Opener Brings Unique Challenges for Kentucky

The Kentucky Wildcats haven’t given away a day this offseason.
 
Winter, spring, summer and finally during preseason camp, Mark Stoops saw a team that was locked in and ready to built on UK’s best season in 41 years.
 
“I think they played with a good hunger, desire to get better,” Stoops said. “They competed every day. I want them to put their heads down, you know, kind of submit to what we’re doing, just buy into it, walk away from the distractions. There’s a lot of mental preparation that goes into it during camp. They have to do a lot of walk-throughs, a lot of meetings, practice. They have to kind of submit, be all there all the time.
 
“I felt like there was really good focus and energy.”
 
The focus and energy might never have waned over a nearly eight-month offseason, but that doesn’t mean the Cats aren’t looking forward to having all their preparations behind them. Come Saturday at noon when UK plays host to Toledo, they will be.
 
“I feel like it’s been a long time coming,” Boogie Watson said. “Summer was long. Camp felt like it was long, but now it’s finally here so we’re excited to get going.”
 
Energy, in other words, figures to be no issue when the Cats and Rockets finally kick off. That doesn’t come without pitfalls though.
 
“I think the first five minutes of this game is going to be vital, for both teams, and we’ve gotta be sound,” defensive coordinator Brad White said. “We’ve gotta be composed. … There’s a lot of emotion and adrenaline and everybody’s been waiting and there’s a lot of buildup there. You have to understand, alright, play with composure.”
 
Especially with a team with plenty of inexperience on defense and more players stepping into expanded roles on offense, moving from the privacy of the practice field to the very public stage at Kroger Field comes with unique challenges.
 
“That’s part of it, just handling the emotions, especially guys that haven’t played much,” Stoops said. “Some of the older guys played a lot of football, understand that, know how to contain themselves. Guys that haven’t played a lot, we’re counting on them in large roles here this week. That is part of it, handling the opener, how we go through pregame, our routine.”
 
Managing emotion will be essential. Moving past failure will be as well, because mistakes are inevitable.
 
“Just play,” second-year starting quarterback Terry Wilson said. “You’re not going to be perfect on every play. You might mess up every play, but just keep playing. You gotta forget about it and just keep worrying about this next play.”
 
UK will be well served to not dwell on mistakes, particularly with the quality of opponent the Cats will face to start the 2019 season. Toledo has reached a bowl game in five consecutive seasons and last year averaged 40.4 points per game behind an offense that features Bryant Koback, a running back who rushed for 917 yards and 14 touchdowns in his season after transferring from Kentucky.
 
“That’s why I say it’s good for us to play an opponent like Toledo because they’re a very good football program,” Stoops said. “They’re used to winning football games. They’re well-coached. They have two quarterbacks (Eli Peters and Mitchell Guadagni) that are coming back with good experience, that are good players.
 
“We’ll have to play very good. If you watch the MAC, you got to have great respect for the MAC, because they’re always very well-coached. They’re not going to beat themselves.”
 
It will be a barometer off the bat for Kentucky.
 
“It’s a great test early on,” Watson said. “We’ll see where we’re at from the jump. Some schools might play FCS opponents or weaker opponents, but Toledo, they’re expected to win the MAC West. It’s a great opponent off the bat, so we’ll see what we got.”
 
Toledo certainly has UK’s attention, but that cannot come at the cost of the Cats playing their own game.
 
“The thing about them: They’re going to come in and play hard,” Wilson said. “We just have to make sure we’re playing how we can play football and not worry about any other team. Just seeing them on film, they’re fast. They’re going to stack the box and they’re physical. We just gotta make sure that we’re physical too and go out there and play Kentucky football.”