Know Your Foe: Oklahoma Sooners vs. Kentucky Wildcats
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The Oklahoma Sooners are back at home in Week 7. An uneven start to the season saw OU beat UTEP, but lose to Michigan. Then the Sooners topped New Mexico but lost to Georgia on the road in Athens. After the bye week, Oklahoma got a thrilling win over Texas, and the Sooners now sit at 3-2 overall and 1-1 in SEC play.
Head coach Brent Venables and his team have turned their attention to the SEC home opener against the upstart Kentucky Wildcats in Norman. Kentucky went 5-7 last season, winning just two conference games and missing a bowl game. That led to the Wildcats firing longtime head coach Mark Stoops and making a change at the top.
Head coach Will Stein is in his first season at Kentucky, after most recently serving as the offensive coordinator at Oregon. It's his first stint as a head coach, but he was very successful in his three seasons with the Ducks, who hired him after three seasons at UTSA.
Kentucky is 5-1 overall and 3-1 in SEC play. After a season-opening win over Youngstown State (45-13), the 'Cats fell at the hands of Alabama (45-17). Stein's team has followed that up with four straight wins, knocking off Texas A&M (31-21), South Alabama (45-21), South Carolina (35-34), and LSU (35-34). Kentucky's two most recent wins came in overtime, when Stein went for a two-point conversion and put the game on the line. It's worked both times.
Joe Sloan is Kentucky's offensive coordinator and play-caller, and he'll be matched up with Venables on the opposing sidelines calling OU's defense. Sloan most recently spent four seasons at LSU under former head coach Brian Kelly, serving as offensive coordinator for the 2024 and 2025 seasons after serving as quarterbacks coach his first two years. However, he was fired when Kelly was fired, and he's landed back on his feet in Lexington.
With Stein's offensive background, the Wildcats will do a lot of what he likes on the offensive side of the ball, even if he's not the one calling the plays. Starting quarterback Kenny Minchey, a transfer from Notre Dame, has been a good get for Kentucky, and he leads a very solid offense. Minchey has completed 67.4% of his passes for 1,394 yards, 11 touchdowns, and just one interception.
However, the Wildcats' biggest offensive strength is their offensive line, one of the best in the SEC. That unit has been the secret sauce behind Kentucky becoming one of the surprises of the season in college football.
At the skill positions, lead running back C.J. Baxter's injury status for this week is currently up in the air, so the Sooners could see a heavy dose of Jason Patterson in the backfield instead. Patterson is averaging 7.7 yards per carry and has run for 361 yards and three touchdowns this season.
The 'Cats have a young star in wide receiver Kenny Darby, who is their leading receiver. Tight end Willie Rodriguez is one of Kentucky's best players, and fellow tight end Henry Boyer already has three touchdown catches this season.
On the other side of the ball, Oklahoma offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle will face off against Kentucky defensive coordinator Jay Bateman. Bateman most recently served as defensive coordinator at Texas A&M under head coach Mike Elko, but he now has full control of the defense in Lexington. He's an experienced coach who has been in the SEC since 2022.
Linebacker Grant Godfrey is Kentucky's leading tackler, and he also has two sacks this year. Defensive backs Jordan Castell and Ty Bryant have three combined interceptions this season. Defensive lineman Mi'Quise Humphrey-Grace leads the Wildcats with 2.5 sacks. This unit isn't as statistically strong as some of the others the Sooners have faced so far this season, but they'll still look to rattle quarterback John Mateer and stop any momentum the OU offense was hoping to build.
The Sooners need to get the running game going if they want a chance to keep turning their season around, and they need to be better and more consistent overall as an offense. With the way the 'Cats can score the ball, Oklahoma has to be ready to be able to put points on the board.
OU special teams coordinator Doug Deakin will face Kentucky special teams coordinator Parker Fleming this week. He followed Stein to Kentucky after one season as an offensive assistant at Oregon, but before that he spent six years coaching special teams at Ohio State. The Sooners won the special teams battle against Texas last week, an encouraging sign and a step forward for the unit. When Oklahoma has beaten good teams over the past few years, it usually means Deakin's group played a big role in it.
Oklahoma and Kentucky have met just three times on the gridiron. They first met in the 1951 Sugar Bowl on New Year's Day to cap the 1950 season. The top-ranked Sooners fell 13-7 to the Wildcats as coaching legends Bear Bryant and Bud Wilkinson met in New Orleans.
The two teams also played a home-and-home matchup, with the 1980 game in Norman and the 1982 game in Lexington. The Sooners won both games, taking a 29-7 home win and a 29-8 road win.
While the two programs aren't very familiar on the field, some familiar names will be returning to Norman this week. Running back Jovantae Barnes and wide receiver Nic Anderson will suit up for Kentucky this week, trying to beat their old school. The Sooners have split their matchups with former OU players so far this year, losing to defensive back Gentry Williams and Georgia, but beating running back Hollywood Smothers last week against Texas.
Oklahoma will wear its Wilkinson-era throwback jerseys under the lights this week, and the Sooners are undefeated in them. OU beat Houston 16-12 in 2024 and Kent State 44-0 in 2025 in the two previous games. This will be the first conference game in the throwbacks. It's also the first night home conference game for the Sooners since the 2024 season. That was the 24-3 win over Alabama.
Both programs are coming off thrilling, emotional upset victories last week, so the team that handles success better will have the edge in primetime. It'll be strength on strength on defense, and Venables and that unit have to make sure they win that battle. When the Sooners have the ball, all eyes will be on if Arbuckle, Mateer, and the rest of the unit can build upon what they did in the second half of the Texas win.
Kentucky has a lot of momentum at this point in the season, and they feel like they can play with anybody right now. The Sooners have a chance to flip their season after an improbable win over Texas, but now they have to follow it up with another strong home performance under the lights. Oklahoma is a flawed team, but it may have found a solution to some of those flaws in its style of play last week. Still, OU can't rely on special teams and defense to score every week, so the offense ultimately has to become more effective while also taking care of the ball like it did in Dallas.
Kickoff for Oklahoma-Kentucky is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. in Norman on Saturday on the SEC Network.
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This article originally appeared on Sooners Wire: Know Your Foe: Oklahoma Sooners vs. Kentucky Wildcats
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