In recent years I've made a habit of previewing and reviewing college football action around the SEC and the rest of the country, but from a point of view that keeps it relevant to your Kentucky Wildcats.
Though it's hard to believe, college football is upon us.
Week 0 Preview
Austin Peay at Western Kentucky
Ordinarily Austin Peay-Western Kentucky wouldn't be a notable game for those teams outside of the fan bases with a rooting interest involved, but on Saturday at high noon this is the first college football game of the season.
We don't know what to expect from the Hilltopper offense going into Tyson Helton's fourth season with WKU. Last year Bailey Zappe put up otherworldly numbers (475/687, 5,967 yards, 62 touchdowns, 11 interceptions) en route to a 9-5 record, which included a 59-38 win against App State in the Boca Raton Bowl.
Nebraska vs Northwestern (Dublin, Ireland)
Here's another novelty matchup. It's the second game of the season by our eastern time zone listing (12:30 p.m. Saturday) but takes place in Dublin, Ireland, and Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald has said that his family history makes the game especially meaningful for him.
Nebraska was very close to be an interesting team for Scott Frost last year. While Nebraska finished 309, their fourth straight losing season to start the Frost era, games were close. Nebraska lost eight games by a single possession and only lost to Ohio State 26-17. Six of those losses were to teams ranked in the top-20 nationally.
A big part of that was the Husker defense, which allowed 22.7 points per game. That number might be tough to match this year but Casey Thompson transfers in from Texas at quarterback to improve the offense.
While Fitzgerald is a legend at Northwestern, the Wildcats are not going through their greatest period of success under his watch. They have two losing seasons in the last three years and four losing years in the last nine. Northwestern was 3-9 last season and offense has been an ongoing issue for some time.
Neither team is expected to win the Big Ten West but if Nebraska wins it could be 3-0 with Oklahoma coming to Lincoln on Sept. 17.
Wyoming at Illinois
As you can tell, for Week 0 we're scraping the bottom of the barrel here, but it's football.
Bret Bielema made some noise in his re-entry into the Big Ten last season, getting the Illini to 5-7 and nearly into a bowl game. As was true for Nebraska, Illinois was competitive in many of its losses and had a shocking 9 overtime win against No. 7 Penn State on the road.
Quarterback Tommy DeVito transfers in from Syracuse to work on an offense that wasn't a problem for opponents (20.2 PPG, 330 YPG). That offense should still be a work in progress.
Wyoming has played well on the road under Craig Bohl recently but replaces a lot on both sides of the ball.
Duquesne at Florida State
Keeping this Kentucky-centric, anytime we're talking about Florida State we can't forget about Mark Stoops' ties there. Stoops has often been mentioned as a possible coach at Florida State, whenever the job has been open, and that will probably always be the case as long as he's active and relatively youthful in the profession.
Also, Kentucky has recruited quite a bit against the Seminoles in this recruiting class. UK and FSU have gone back and forth recruiting defensive backs, and their fortunes on the field could be tied to UK's future recruiting battles, or maybe even some that already appear settled.
FSU has not been relevant since it won a national championship with Jimbo Fisher and Jameis Winston.
There were good and bad signs last year. FSU only went 6-7 compared to 5-7 in Mike Norvell's first year but Jordan Travis returns at quarterback and the offense should be better. The defense took a significant step forward last year, but the Noles still lost to Jacksonville State. By the end of the season Florida State was at least not a punchline with competitive games against Clemson, NC State, and a Florida team that had all but checked out and wins against Miami and Boston College.
Nobody seems to think Florida State is "back" but how much of a step forward will this season be?
Vanderbilt at Hawaii
The Commodores are the only 2022 Kentucky football opponent that is in action during Week 0 games. Whatever happens between Vandy and Hawaii, this is going to remain a game that is an expected win for the Wildcats. This series has been lopsided in UK's favor since Mark Stoops got things going a few years ago.
Clark Lea did not have much positive to say about last season at SEC Media Days, beyond it being a learning experience and an opportunity to respond to adversity this year. Things can't possibly be much worse than they were for a team that lost to Georgia and Florida by a margin of 104-0, and which only had one loss that was by a single possession.
There are a lot of guaranteed losses baked into this schedule and a bowl seems like a very tall order, but Vandy does return a fair number of starters so improvement will what we watch for.
