Football season is upon us so we’re taking a preseason look at all of Kentucky’s opponents. We previewed Ball State last week and today we’re looking the Eastern Kentucky Colonels. A familiar opponent who competes in the newly formed United Athletic Conference (which is a combination of the leftovers from the old WAC and ASUN) at the FCS level and a program looking to build off their first FCS playoff appearance since 2014.
Series Outlook
Kentucky has a perfect 5-0 record against Eastern Kentucky but the most recent games have been surprisingly close. They last played in 2017 and Kentucky trailed 13-10 at HT before getting some distance in the 2nd half led by Stephen Johnson and Benny Snell eventually winning 27-16. The most memorable meeting was probably in 2015 where Kentucky trailed by 14 points with less than 8 minutes to go in the game and needed Patrick Towles and Dorian Baker heroics to pull out a 34-27 OT win to avoid a truly disastrous loss in Stoops’ third season.
2022 Season Look Back
Last season EKU was led by Walt Wells in his 2nd season. They finished the regular season 7-4 and lost in the first round of the FCS playoffs (they qualified because Jacksonville State was not allowed to take a bid due to making the jump to FBS for this upcoming season) to Gardener-Webb. EKU played two FBS opponents last season and went 1-1 losing to EMU 34-42 and beating Bowling Green 59-57 in 7 OT. Unfortunately due to health issues Coach Wells was not able to coach in either of those games.
EKU had one of the best offenses in the FCS last season averaging a little over 36 points a game and had their 3rd best passing attack, putting up almost 330 yards a game. Unfortunately they were also one of the worst defenses in FCS last year and it hindered them. They flirted with being a top 25 FCS team but couldn’t quite get over the hump.
2023 Outlook
The good news for the Colonels is that they return a lot and Coach Wells looks to have put his health scare behind him and will have the reigns the entire season. Coach Wells seems to have some momentum and some outlets even have the Colonels on the fringes of the top 25.
The main factor in all that positivity was star QB Parker McKinney reportedly turning down a few FBS offers and return for his 6th season. McKinney was named the Co-Offensive Player of the Year in the ASUN last year and finished with 3rd Team All-American honors. He’s coming off his best season after throwing for almost 4000 yards and 33 TD’s and completing 69% of his throws.
He’s not the only one returning as his leading WR is also back in Jaden Smith who caught 60 balls for 750 yards and 6 TD’s as well as one of the best all-purpose players in RB Braedon Sloan who was the only player in both FBS and FCS to produce over 415 yards in rushing, receiving, and in the return game. In addition EKU also brought in a couple of FBS transfers in the portal at the WR spot.
The OL also returns 5 guys who all started games last season led by all-conference player Payton Collins at LT. At 6’9” and over 300 pounds it’s likely this 3 year starter will have a shot at the NFL and should be a good test for the Kentucky edge rushers.
Defensively they’ve done a lot of work in the portal to shore up that side of the ball. They’ve added some FBS guys but the big one is the addition of Franky West who was a very good DB at Illinois State last season. Even just marginal improvement on this side of the ball could see EKU really take off in a new look conference and potentially give Kentucky some real frustrations.
Who Wins
Kentucky will win. However, we know that for whatever reason Stoops’ teams really struggle with FCS week (a good enough reason to dump them entirely my opinion). It’s happened enough for me to believe it’s a program wide issue. EKU has given us two close games (one legitimate scare that they probably should have won), Austin Peay has jumped out to a two-possession lead, and Chattanooga gave us all we could handle as recently as 2021. Unlike other programs who seem to have no trouble dominating FCS opposition with scores getting into the 40’s and 50’s we seem to struggle, so I’d expect this one to be frustratingly close as well. EKU has a proud tradition and Coach Wells seems to be on a mission to prove that EKU could potentially deserve a FBS spot should the realignment winds blow their way, the Colonels will come in with experience and belief that they can win the game. It’s on Kentucky to prove them otherwise.
I have a lot of respect for the job Coach Wells is doing and folks should really check out this EKU program, which could have a chance of really re-establishing itself at the FCS level. Kentucky will win 38-21 and we all come away thankful that it wasn’t closer.
