When college football magazines start popping up in grocery and book stores or websites you know the season isn't far away.
We're just about two months from the start of the 2021 season and those publications have been on the shelves for days or weeks in some cases.
Last year that industry had a rough go of it, due to COVID-19 unpredictability that revamped schedules, caused players to opt-out, and made for perhaps the most peculiar season any of us have witnessed.
This year, we all hope, is more conventional. And if it is, those publications might prove to be more valuable as reading aides with predictive powers.
Here's a look at what three preseason publications have to say about the Wildcats.
ATHLON
Athlon ranks Kentucky 35th in the country, which is one spot behind SEC East foe Missouri. That means the publication predicts Kentucky will finish fourth in the East, also behind UGA (No. 5) and Florida (No. 11). It also predicts that Kentucky will finish 7-5 overall and 3-5 in SEC play. As a point of reference, it predicts UGA will finish 11-2 (the "2" includes an SEC title game loss against Alabama), Florida 9-3, and Missouri 8-4.
Offensive tackle Darian Kinnard is a first team All-American. Defensive lineman Josh Paschal is a second team All-SEC choice and Athlon also includes Chris Rodriguez (2nd team), Luke Fortner (3rd team), and Yusuf Corker (3rd) among those honored on preseason teams across the league.
Athlon rates all of the SEC's position units against one another, 1 through 14, and that sheds a little more light on how the magazine's writers and editors feel about UK. The only position unit ranked toward the top of the SEC is the offensive line, which ranks 5th. Athlon has UK's linebackers and running backs as middle of the pack (7th) but everything else is in the bottom tier, including quarterback, which is 13th and ahead of only South Carolina.
In the team write-up section true freshman receiver Christian Lewis is identified as the program's "rising star", which seems a bit premature.
One of the most interesting sections is an extended comment from an anonymous opposing coach, who seems to have an inflated opinion of Kentucky's pass rush but gives the very nice review that Kentucky may be the most "steady" program in the Southeastern Conference, which he attributes to smart recruiting and quality development.
LINDY'S
Lindy's has Kentucky a touch lower in the preseason ranks than does Athlon, with the former placing the Wildcats No. 47 in its 1-130 poll. That means it has Kentucky fourth in the SEC East behind UGA, UF, and Missouri, which are ranked very similar to how Athlon has them in its national poll.
Lindy's does not rank Darian Kinnard among the top-10 draft eligible offensive tackles for the 2022 draft class. However, Lindy's does have Kinnard as a preseason second team All-American and ranks him as the No. 3 offensive tackle for the upcoming college football season. The reason for Kinnard's absence on its draft watch list is not clear.
The magazine ranks Chris Rodriguez the No. 18 running back nationally. It also has Wan'Dale Robinson as the No. 3 all-purpose player. Lindy's has Rodriguez as a third team All-SEC choice.
In spite of what appears to be a very manageable schedule in Lindy's SEC preview section the publication states that UK's ceiling appears to be seven wins.
Lindy's identifies the 25 biggest games of the college football season featuring SEC teams and Kentucky is not in any of them.
PHIL STEELE
Phil Steele's publication presents significantly more history, words, and data angles than the other magazines on this list.
He ranks Chris Rodriguez as the No. 15 draft eligible running back nationally, Wan'Dale Robinson as the No. 68 receiver, Darian Kinnard as the No. 2 guard, Josh Paschal as the No. 37 defensive end, Marquan McCall the No. 41 defensive tackle, DeAndre Square the No. 62 outside linebacker, Jordan Wright the No. 68 outside linebacker, and Yusuf Corker the No. 10 free safety.
Kinnard is a second team All-American but he is the only Wildcat on Steele's first four All-American teams.
In spite of having Rodriguez, JuTahn McClain, and La'Vell Wright, Kentucky's running backs are not one of Steele's top 58 units at that position nationally, which is a bit of a surprise. Steele does give UK the No. 55 receiver unit, the No. 50 offensive line, the No. 38 defensive line, and the No. 31 secondary.
Steele says Kentucky faces the 84th-most difficult schedule, which would be the easiest schedule in the SEC by a wide margin according to his rankings. That is a welcome change after the Wildcats faced the 9th most difficult schedule in 2020, according to Steele's rankings.
One reason Steele does not seem to be very high on Kentucky going into 2021 is his experience chart. However he measures experience, Steele has Kentucky as the seventh-least experienced team in college football going into the season. Also working against Kentucky — and this is very specific to Steele because of his "Turnovers = Turnaround" theory (Steele believes that turnovers are largely flukish or just unpredictable, and if a team benefits from a huge turnover margin one year they are likely to not enjoy that again the next season; and that margin might have made last year's team appear better than it really was) — UK was +10 in turnover margin last year so that probably penalizes the Cats according to Steele.
Phil Steele's plus/minus power ratings have Kentucky as the third-best team in the SEC East, just a small tick above Missouri, and he actually predicts UK to finish third in the East himself. And in spite of the above "evidence" working against UK he puts the Cats on his most improved teams list largely because of the much easier schedule.
