Chris Doering Is High on Kentucky Football
With kickoff in the SEC quickly approaching, SEC Now has been going through a different team's schedule daily and predicting their record. Tonight's edition was hosted by Alyssa Lang, along with former Florida legend, Chris Doering, as her co-host. Kentucky was in the spotlight as Doering broke down each game one-by-one.
Despite being a Gator at heart, Doering admitted that he was extremely high on Kentucky and that the Wildcats were further along as a program at the moment. With that, he gave Stoops and company a 4-0 start in September, including a win in the Swamp. With an all-SEC slate in October, including two tough road matchups against Ole Miss and Tennessee, Doering still liked Kentucky's chances and predicted them to go 3-1 with the lone loss coming in Knoxville. In November, the Wildcats schedule relaxes with back-to-back games against bottom-tier SEC schools in Missouri and Vanderbilt before the all-important November 19 game against Georgia. Kentucky then closes out 2022 with in-state rival, Louisville. As you would expect, Doering gave no hesitation in predicting Kentucky to beat Missouri, Vanderbilt, and Louisville. The SEC Network analyst went a step further by declaring Kentucky over Georgia as his upset of the 2022 season and giving the Wildcats the nod over the defending national champions.
If your math skills are up to par, then you know that those predictions would put Kentucky at 11-1 (7-1 SEC) with the one loss coming at the hands of the Tennessee Volunteers. Doering did admit after his predictions that it is probably more likely Kentucky wins 10 than 11, but he wanted to make a big upset pick for the season and felt comfortable giving it to the Wildcats over Georgia. Unless Tennessee goes 7-1 or better in conference play, this prediction would put Kentucky in the SEC championship game and in firm discussion to be in the playoff. It seems as if the respect Mark Stoops and this program have been clamoring for is finally here. Now it is up to the team to live up to possibly the highest expectations in program history.