Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles
Date: Saturday, September 3
Venue: Commonwealth Stadium
2015 W-L Record: 9-5 (7-1)
2015 Head-to-Head Result: N/A
The season-opening game may be the biggest and most influential of the 2016 season. Southern Miss is a very capable football team that could easily come into Lexington and procure a win over the Kentucky Wildcats.
If Kentucky football hopes to avoid falling into a deep hole early in the season, it must walk away from the season opener with a W.
Southern Miss is a quality team, but Kentucky needs to win out-of-conference home games. That’s especially true when one considers the team the Wildcats will be facing during the second week of the season.
Seven days after hosting Southern Miss, Kentucky will travel to Gainesville to take on the Florida Gators—a team it hasn’t defeated since 1986.
Kentucky has a chance to beat Florida, but it can’t enter that game at 0-1. A win over Southern Miss would give it some breathing room, while a loss could result in Kentucky starting the season in an 0-2 hole.
With a senior quarterback who threw 38 touchdowns in 2015 and a running back who had over 1,600 yards from scrimmage a year ago, Southern Miss will be a tough out.
Next: September 17