LEXINGTON, Ky. — Kentucky kicked off its 2021 season by overwhelming Louisiana Monroe, 45-10, in front of a less-than-capacity crowd.
Let's look at the significance of Saturday's outcome beyond the scoreboard.
Right foot
It was the fourth time in the last five seasons that UK won its season opener. The Wildcats were expected to win, and convincingly — they were a 31-point betting favorite — so that they managed to meet those expectations is not really anything to really write home about. Or is it?
After all, this time around breaking in a new offense went much more smoothly than the last: UK lost its first game with Eddie Gran in charge, 44-35, at home against Southern Miss in 2016. Winning the opener under Stoops hasn't been a lock from the get-go, when UK dropped its first game of his career to Western Kentucky in 2013. The Cats also lost last year's opener, at Auburn, to kick off a season stocked with Southeastern Conference foes.
Saturday's result also gave UK its largest win over an FBS opponent in a season opener of the Stoops era. The Cats defeated UT Martin, an FCS squad, 59-14 in 2014, their biggest opening win under Stoops.
Three to go
The Wildcats improved their non-conference win streak to 12 games, with at least three opportunities left on deck to extend that streak. At 12 games, they've matched Iowa for the second-longest streak in the country; the Hawkeyes, for whom Stoops played back in the day, won't get an opportunity to extend their streak until they host Kent State on Sept. 18. Wisconsin, who played Penn State on Saturday, owns the top active mark at 19 consecutive non-conference wins.
UK following its date with Missouri next weekend will host Chattanooga, an FCS foe that dropped its season opener to Austin Peay, 30-20. It won't meet another non-SEC opponent until Nov. 20, when FBS independent New Mexico State comes to town. Kentucky closes its season at Louisville the next week. There's little reason, as of Saturday, to believe the Cats won't be favored in all three of those contests. The next two are "guarantee" games — UTC will receive $500,000 and the Aggies are getting $1.2 million from UK — and while U of L is a Power Five program, UK has gotten the better of it by a wide margin in the last two meetings (56-10 and 45-13) and the Cardinals, coming off a lackluster 2020 campaign, were picked to finish toward the bottom of the Atlantic Coast Conference.
(Louisiana Monroe was paid $1.7 million for the trouble of coming to Lexington this weekend, by the way.)
A sweep of the non-conference means UK only needs to win two SEC games to reach bowl eligibility. Its aspirations are beyond getting into the postseason fray, of course, which leads us to ...
Tiger hunt
For all meaningful intents and purposes, Kentucky's football season really begins next Saturday.
Missouri, whose season kickoff against Mid-American Conference opponent Central Michigan started after UK's opener was completed, comes to town next weekend. Before last year, Kentucky had beaten the Tigers in five straight seasons; they held the Wildcats to just 145 total yards of offense in a 20-10 decision played in Columbia.
Most in the preseason projected Missouri or Kentucky to finish as the third-best team in the SEC's Eastern Division this season. Both teams' schedules are favorable for strong starts, with this contest acting as an early barometer of where each really is in the early going. For Kentucky, it should easily be able to string together a 3-0 start — which would be its best since winning five straight to start the 2018 campaign — if the Tigers are taken care of.
Kentucky clipped the Warhawks with ease after a slow start. The new-look offense was as exciting as promised against an opponent that, before Saturday, hadn't held a lead in a football game since before the COVID-19 pandemic started. Missouri will be a much better measure of how far the Cats have come on that side of the ball.
