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Kentucky Football Ranked 43rd in preseason poll

By Alex Weber

ORLANDO, FL - JANUARY 01: Lynn Bowden Jr. #1 of the Kentucky Wildcats returns a punt 56 yards for a touchdown against the Penn State Nittany Lions in the first quarter of the VRBO Citrus Bowl at Camping World Stadium on January 1, 2019 in Orlando, Florida. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images)
ORLANDO, FL - JANUARY 01: Lynn Bowden Jr. #1 of the Kentucky Wildcats returns a punt 56 yards for a touchdown against the Penn State Nittany Lions in the first quarter of the VRBO Citrus Bowl at Camping World Stadium on January 1, 2019 in Orlando, Florida. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images) /
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Coming off a historic 10-win season under Mark Stoops, Kentucky Football is rated 43rd in the nation heading into 2019

The good folks over at Lindy’s Sports–a premier college football magazine–took on the task of ranking all 130 division-one teams in the country heading into the 2019 season. As expected, the list is wrought with controversy and surely sparked widespread uproar in Alabama by slotting Clemson ahead of the Tide. Our very own Kentucky Football club saw its position settled at 43rd out of the 130.

In terms of raw placement, 43rd sounds reasonable. Kentucky football capped up a dream season last year by defeating perennial powerhouse Penn State in the Citrus Bowl to finish up the season at 10-3 and ranked in the top fifteen. (Personally, they should have easily been tenth or higher). However, it’s no secret that Mark Stoops’ club hemorrhages most of their defensive talent and will be without the services of superstar and best-in-the-history-of-the-program running back Benny Snell Jr. Enormous losses on both ends for the Cats. Without assured replacement, national skepticism towards Kentucky on the football field doesn’t feel absurd. 43rd isn’t a bad spot, either.

I will say, though, that South Carolina continuing to earn higher preseason rankings than Kentucky (USC comes in at 40th) irks me. I guess five straight seasons of thrashing the Gamecocks on the actual field yields no love in the grand scheme of preseason media hoopla. Whatever. We’ll whip them again in Columbia, SC. We’ve already done it in 2015 and 2017. Otherwise, I have no complaints about the rating. As an added bonus, we’re ahead of the dirty orange Volunteers who came in all the way down at 55.

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Overall, a solid rating for the Kentucky Wildcats football team that will surely be improved on throughout the season. (Lynn Bowden will have something to say about this).

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