Cats Set to Honor Seniors on Saturday at Kroger Field
Kentucky hosts its final home football game of the season on Saturday, as the Cats welcome New Mexico State to Kroger Field. Prior to the game, Kentucky will recognize its senior class, one that has continued to build the UK program during their time in Lexington.
While the total number of seniors being honored remains to be seen, there will be a number of names that are very familiar to the Big Blue Nation going through Senior Day activities on Saturday.
Players on offense like Darian Kinnard, Austin Dotson and Isaiah Epps will be honored. On defense, Josh Paschal, DeAndre Square, Yusuf Corker, Tyrell Ajian, Marquan McCall, Cedrick Dort Jr. and Davonte Robinson will also be recognized.
UK head coach Mark Stoops knows what an impact these players have made on the UK program.
“This will be the last time quite a few players are playing in this stadium,” Stoops said. “We greatly appreciate our seniors. They have meant so much to our program. Some of them have been here six years, and, arguably, one of the greatest six years in the history of this school.”
For the sake of argument, this class has been in Lexington for five seasons. They started with a 7-6 season in 2017, the vaulted to a 10-3 season and a win over Penn State in the Citrus Bowl in 2018.
In 2019, the Cats went 8-5 and ended the season with a thrilling win over Virginia Tech in the Belk Bowl. Then last season, UK went 5-6 and finished off the year with a win over nationally-ranked N.C. State in the Gator Bowl.
This senior class has been part of some historic seasons at Kentucky. The 10-win campaign in 2018 was UK’s best season in over 40 years. And, this season, these seniors will be part of a UK team with a winning record in the SEC for the second time during their careers. That has only happened twice since 1977 and won’t happen for many teams this season.
“I’m proud of the team, that our team will have a winning SEC record,” Stoops said. “At the end of the day, there’s going to be four of five teams in our league that have a winning record in the SEC.”
The latest win, and the one that clinched the winning SEC record, came at Vanderbilt on Saturday night. UK jumped out to a 31-3 lead and went on to win 34-17. Stoops wishes his team had played the second half like they played the first but he also appreciates how late in the season it is.
“It gets hard late in the year,” Stoops said. “The mental and physical drain that it takes on our players. I don’t think people appreciate that quite enough when you go through this schedule.”
The Cats will host New Mexico State on Saturday. The Aggies are coached by former UK quarterback Doug Martin.
NMSU has struggled so far this season, entering Saturday’s contest with a 1-9 record. Last week, the Aggies lost at Alabama 59-3.
For the Cats, one final win in Kroger Field would be a fine way to send the seniors off. And this senior class in particular is deserving of that and so much more.
