, highlighted by Vanderbilt transfer Ray Davis and NC State transfer Demie Sumo-Karngbaye.

Kentucky is also hoping to get good production out of fourth-year back JuTahn McClain and sixth-year back Ramon Jefferson coming off his ACL Tear.

Has the Offensive Line Improved?

One of the biggest questions for Kentucky Football coming into the season is, how improved is the offensive line? Allowing 47 sacks last year, 5th most in the FBS, the Wildcats clearly needed an overhaul, and they used the transfer portal to do just that. Bringing in five offensive linemen, headlined by OT Marques Cox, things should be better, but they have yet to be tested.

As said above, Ball State has experience on their D-line, returning every starter. The Cardinals will be at a size disadvantage, but they will be solid and should give Kentucky a baseline. Especially when considering Kentucky’s O-line struggles against inferior opponents early last season.

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Set the Tone for the Season

Last year, Kentucky entered the season ranked in the AP Top 25 for the first time since 1978. The Wildcats were able to rise as high as 7th in the polls before injuries started to take a toll, which was compounded by scheme issues, specifically on offense.

This year, Mark Stoops and Co. are returning to much familiar territory, outside the Top 25, and have reestablished themselves in the “underdog” spot. At SEC Media Days, Kentucky was a team that was not talked about much, positively or negatively. Things have picked up of late in the eyes of some national analysts, such as Kirk Herbstreit and Josh Pate, who are expecting good things from the Wildcats.

Favored by 26.5 points, there are not a lot of expectations for Saturday. That said, with a fanbase hungry for positivity, if Kentucky can come out with a dominant and fun performance, they can capture the attention early and set the tone for the season. That will be needed with home games against the likes of Alabama, Florida, and Tennessee on the schedule.

Kentucky Wildcats (0-0) vs. Ball State Cardinals (0-0)

Time/Date: 12:00 pm ET on Saturday, September 2nd, 2023
Location: Kroger Field in Lexington, Kentucky.
TV Channel: SEC Network
Online Stream: WatchESPNESPN+, SEC Network+, or the ESPN app.
Radio: Tom Leach and Jeff Piecoro have the UK radio network call on the UK Sports Radio Network.
Replay: WatchESPN and SEC Network (check local listings).
Rosters: UK | BSU

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Odds: The DraftKings Sportsbook has Kentucky as a heavy 26.5-point favorite. ESPN’s matchup predictor has all the confidence in the Cats, giving them a 91.6% chance to win.

PredictionsTeamRankings has Kentucky coming away with a 38-10 win.

Also published on A Sea of Blue.

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Jamon Dumas-Johnson: A NFL Draft Steal

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Kentucky Wildcats linebacker Jamon Dumas-Johnson (2) makes the sign of the cross while taking a knee before the game.
Carter Skaggs | Imagn

Before he transferred to Kentucky, Jamon Dumas-Johnson was an All-American at Georgia, with waves to at least test the NFL draft after winning a National Championship. However, with the decision to play his last collegiate season as a Wildcat, Dumas-Johnson was a cornerstone piece for the Kentucky defense, finishing the season with 7.5 tackles for loss and 3.5 sacks during his 11 starts for the team. 

His athleticism spoke volumes at Kentucky football’s NFL pro day, where current NFL draft boards now list the linebacker as one of the best athletes at the position and has earned himself a “top 10” feel ahead of the draft. Before pro day, publications such as Bleacher Report had him listed as No. 13 at his position. 

Dumas-Johnson proved himself with the highest vertical jump (37.5) and the longest broad jump (10.60) out of the Wildcats who competed in said events, and ran an impressive best 4.50 40-yard dash. At 245 pounds, he also managed to press 16 reps of 225, which could technically be “better” compared to NFL standards, but is impressive nonetheless in hindsight.

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At 23 years old, this linebacker exploits explosiveness, agility and can hawk down any playmaker on the field. Out the 31 NFL teams that attended the event (a Cleveland Browns representative did not attend), one will be getting a prize steal of the draft with Dumas-Johnson. 

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Alex Raynor: A Rare Gem In This Year’s NFL Draft

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Kentucky Wildcats place kicker Alex Raynor (16) lines up a kick.
Jordan Prather | Imagn

Alex Raynor had an illustrious season for Kentucky last year, being named to First-Team All-SEC, as a finalist for the Lou Groza award and as SEC Special Teams Player of the Year.

As the record holder for the longest field goal in program history, and arguably one of, if not the, most consistent kickers to ever be a Wildcat, Raynor now looks to the NFL Draft in the next chapter of his book. 

