Kentucky Wildcats News: Youngstown State Game Week Arrives

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Sep 3, 2022; Lexington, Kentucky, USA; Kentucky Wildcats fans sing along to “My Old Kentucky Home, Goodnight” before the game against the Miami (Oh) Redhawks at Kroger Field. Mandatory Credit: Jordan Prather-USA TODAY Sports

Following Week Zero of College Football, the Southeastern Conference is ready to begin its season with the Kentucky Wildcats hosting Youngstown State on Saturday afternoon.

The new-look Wildcats have plenty of new faces with the most impactful being head coach Will Stein.

Coming to Kentucky from Oregon as a former offensive coordinator for the Ducks, he is set to lead the Wildcats in a new direction and turn the program around from a pretty ugly stretch over the last few seasons.

Notre Dame transfer quarterback Kenny Minchey will join Stein in executing the Kentucky offense as one of eight projected new starters on offense — all from the transfer portal. A lot of departures for the NFL draft and the transfer portal made a lot of room for Stein to find “his guys” with all signs pointing to him indeed making the most of that opportunity.

On the defensive side of the ball, Kentucky has much more continuity with that unit coming into the season, as there are only four portal players set to be projected starters.

Kentucky’s opponent — Youngstown State — comes into the game as a sizable underdog with ESPN’s Football Power Index giving the Penguins a mere five percent chance of victory.

The current odds, according to DraftKings, have Kentucky as 23.5-point favorites.

This year’s schedule is quite a tough road for the Wildcats, as they host the No. 13 Alabama Crimson Tide next week and a matchup at No. 8 Texas A&M the following week. They’ll have a favorable matchup against South Alabama before a daunting stretch of going to South Carolina (a sleeper team in the SEC this fall), then back-to-back matchups against No. 11 LSU and at No. 10 Oklahoma.

Kentucky will then host Vanderbilt, travel to No. 20 Tennessee, host Florida and go to No. 25 Missouri before their regular season finale at home against Louisville.

There aren’t many “cupcake” games on the schedule this year. Saturday’s game will be an excellent opportunity for Kentucky to showcase what all Stein and his staff have put together this offseason.

Kickoff is scheduled for 1 PM ET with coverage on SEC Network Plus.