2026 Missouri Football Opponent DEEP DIVE: Kentucky Wildcats
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Welcome back to Rock M Nation’s annual opponent preview series of the upcoming season. Each week we will break down one opponent from the schedule in chronological order. Given that rosters are ever fluid – and this is done by a hobbyist rather than a pro – there could be some errors in history and current roster makeup. All mistakes are done on purpose and with ill intent because Nate Edwards doesn’t like you or your team.
Catch up on previous 2026 opponent previews!
Should Missouri fans still be unreasonably fearful of playing tackle football against Kentucky now that Mark Stoops is gone? Or does his specter linger in Lexington forever?
When Missouri joined the SEC in 2012, the common belief was that the Tigers would struggle in football, wipe the floor in basketball, and look to nab annual wins against SEC doormats Vanderbilt and Kentucky while hoping to build up to take down Tennessee, South Carolina, Florida, et al.
What happened instead was the Missouri football hit the ground running – winning two division titles in three years – while basketball struggled to pull away from the middle-bottom of the league AND OH YEAH Missouri was 3-5 against Kentucky from 2012-2020, including a five-year losing streak.
For the longest time Kentucky was the barometer of success in the SEC: if you beat them you were good, if you lost to them you were bad, and the Wildcats played a brand of counter football that took away what you did well on offense and repeatedly pummeled you on defense until you broke. It was ugly but it worked extremely well, leading Mark Stoops to be perpetually renewed in contract while challenging for division titles and sending NFL-caliber defenders into the league.
But whether it be an unimaginative approach in offense, and decaying defensive scheme, a lack of NIL support, or the public bickering with the most important coach on campus, Stoops’ tyrannical run in Lexington finally came to a close last year and, for the first time in 13 years, Kentucky will have a new look to them.
But, first, here’s what Kentucky did last year:
Kentucky played like total garbage six times and lost all six, including a one-score loss to Ole Miss in Week 2 and the absolute detonation at the hands of rival Louisville to close out the year.
The Wildcats also played very well in a one-score loss to Texas, and decently well in a one-score win against Auburn.
But, boy, they beat the ever-loving snot out of Toledo, Eastern Michigan, Tennessee Tech and…uh…Florida.
Mark Stoops seemed to be tempting fate in his public comments on his employment status, seeming to believe that there was no way that Kentucky would pass the pot to raise enough money to fire him. And that might have been correct initially! But you can’t get shut out by your rival while giving up 41 points. People will be motivated to find money in that scenario, and they did!
Coaching Staff
Will Stein – 1st Year – 0-0 (0-0)
Obviously that picture was back when Coach Stein was a walk-on at Louisville. It’s one of the bigger viral moments in the nascent College Football Twitter ecosystem, and you can browse the images from Card Chronicle to see all the fun photoshops (remember that?) that were done with his image.
Early 2010’s memery aside, Coach Stein has only been in coaching for about 13 years yet already has one of the coveted “SEC Head Coach” chairs with his name on it, a feat that’s rare among those in this profession and at that age. Stein worked for his alma mater once he graduated then moved to Texas as a quality control coach before getting a coordinating gig at Texas high school powerhouse Lake Travis. His work there caught the eye of mega-Texas High School Football Coach networker Jeff Traylor at UTSA, and Stein’s development of the Roadrunner receivers landed him the gig at Oregon.
That last move is the big jump, going from G5 position coach to Power 2 coordinator, but obviously the move worked out really well. Oregon might be a self-perpetuating offensive machine at this point but Stein still had access to the gears, and Oregon’s offense ranked 1st, 2nd, and 10th under his tutelage.
Steins youth, knowledge, and – yes – sunny demeanor are going to be looked to as reasons why Kentucky will get steered out of the ditch.
Assistant Staff
My simplest assessment of this staff is simple: I love it.
Start with the coordinators. Joe Sloan has been at LSU for four years, including coaching Jayden Daniels during his Heisman run. Brian Kelly is a garbage person and a bad fit at LSU but his offenses were consistently great, with Sloan having front row seats to all of that work.
Jay Bateman is the new defensive coordinator and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed that guy’s work ever since he was creating matchup headaches at Army. Bateman turned that Army success into roles at North Carolina, Florida, and Texas A&M, but Bateman is at his best when he’s with an underdog program and paired with a funky offense, two boxes which are checked in Lexington.
But then you get two position coaches from UTSA to fill out the rest of the staff (which is where Stein got his start), plus Arkansas’ excellent running backs coach, and an o-line coach from Oregon, one of the best o-line development programs out there. Add in some big name defensive assistants from Ohio State and Texas A&M and you see a great blending of prior success, recruiting chops, and a need to “prove it” from the entire staff. It’s a perfect blend for a program like Kentucky.
Roster Movement
In comes a new coach, out go all the players for the roster that got the previous guy fired. In this case, 26 portal defections isn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be, but you are seeing multiple losses at every position, plus a long snapper. And they aren’t all transferring downs, as 15 of them transferred laterally to peer programs or upwards to blue bloods.
The good news, then, is that Kentucky absolutely crushed it in the portal acquisition game, reeling in the 11th best portal class in the nation. Kenny Minchey from Notre Dame and Lance Heard from Tennessee are the big names, but the roster is littered with defectors from programs like Ohio State, Florida, LSU, Texas, Oklahoma, Notre Dame…you know, those high tier schools.
