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Kentucky Football: How the Wildcats fare in ESPN FPI

The odds are against Mark Stoops, which is just how he likes it.

Jason Marucm - Sea of Blue

2018 has the potential to be a special season for Kentucky Football, but with so many tough games on the schedule, it could easily turn into one of frustration.

Based on ESPN’s FPI odds, they think there’s a good chance Kentucky will have its first losing season since the 2015 season.

Here’s what they have as the results for every game on the schedule:

ESPN’s FPI is projecting the Cats to lose every “big” game this year, along with each game that’s looked at as a fair matchup.

Sure, there are a few on the schedule that you can look at and say that Kentucky will more than likely lose. Those are Georgia, Mississippi State, and Texas A&M.

Then, the games against Florida, South Carolina, Missouri, Tennessee, and Louisville could all be considered toss ups. Yet, the FPI seems to think each one of these games to be a loss.

Even though the Florida and Tennessee games are on the road, they both have new coaches, which is in Kentucky’s favor as this team has been together in the same system for over five years while the other two are getting used to a new one.

As for South Carolina, Kentucky has beaten them four years in a row, so you better believe the Gamecocks are going to look to prove a point in this game. With that being said, the talent level on each team is the same so we should be in for a good one.

Either way, this isn’t a good sign for Kentucky Football. We really haven’t heard much good news from practice thus far. In fact, Mark Stoops has seemed disappointed more than not to this point.

Hopefully, this gives the players and coaching staff more motivation to get over the hump this season. After all, Mark Stoops and co. have typically been at their best as underdogs, which it appears they’ll be quite often in 2018.