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Published May 7, 2019
Take Two: Should Kentucky be ranked in the preseason?
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Justin Rowland  •  CatsIllustrated
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A recent slew of way too early top 25 college football rankings following spring football have prompted some Kentucky fans to ask whether the Wildcats ought to be ranked going into the 2019 season.

It's an interesting question because Kentucky loses some key pieces from last year's team but returns significant numbers as well.

In this Cats Illustrated feature, Travis Graf and Justin Rowland share different takes.

Travis Graf: Kentucky should be ranked in the 20 to 25 range. The general public sees Kentucky as a one hit wonder and “they’ll never be able to repeat the miracle year they had last year”. While I don’t expect the Cats to be as good as they were last season, they’ll still have a successful year and potentially the same record with a much easier 2019 slate. Unless you really keep up with Kentucky, it would be easy to fall into the lazy take category of “they lost so much talent, they’ll go back to the old Kentucky”. This isn’t the Kentucky of old. Mark Stoops has built a program that now has the luxury of redshirting quality players and those players are now waiting in the wings and are ready to take over this season. The talent on the roster is better than a lot of teams listed in twenties of early preseason polls (South Carolina, Tennessee, Nebraska).

While I do expect Kentucky to take a little dip on the defensive side of the ball, the offense should be much improved and more versatile. Terry Wilson and the receiving corps should be better and I expect them to win the Cats a few games where they depended on other areas last season. The stable of running backs in the Kentucky backfield can attack you in many different ways. The defensive line will be one of the top lines in the SEC and the linebacker corps should be on par production wise with the 2018 squad, outside of replacing Josh Allen by committee. There’s a lot to like about this team.

Justin Rowland: If the poll were a top 35 or a top 40 then I would definitely have Kentucky ranked. And I realize this very well could prove to be a top 25 team. I would probably have them just outside the top 25 to start the season however. I do believe there are major questions that need to be answered on the defensive side of the ball. There is absolutely the talent present on the front seven for Kentucky's defense to be better than a lot of pundits probably expect it to be. I'd just take a "wait and see" approach since the defense was really the main reason the Wildcats were what they were a season ago.

I think a lot of the frustration from Kentucky fans comes from seeing teams like South Carolina or even Tennessee ranked in some 'way too early' top 25 polls. Tennessee hasn't proven anything and South Carolina has lost to Kentucky five years in a row. I understand Missouri more, because they return a lot and add a proven solid quarterback to a good all around situation. My prediction for Kentucky this year will be seven or eight wins with a shot at nine but given that you lose the best back in program history, a huge part of the blocking that paved the way for him (CJ Conrad and the right side of the line), both starting outside receivers and a ton on defense, there is no shame in saying you want to see what the post-Snell, post-Allen era looks like before ranking them.

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