Recently, at Kentucky football’s NFL Pro Day on Tuesday, March 11, Raynor kicked off the event with his workout. 

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Although he would miss a routine kick for him inside of the 45, he would continue to move back, nailing a 55-yard kick and nearly making a 60-yard kick. 

The best moments of his workout came when Raynor would line up behind the UK logo inside of Nutter Field House and would nail a 65-yard field goal.

That, although it’s an indoor kick and is not faced with the NFL pressure, would be one of the longest field goals in NFL history. 

Historically, it’s extremely rare for kickers to be drafted any higher than the 6th, more commonly going in the late rounds on the third day. 

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However, Raynor would hold as one of the rare occasions to go higher than projected, due to his historic year as a Wildcat.

Wherever the young man from Georgia ends up in the pros, don’t be surprised if you hear his name every reoccurring Sunday.

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The State of Kentucky Football

Following their worst season in nearly a decade, Kentucky Football faces a steep rebuild and rising expectations.

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Kentucky football coach Mark Stoops has been linked to the Texas A&M job.
Chet White | UK Athletics

After charting a 4-8 record in the 2023-24 season, including a 1-7, second-to-last finish in the SEC, Kentucky Football looks lost for the first time in a long time.

It can be argued that the program never really broke through to the “higher echelon” of college football in the first place, but even then, they’ve been consistently better than they were historically known to be. Until now.

With that aforementioned .333 record, the Cats weren’t able to earn a bowl game. That marks the first time since the 2015 season that Kentucky Football won’t appear in postseason competition, and, excluding the 2020 season (for COVID-related reasons,) it’s also the only time the Wildcats have finished under .500 since then.

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What about the last time the team had less than five wins? 2013, in Stoops’ first season. The deeper you dig, the worse it appears.

Losing to Louisville in blowout fashion at the end of last month felt like the straw that broke the Cats’ back. It was clear that whatever would happen next wouldn’t be simply transitional, and thus far, the early offseason has evidenced that.

The Big Move

It began with an exodus. Star wideout Barion Brown elected to transfer to LSU for his senior season. His receiver running mate, Dane Key, left for Nebraska. In addition to the team’s two primary deep threats, Chip Trayanum, the promising back and former Buckeye who spent much of this year battling injuries, took his talents to Toledo.

In total, the Cats have lost nearly two dozen players to the transfer portal, and that’s not even counting the guys headed to the NFL draft (like Deone Walker and Maxwell Hairston,) as well as the graduates.

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To put it bluntly, next year’s team will share little more with the players from this past season than the blue and white on their jerseys. It’s a brutal overhaul, though one Coach Stoops and his staff are trying to get the jump on, to their credit.

Fresh Faces

Among a growing list of incoming transfers, a few names in particular stand out. Chief among them is Zach Calzada, a quarterback whose upcoming season at Kentucky will mark his fifth year playing football in his third different jersey.

The journeyman spent this past season at Incarnate Word, where he threw for 35 touchdowns and only nine interceptions. He completed 344 passes on the year, almost doubling that of his previous two. 

Before his two-year stint at IW, Calzada spent the beginnings of his college career at Texas A&M where, among a mixture of steadily improving statistics, he led the Aggies to an impressive home win over the still Saban-led Alabama Crimson Tide. Whether or not his recent success in the Southland Conference will translate back to the SEC is yet to be seen, but, at least on paper, this pickup makes sense for Kentucky following a year of unsparing QB play across the board.

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Along with Calzada, the Cats have hauled in J.J. Hester, a 6 ‘4 senior receiver from Oklahoma, Dante Dowdell, a power back coming off a 12-touchdown season for Nebraska, and Sam Greene, a defensive end transferring in from USC, among a handful of others. We’ll have a team. 

Though, even considering the roster turnover, that wasn’t the question. That still remains, “what will that team do?”

Potential vs. Progress

Kentucky is 18-25 in their last three seasons of football; a steady decline that has been made worse by the fact that the program’s outlier 10-3 finish in the 2021 season has since been disqualified by the NCAA due to a rule violation. All in all, the last half-decade has been, at best, barely getting by.

How long will this trend continue? The only thing we know for sure is that nobody is sure. Answering that question requires the analysis and knowing of many moving parts, not all of which are at widespread disposal.

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But this much is clear: the longtime variable nature of Kentucky Football came to a head this year, and the product we’re about to see is going to have to be radically different from the one we’ve just seen in order to right this ship.

For better or worse, the 2024-25 season will likely go down as the most important yet in the Stoops era at UK.

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