The 2021 Kentucky Wildcats football team represented the University of Kentucky (UK) in the

2021 NCAA Division I FBS football season The 2021 NCAA Division I FBS football season was the 152nd season of college football in the United States organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at its highest level of competition, the Football Bowl Subdivision. The r ...

. The Wildcats played their home games at

Kroger Field Kroger Field, formerly known as Commonwealth Stadium, is a stadium in Lexington, Kentucky, United States, located on the campus of the University of Kentucky that primarily serves as the home field for the Kentucky Wildcats football team. The stad ...

Lexington, Kentucky Lexington is a city in Kentucky, United States that is the county seat of Fayette County, Kentucky, Fayette County. By population, it is the List of cities in Kentucky, second-largest city in Kentucky and List of United States cities by popul ...

, and competed in the East Division of the Southeastern Conference (SEC). They were led by ninth-year head coach

Mark Stoops Mark Thomas Stoops (born July 9, 1967) is an American college football coach and former player. He is currently the all time winningest head football coach in the history of the Kentucky Wildcats. Early life Stoops, one of six children born to ...

Previous season

Kentucky finished the season with a record of 5–6 (4–6 in the SEC) and as Gator Bowl champions. Kentucky entered the 2020 season fresh off an 8–5 record and a Belk Bowl championship.

Offseason

Position key

Preseason

Award watch lists

Listed in the order that they were released

SEC Media Days

Preseason All-SEC teams

Personnel

Coaching staff

Schedule

Spring game

The Wildcats were scheduled to hold spring practices in March and April 2021 with the Kentucky football spring game, which took place in Lexington, KY in April 2021.

Regular season

The 2021 Kentucky regular-season schedule consisted of seven home games and five away games. UK hosted four SEC opponents: Florida,

LSU Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 near ...

, Missouri, and rival Tennessee. UK traveled to four SEC opponents: Georgia, Mississippi State, South Carolina, and Vanderbilt. Kentucky was not scheduled to play SEC West opponents Alabama, Arkansas,

Auburn Auburn may refer to: Places Australia * Auburn, New South Wales * City of Auburn, the local government area *Electoral district of Auburn *Auburn, Queensland, a locality in the Western Downs Region *Auburn, South Australia *Auburn, Tasmania *Aub ...

, Ole Miss, and Texas A&M in the 2021 regular season. The Wildcats' bye week was during week 8 (on October 23, 2021). Kentucky's out-of-conference opponents represented the

Atlantic Coast Conference The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is a collegiate athletic conference located in the eastern United States. Headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina, the ACC's fifteen member universities compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Associa ...

(ACC), Southern Conference (SoCon), and

Sun Belt Conference The Sun Belt Conference (SBC) is a collegiate athletic conference that has been affiliated with the NCAA's Division I since 1976. Originally a non-football conference, the Sun Belt began sponsoring football in 2001. Its football teams participa ...

(SBC), as well as one FBS independent. The Wildcats hosted SoCon member

Chattanooga Chattanooga ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Hamilton County, Tennessee, United States. Located along the Tennessee River bordering Georgia, it also extends into Marion County on its western end. With a population of 181,099 in 2020, ...

, SBC member

Louisiana-Monroe The University of Louisiana Monroe (ULM) is a public university in Monroe, Louisiana. It is part of the University of Louisiana System. History ULM opened in 1931 as Ouachita Parish Junior College. Three years later it became the Northeast Ce ...

, and independent New Mexico State. The Wildcats closed out the regular season by traveling to Louisville, KY to face in-state rival Louisville for the Governor's Cup.

Game summaries

Louisiana-Monroe

*Sources
Official Box Score
''

Missouri

*Sources:

Chattanooga

*Sources:

at South Carolina

No. 10 Florida

This was the Wildcats' first home win over Florida since

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. *Sources:

LSU

*Sources:

at No. 1 Georgia

*Sources:

at Mississippi State

*Sources:

Tennessee

*Sources:

at Vanderbilt

*Sources:

New Mexico State

*Sources:

at Louisville

*Sources:

vs. No. 15 Iowa (Citrus Bowl)

*Sources:

Rankings

Statistics

Scoring

Scores by quarter (All Home Games)

Scores by quarter (All Away Games)

Scores by quarter (All Neutral Field Games)

Scores by quarter (Home Games – SEC)

Scores by quarter (Away Games – SEC)

Scores by quarter (Neutral Field – SEC)

Scores by quarter (Home Games – NC)

Scores by quarter (Away Games – NC)

Scores by quarter (Neutral Field – NC)

Scores by quarter (All NC Opponents)

Scores by quarter (All SEC Opponents)

Scores by quarter (All opponents)

Media affiliates

Radio

* WHAS (AM) (News Radio 840 WHAS), WBUL-FM – Nationwide (Dish Network,

Sirius XM Sirius XM Holdings Inc. is an American broadcasting company headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City that provides satellite radio and online radio services operating in the United States. It was formed by the 2008 merger of Sirius Sat ...

, TuneIn radio and

iHeartRadio iHeartRadio (often shortened to just "iHeart") is an American freemium broadcast, podcast and radio streaming Computing platform, platform owned by iHeartMedia. It was founded in August 2008. , iHeartRadio was functioning as the national umbr ...

)

TV

* CBS Family –

WKYT WKYT-TV (channel 27) is a television station in Lexington, Kentucky, United States, affiliated with CBS and The CW. The station is owned by Gray Television, and maintains studios and transmitter facilities on Winchester Road (US 60) near I-75 on ...

(CBS), CBS Sports Network * ESPN/

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

Family –

WTVQ WTVQ-DT (channel 36) is a television station in Lexington, Kentucky, United States, affiliated with ABC and MyNetworkTV. Owned by Morris Multimedia, the station maintains studios and transmitter facilities on the outer loop of Man o' War Boule ...

(ABC),

, ESPN, ESPN2,

ESPNU ESPNU is an American multinational digital cable and satellite sports television channel owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between the Disney Media Networks division of The Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and the Hears ...

ESPN+ ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

, SEC Network) *

FOX Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

Family –

WDKY WDKY-TV (channel 56) is a television station licensed to Danville, Kentucky, United States, serving the Lexington area as an affiliate of the Fox network. The station is owned by Nexstar Media Group and maintains studios on Euclid Avenue in Le ...

(FOX),

/ FS1, FSN * NBC – WLEX,

NBC Sports NBC Sports is an American programming division of the broadcast network NBC, owned and operated by NBC Sports Group division of NBCUniversal and subsidiary of Comcast. The division is responsible for sports broadcasts on the network, and its d ...

NBCSN NBCSN was an American sports television television channel, channel owned by the NBC Sports Group division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It originally launched on July 1, 1995, as the Outdoor Life Network (OLN), which was dedicated t ...

References

{{Kentucky Wildcats football navbox Kentucky Kentucky Wildcats football seasons Citrus Bowl champion seasons Kentucky Wildcats football