Week 1 of the college football season does not always provide fans from the Power 5 conferences an opportunity to see their favorite team tested.
Kentucky could be one of the exceptions on Saturday at Kroger Field as the Wildcats play host to Toledo, one of the preseason favorites in the Mid-American Conference.
"It's good for us to play an opponent like Toledo because they're a very good football program," UK head coach Mark Stoops said Monday during his weekly press luncheon. "They're used to winning football games.
"If you watch the MAC, you've got to have great respect for (the conference) because they're always very well-coached. They're not going to beat themselves."
Toledo has posted five consecutive winning seasons, including a 7-6 mark in 2018 that culminated with a 35-32 loss to Florida International in the Bahamas Bowl.
The Rockets featured the No. 9 scoring offense in college football last season, averaging 40.4 points per game.
"They're balanced offensively," Stoops said. "They can run and throw. Extremely explosive a year ago."
Toledo features a pair of experienced quarterbacks in pocket-oriented Eli Peters (1,837 yards passing, 18 TD/7 INT) and dual-threat Mitchell Guadagni (1,053 yards passing, 13 TD; 428 yards rushing, 3 TD). Peters started his career in the Big Ten with Illinois before transferring to Toledo.
In the backfield, the Rockets have a face familiar to UK. Former Wildcat Bryant Koback rushed for 917 yards and led the MAC with 14 rushing touchdowns last year as a redshirt freshman.
"He's a good football player," Stoops said of Koback.
Toledo is no stranger to playing P5 teams early in the season. The Rockets have played one such opponent in each of the last five years, including SEC teams in 2014 and 2015. They lost 49-24 at Missouri in 2014 but upset 21-point favorite Arkansas, 16-12, in 2015 en route to a 10-2 season.
The Rockets lost a 55-53 shootout at BYU in 2016, and lost a pair of games to ranked Miami Hurricanes teams (52-30 and 49-24) each of the past two years.
More often than not, Toledo comes in ready to score points against anyone, and UK will be putting a completely revamped secondary on the field Saturday. The depth chart released Monday included only one senior, strong safety Jordan Griffin, flanked by freshman Jamari Brown and sophomores Cedrick Dort, Yusef Corker, and Tyrell Ajian.
Asked if he thinks the young defensive backs will be tested early and often, Stoops said, "I'm sure. I would think so. But (the Rockets) do that anyway... That's nothing new for them."
Stoops expects his team to be fired up to play its first game, but he also warns against being too emotional, too early.
He only needs to remind the Cats of the infamous 2016 opener, a game in which UK stormed out to a 35-10 lead late in the second quarter only to see the Golden Eagles score 34 unanswered points to stun the crowd at Kroger Field.
"We learn the best from mistakes a lot of times," Stoops said. "There's been openers here before -- you go back to Southern Miss -- and our team, just overly excited, come out and play fantastic in the first half, and I think they just left it there, left it in the locker room.
"That's part of it, just handling the emotions, especially guys who haven't played much. Some of the older guys who have played a lot of football understand that and how to harness that and contain themselves, but guys who haven't played a lot -- and we're counting on them in large roles this week -- that is hard, just emotionally, handling the opener."
As of Monday, Kentucky was an 11.5-point favorite over Toledo.