Also, former Missouri cornerback Mark Manfred III transferred to Kentucky. Boo, sir. Boo.
Of course, the immediate portal success is there to salve the lackluster high school recruiting class that ranked 59th in the nation and dead last in the SEC. There are some interesting pieces in here – including blue chip quarterback Matt Ponatoski – but, for the most part, the banner roster additions for Kentucky will be portal side.
Offense
Last year’s Kentucky offense was awful. 81st in the nation, to be exact. And they ranked 60th or worse in every major category except running the ball, in which they were 33rd. They were neither efficient (63rd) nor explosive (125th) which is probably why the Kentucky brain trust hired the explosive-minded Stein to take over. The Duck offense was consistently elite under Stein, but even his “worst” offense ranked 10th overall, 13th in efficiency, and a health 22nd in explosiveness. Stein’s offenses like to have the quarterback make safe, efficient throws with a high completion rate while also peppering in plenty of deep shots (11th in percentage of completions of 20+ yards). The Duck ground game was also formidable, ranking 16th in 2025 and being a solid source of explosions as well. Granted, Kentucky’s roster is not Oregon’s roster but the scheme and approach should be the same: find a veteran quarterback who has good accuracy and likes deep shots and add in some explosive-oriented running backs to run through the holes that a mauling offensive line creates. Simples in theory, tough in execution, but I like what I see so far.
Quarterback
Kenny Minchey narrowly lost the Notre Dame quarterback battle last year, and has only thrown 29 passes in his three year career, so this certainly isn’t some proven, experienced guy. But the talent is there and respected given the alleged hefty price tag tied to his services. Minchey is the clear QB1 despite never starting a game and his acclimation to the Stein offense will go a long way to overall offensive effectiveness.
Running Backs
The keyword to the Wildcats stable of running backs: potential. Jason Patterson has talent but never had enough carries to prove anything. Former Texas Longhorn C.J. Baxter and Oklahoma Sooner Jovantae Barnes had high recruiting rankings and flashed a ton of talent but couldn’t stay healthy enough to make an impact. Between those three the Wildcats should be able to find an effective primary back; the question, then, is if there’s enough to have some depth behind the guy who earns the primary load of carries.
Receivers
Shane Carr was a dynamo at Southern Utah, but will be in his first year of FBS competition. Willie Rodriguez was effective as hell from the tight end position but his catch rates were lackluster. Much like the running backs, former LSU Tiger Nic Anderson has one of the highest talent ceilings on the team but struggled with injury last year. Again, Stein portalled in talent that should electrify on paper but needs to be seen in real life to be legitimately recognized.
Offensive Line
If you heard anything about Kentucky’s portal prowess it was probably from the o-line group. Pilfering prized recruit/portal entrant Lance Heard was won of the biggest coups of the portal season, and every other o-line addition was a guy who had a higher portal ranking than high school ranking. Alabama, Tennessee, and Ohio State all lost players to 5-7 Kentucky. KENTUCKY.
Defense
Mark Stoops always had a great-to-elite defense to back up whatever type of crummy offense he rolled out, but last year was the worst defense he constructed since 2017 and, subsequently, Kentucky lost 7 games and Stoops was shown the door.
For however bad the defense was, there certainly wasn’t a lack of talent, highlighted by the fact that Stein and DC Jay Bateman actively worked to keep some key defenders from last year’s squad, including exquisitely named Mi’Quise Humphrey-Grace, plus linemen Tavion Gadson and Sam Greene, plus linebacker Grant Godfrey and Terhyon Nichols.
The biggest issue with Kentucky’s defense last year was a rash of injuries that ransacked the defensive secondary, forcing younger guys – who were not ready – to step up and play. They were subsequently burned frequently but that can be viewed as a parting gift, with a crop of experienced (and maybe unwanted?) young defensive backs to set as a foundation to build around. Or, at least, that’s how I view it given that the portal additions were mostly focused around potential over production.
Florida defectors Jordan Casteel and Aaron Gates will add some excellent depth to the safeties, as will the call up of Western Carolina corner Hasaan Sykes. As has been the case with most of my assessment of this team, I like a lot of what they’re bringing in, and if it clicks together it could be incredibly effective.
So what does it all mean?
This is the second-to-last game for both Missouri and Kentucky, and it’ll be at Columbia on November 21st. What will both teams be playing for at that point? And how bumpy has the road been to that point? So much of the nightmarish Kentucky losing streak of the late teens was driven by the fact that Kentucky was the gatekeeper of SEC mediocrity, beating bad SEC teams and losing to good ones and Barry Odom’s Missouri squads could never be better than mediocre.
But that’s ground-and-pound offense paired with a devastating defense will most likely not be representative of this iteration of Kentucky football, and there’s so much “newness” across the board that it’s hard to get a read on what’s going to happen. In theory it should work, but when has theory ever been the driving factor of college sports?
Add to that, Kentucky will have just played Tennessee and Florida before hitting the road to Columbia, while Missouri will be in the middle of its brutal closing streak of Texas, Georgia, Kentucky, and Oklahoma.
I rarely know how things will go but I really don’t know what these two teams will look like when we get here. It’ll be exciting to see how the Stein rebuild goes and if Drinkwitz can nab another win against one of the more surprisingly difficult SEC opponents for Mizzou.
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