Kentucky Football Schedule

Kentucky Football Schedule 2023

The University of Kentucky football schedule is set for the upcoming season and it comes with lots of anticipation for the upcoming season! So dust off your Game Day Gear or get ready to tailgate with this new It’s A Party Shirt!

Opening weekend will feature a game against Ball State at Kroger Field in Lexington, KY. The Cardinals play in the MAC Conference, finishing 5-7 this past season. Week 2 will kickoff an in-state foe, facing off against Eastern Kentucky University in Lexington, KY. Most will look at this as a tune-up game, which Kentucky may need after closing out the prior season losing 6 of 9.

Week 3 brings the Akron football team to Lexington, with more non-conference games in the early 2023 football season. Thereafter, the Wildcats will host their first conference opponent, Vanderbilt.

For UK to have a solid season, they will need to all of these first four games. That’s because relative to the rest of the schedule, the Kentucky Wildcats football schedule is brutal when conference play gets into full swing!

UK Football Schedule – Tough Stretch of SEC

Week 5 will bring Kentucky’s 2023 football season into the heart of SEC games. So grab your best luck Kentucky Tshirts and buckle up. The Wildcats will travel to Gainesville, FLto face off against the University of Florida. The Gators went 6-7 last season and will be looking to right the ship, especially against Kentucky after falling 2 years straight.

The Wildcats will head back to Lexington in Week 6, when University of Georgia make their way to Kroger Field. The Bulldogs finished last season with a record of 15-0 and reigning champions. In Week 7, the UK football team will travel to Missouri, who finished 6-7 last season.

The Wildcat will get their typical BYE week following this stretch in Week 8. However, there is certainly more difficulty in the team’s scheduling this year versus last football season. Nonetheless, it will be in UK’s best interest to close out the first half of the season with 1 loss.

Next up is Week 9, a home game that brings theTennessee Volunteers to Lexington, KY after a stellar 2022 season. The Volunteers pulled off a 45-42 upset in 2021, even though UK had a stellar season, and routed the Wildcats football team in 2022.

SEE ALSO: KY State Holidays 2023

Another road game highlights Week 10, which takes Kentucky back to Oxford, Miss, to face off against University of Mississippi. Behind Lane Kiffin, the Ole Miss Rebels went 8-5 last season finishing 20th in the final AP Poll. Therefore, they will be looking to build off that momentum in the 2023-2024 season!

Week 12 will pit UK Football against Alabama for another tough game. This is inevitably the second biggest game of the season, but will be hosted in Lexington. It gives the Kentucky football team a prime opportunity to put a stamp on their season and improve their odds in a bowl game with a huge upset.

The final SEC game of the 2023 Kentucky football schedule comes in Week 12 against the South Carolina Gamecocks Bulldogs.

Governor’s Cup: Kentucky vs Louisville

The 2023 Governor’s Cup featuring Louisville vs Kentucky football will be played in Papa John’s Stadium this season. This game didn’t happen in the 2020 season due to the pandemic. The SEC opted to omit all non-conference games, therefore it shelved. In the 2021 season however, Kentucky obliterated the Cards in Louisville. The final game score was 52-21, in a blowout win where Will Levis posterized a defender, borrowing one of Lamar Jackson’s hurdling moves while on the run. In 2022, Louisville clawed back some of that momentum but fell 13-26. Set your calendars on this cross-state rivalry of Louisville vs Kentucky for November 25th.

This concludes the UK football schedule for the regular season. The Wildcats finished the 2022 season with a 7-6 record under Mark Stoops. That follows a 2021 season with a 10-3 record, and a 2020 season where the Cats went 5-6.