LEXINGTON — Kentucky football 's 2024 season will get underway this week.
It's a notable one for coach Mark Stoops : He's now the longest-tenured active coach in the SEC , entering his 12th season with the Wildcats . He'll be as eager as anyone to kick off the season to put behind him the bad news that began the month, as his program was reprimanded by the NCAA on Aug. 2 for violations that occurred during the 2021 season. As a result, Stoops and his program will vacate all 10 victories from that memorable campaign.
Even removing those victories from his career tally, Stoops remains UK's all-time winningest coach ; his 63 triumphs are three ahead of Hall of Famer Bear Bryant , who went 60-23-5 during his eight-season run (1946-53) with the program.
As Kentucky embarks on trying to add more victories back to Stoops' résumé, here are three things to watch heading into the opener versus Southern Miss :
To say the UK offense operated at a ... deliberate ... pace last season is like saying Napoleon Bonaparte had a tough time at the Battle of Waterloo .
The proof is in the numbers (for Kentucky, not Napoleon): Per TeamRankings.com, in games during the 2023 campaign between two FBS schools, no club in the 133-team FBS had fewer plays per game than the Wildcats. UK averaged 56.1 snaps per game, two fewer than the next-closest team (Miami of Ohio at 58.2) and nearly 30 fewer than national leader South Florida (82.1).
With former Kentucky offensive coordinator Liam Coen returning to the NFL after another one-year stint in Lexington, Stoops hired Bush Hamdan away from his alma mater, Boise State, to get the unit up to speed. (Pardon the pun.) Speaking of jokes, Hamdan chuckled during his news conference at UK's media day when he said the offense would "run 100 plays a game." While Kentucky obviously won't come anywhere near that figure, its lack of tempo last season was no laughing matter.
Against Southern Miss, Hamdan has his first opportunity to showcase his unit no longer will move at a snail's pace.
To say the UK defense ... struggled ... on third downs last season, well, you get the point.
Opponents converted more than 43% of their third-down attempts against Kentucky last season. That percentage put the Wildcats 12th in the 14-team SEC. It also ranked outside the top 100 in the FBS.
That was a far cry from UK's showing in that department in 2022, when it ranked 21st nationally in third-down defense.
Ensuring last season's third-down woes were an anomaly was an emphasis of the offseason for Kentucky defensive coordinator Brad White .
White and Co. should be licking their chops to face the Southern Miss offense, which converted only 38% of its third-down chances in 2023.
When Stoops added Jay Boulware to the UK staff in December 2022, it wasn't just as running backs coach. Boulware also was named the Wildcats' special teams coordinator.
In 2022, Kentucky's special teams weren't all that special. That season, UK had five kicks blocked, and then-placekicker Matt Ruffolo made only 60% (12 for 20) of his field-goal attempts.
The Wildcats improved in leaps and bounds under Boulware's stewardship last fall, though, as new kicker Alex Raynor (a transfer from Georgia Southern) made 10 of his 11 field goals, setting a single-season program record for accuracy at 90.91%. Receiver Barion Brown set another single-season UK mark by returning three kickoffs for touchdowns. Further, Kentucky only had two kicks blocked.
The next area for Boulware to fix: the punting game, where Wilson Berry averaged barely 37 yards per attempt last season. In steps Aidan Laros , a transfer from UT Martin. Laros led the FCS in yards per punt (47.3) in 2023, with a pair of kicks that went 70 yards and four of 50-plus yards against then-top-ranked Georgia.
Not that UK fans want to see Laros take the field at any point against Southern Miss. But if he does, perhaps he'll put his talent on display by booming a kick more than half the distance of the field.
Brock Vandagriff, Fourth-year Jr., QB: Vandagriff once was a five-star recruit in the 2021 class . During his three seasons at Georgia, however, he had to sit behind a two-time national-title-winning QB in Stetson Bennett (in 2021 and 2022) before losing a competition to Carson Beck (last season). After joining Kentucky as a transfer , Vandagriff will man the controls of the offense this fall. He'll look to build off his scant playing time with the Bulldogs, appearing in 13 games as a reserve in which he threw for 165 yards and two scores (on 12-of-21 passing) and ran for 46 yards on six carries.
Ja'Mori Maclin, Fifth-year Jr ., WR: The cousin of former All-American receiver (and now College Football Hall of Famer) Jeremy Maclin , the younger Maclin made a name for himself last season at North Texas, logging 57 receptions for 1,004 yards and 11 touchdowns. Now, he aims to make his second go-round in the SEC better than his first — Maclin spent three seasons (2020-22) at Missouri. Alongside Barion Brown and Dane Key , Maclin should make the Wildcats' aerial attack more formidable.
Jamon Dumas-Johnson, Sr., LB: After missing four games because of an injury at Georgia last season, Dumas-Johnson will be raring to go against Southern Miss in his UK debut . During his three seasons with the Bulldogs, Dumas-Johnson appeared in 38 games (24 starts) and collected 126 tackles (17 for loss), 9.5 sacks, six pass breakups, one interception and one forced fumble. He won back-to-back national titles at Georgia in 2021 and 2022, earning first-team All-American honors from ESPN and Sporting News in the latter season. Dumas-Johnson also was a Butkus Award finalist in 2022.
Tate Rodemaker, Fifth-year Jr., QB: A transfer from Florida State , Rodemaker appeared in 23 games the past four seasons, making two starts. Though he hasn't been officially announced as Southern Miss' starter for the opener, 247Sports reported Rodemaker will take the first snaps against Kentucky. Rodemaker threw for 510 yards, five touchdowns and no interceptions in nine games last season. He has 901 passing yards, seven touchdowns and five interceptions for his college career.
Tiaquelin Mims, Jr., WR: Mims led the Golden Eagles in receptions (39) last season, totaling 445 receiving yards and hauling in two touchdowns. He's also a threat on special teams. Serving as Southern Miss' primary punt returner in 2023, he had 167 yards and a touchdown on 15 attempts.
Dylan Lawrence, Sixth-year Sr., DB: Arriving at Southern Miss last season as an in-state transfer from Mississippi State, Lawrence didn't miss a beat. He tallied a team-high 78 tackles, 38 of which were solo takedowns. Lawrence had two games in which he recorded 10 or more tackles and had six-plus tackles in eight outings.
Kentucky is a 28-point favorite against Southern Miss, according to the DraftKings college football odds .
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Who: Southern Miss (0-0) at Kentucky (0-0)
When: 7:45 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 31
Where: Kroger Field; Lexington
TV: SEC Network
Radio: Tom Leach (play-by-play) and Jeff Piecoro (analyst) will have the UK radio network call on 840 AM in Louisville and both 630 AM and 98.1 FM in Lexington and online at UKAthletics.com .
Streaming: Authenticated subscribers can access SEC Network via TV-connected devices or by going to WatchESPN.com , the WatchESPN app or ESPN+.
You also can stream SEC Network on Fubo, which offers a free trial here .
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This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Kentucky vs Southern Miss football first look: Odds, keys to game, players to watch, more
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