WHAT!! Yeah, you read that right. All I can say is, "It's about damn time." The national media and in this case, a collective group of coaches across the country, are finally starting to give Kentucky the respect they deserve - and have earned. With two ten-win seasons in four years, Kentucky is climbing the ranks amongst the country and their own conference as a legitimate college football program.
At SEC Media Days last month Kentucky was projected to finish 2nd in the SEC East! Now they’ve earned another high projection for this upcoming season.
The USA Today Sports AFCA Coaches Poll was released this morning which essentially kicks-off the college football season. Well, the Cats are involved in every conversation and their brand is holding its own. They've cracked the top twenty-five of the preseason ranks, being put ahead of Cincinnati, Arkansas, Ole Miss and Houston. Here's the full list.
Alabama
Ohio State
Georgia
Clemson
Notre Dame
Michigan
Texas A&M
Utah
Oklahoma
Baylor
Oklahoma State
Oregon
NC State
Michigan State
Southern California (USC)
Pittsburgh
Miami
Texas
Wake Forest
Wisconsin
Kentucky
Cincinatti
Arkansas
Ole Miss
Houston
The USA TODAY Sports AFCA football coaches poll is conducted weekly throughout the regular season using a panel of 65 head coaches at Football Bowl Subdivision schools. The panel is chosen by random draw, conference by conference plus independents, from a pool of coaches who have indicated to the American Football Coaches Association their willingness to participate. Each coach submits a Top 25 with a first-place vote worth 25 points, second place 24, and so on down to one point for 25th.
Kentucky received 353 points in votes and no first place (overall) votes.
Here are the next ten schools that received the highest amount of votes outside of the official list: Iowa 248; Penn State 246; Tennessee 163; Brigham Young 152; Louisiana State 143; Auburn 98; Central Florida 55; North Carolina 34; San Diego State 25; Fresno State 21
On one hand it's different to see Kentucky getting this preseason praise instead of being categorized as the underdogs, but it's nice to see years of hard work and success from team after team starting to pay off for the staff.