The 13th season under Mark Stoops had the Wildcats hosting Toledo on a beautiful, mid-70 degree day with not a single cloud in the sky. It was great weather to watch some leather be tossed around the turf and to ultimately see what this team would display in their first opportunity.
While it’s felt like some fans might not be excited about this football season as a whole beforehand, you can always count on the first game to be energized and packed, and it was today with 56,000+ fans in attendance.
With that being said, you know what you’re getting with Kentucky football under this leadership, and it’s a grind-it-out, run until you can’t run no more type of offense, and that’s mostly what you got today. The offense finished with 305 total yards and 220 of that came from the running back room.
Dante Dowdell led the way 129 yards on his feet, attributing mostly from a 79-yard breakout run to the end zone that put his team up 24-9. His touchdown was 1 of 2 in that department, with Seth McGowan also finding the end zone plus 78 rushing yards to go with it. The two looked promising as the offense gets underway.
Seventh-year quarterback, Zach Calzada, had an underwhelming debut to the program, compiling just 85 passing yards and 0 passing touchdowns against the MAC competition, also including an interception to add to that. He did find his way into the end zone once, but it was a 1-yard rushing touchdown that gave the Wildcats their first points of the day. Other than that, it was all ball on the ground and through the trenches for Bush Hamdan’s play calling. I think most would say that Calzada wasn’t very impressive and his opportunity and he might admit that himself.
The Toledo Rockets would out-pass their SEC opponent, throwing for 270 yards compared to just 85 on the Kentucky side. They would also own 24 more yards of offense overall, despite still falling short on the scoreboard. Kentucky was able to lean on their defense while their offense tried working out its kinks, limiting Toledo to just 2 points through the first 3 quarters.
Kentucky moves to 1-0 to start the season, now looking towards their next opponent in Ole Miss coming next Saturday. Kick time will be 3:30 PM ET in Lexington.
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