Early Kentucky Football Preview: Miami (OH)

Greetings, BBN!

As we wait for the start of the 2022 Kentucky Wildcats football season, now’s a great time to look at the upcoming schedule and scout the opponents. This week, we start with Miami (OH) at Kroger Field. September 3rd can’t come soon enough.

Let’s get started!

When: September 3rd

Where: Kroger Field

All-Time Series: UK leads 8-4-1

The ‘Cats last played the RedHawks in 2013, winning 41-7 at home in Coach Stoops’s very first win and second game. The first five games the teams played against each other UK won—in the 1890s, 1900s, and 1910s. Sometimes I forget football still existed back then. They lost in 1912, 1920, 1974, and 1979, and tied in 1917. Everybody’s forgotten about those games though so let’s just focus on UK’s 2013 win and their 42-0 win in 2009 with Rich Brooks.

The RedHawks were not great last season but were able to fight their way to a bowl bid with a 6-6 record and beat North Texas in the Frisco Bowl for a 7-6 winning record, so they’ll be coming into this season with a bit of momentum. They definitely are not a pushover in the MAC so UK can’t come into this thinking that the team stinks and will just roll over after the first quarter. This will be a great chance for the ‘Cats to get warmed up before getting into the SEC, and is kind of a cool team to schedule since this was the very first team UK beat with Stoops.

Since then, they’ve won 58 more and a win on September 3rd will get him to 59—one shy of Bear Bryant’s 60. All UK needs is a 3-0 start and Stoops will have the record before students even take their first calc exams.

A win in this opener would also make Kentucky 6-3 in openers under Stoops and be their 17th consecutive non-conference win (the last time they lost to a non-conference foe was the Music City Bowl against Northwestern. They actually hold the record for that right now, which they were sharing with Iowa until beating them on New Year’s.

Prediction: It’ll probably be a nice, sunny noon game and the ‘Cats should win big behind four touchdowns from Will Levis. ‘Cats win 42-7 and get tuned up for a big one at Florida.