Kentucky Football: Way-Too-Early Game-by-Game Predictions

The Kentucky football team fought its way to a remarkable 10-win season in 2021, vanquishing Iowa in a thrilling Citrus Bowl victory. Can they replicate – or better – that performance in 2022?

Over in Lexington, Mark Stoops has built a culture for the Kentucky football program that has mostly flourished. While Kentucky only has four 10-win seasons in school history, two of those have come under Stoops in the last four seasons. Culture-wise, Kentucky has a wonderful thing going right now.

They’ll need that rock-steady culture to come close to their win total from last season, especially with the loss of first-team All-SEC offensive linemen Darian Kinnard and Luke Fortner. Wan’Dale Robinson, the team’s pocket full of dynamite at receiver, is also gone. So too is star defensive lineman Josh Paschal, as well as their captain at cornerback in Yusuf Corker.

It’s not all bad though, as Kentucky football is returning are two key offensive starters in quarterback Will Levis and running back Chris Rodriguez. Levis is a very capable passer who posted a 2,826 yard passing season last year. Next to Levis is Rodriguez, a 1,378-yard rusher from a year ago, who earned second team all-SEC honors in 2021.

Defensively, they also manage to get back two key linebackers, as leading tackler Jacquez Jones and super senior Jordan Wright are set to return in 2022.

And looking ahead to the 2022 season, here are way-too-early game-by-game predictions for Kentucky football.