Kentucky Football: 5 reasons to be optimistic about 2019 season

Kentucky football had quite the season in 2018, but can it recreate that in 2019 with some missing pieces? Let’s talk optimism for the upcoming season.

The Kentucky Wildcats finished the 2018 season with a big time win over Penn State to improve to 10-3 on the year- those losses coming to Tennessee, Georgia and Texas A&M. Overall though, it was an impressive year for a school who always is known for basketball.

Can they keep it up in 2019? I think so, but let’s talk about why.

5. Terry “Touchdown” Wilson returns

This may not seem like that big of a deal, especially since he wasn’t all that great to begin with. However, it is actually a really big deal for a team that is losing their starting running back and their star defensive player. To return a signal caller — the guy who knows how this offense should work and knows how to get his team to where it should be — is a huge thing for the Wildcats.

That being said, he will have to improve. However, Mark Stoops has a track record of quarterbacks improving from year one to year two, something that Terry Wilson is doing right now.

“If you look at Stephen Johnson between year one and year two, the improvement you can make at just that position can be very drastic,” Kentucky Coach Mark Stoops said in a recent interview. “(Entering 2019), I think we can make a big jump being more efficient at the quarterback position.”

He isn’t wrong, either. Johnson was a 54.7 percent passer in 2016 and a 59.8 percent passer in 2017. Can Wilson see that same kind of improvement? For Kentucky’s sake, I hope so.