Kentucky football schedule 2020: Can Wildcats close the gap on Georgia, Florida?

The Kentucky football schedule is out and Mark Stoops has a big challenge facing his Wildcats in closing the gap with Georgia and Florida at the top of the SEC East.

Kentucky football can go in a lot of different directions this year in the SEC after the official schedule has been released.

Mark Stoops has done nothing short of a marvelous job leading the Kentucky Wildcats. Two years ago, the Wildcats were consistently ranked in the top 25. Even after losing starting quarterback Terry Wilson for the season last year, Kentucky powered on and got an unforgettable season out of Mr. Everything Lynn Bowden Jr., as he brought the Paul Hornung Award back to Lexington.

The Kentucky football schedule sees Georgia coming to Lexington while the Wildcats travel to Alabama, Auburn and Florida in a brutal stretch

• Kentucky football home games: Georgia, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, South Carolina, Vanderbilt
• Kentucky football road games: Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Missouri, Tennessee

Kentucky is in a very peculiar spot. The Wildcats could be the third-best team in the SEC East, maybe as high as the second-best if either the Florida Gators or the Georgia Bulldogs have a down season. Conversely, they could be as bad as the fifth-best team in their own division, depending on how they perform against the South Carolina Gamecocks and the Tennessee Volunteers.

If we want to assess how the Wildcats fared with their two extra games out of the SEC West this year, it was a slightly less-than-favorable draw. Getting the Alabama Crimson Tide is beyond brutal, as this one is in Tuscaloosa. As for the other game in question, I’m not sure how good the Ole Miss Rebels will be this year under first-year head coach Lane Kiffin, as they’ll come to Lexington.

In terms of what the ceiling is for this team in an ideal scenario, 7-3 is about as good as Big Blue is going to do here. They have a shot at winning all their home games, although they are probably not beating the Dawgs in Lexington. So 4-1 at home is realistic. As for the road games, Kentucky can beat Missouri, has to beat Tennessee and split between the Auburn Tigers and Florida.

As for the floor for Kentucky, it’s probably a 3-7 mark. Kentucky would lose at home to Georgia, beat the Vanderbilt Commodores and drop two of three to Ole Miss, South Carolina and the cross-divisional foe Mississippi State Bulldogs. The only road victory in this worst-case scenario would be at the Missouri Tigers because they have a first-year head coach in Eliah Drinkwitz.

So what should we expect out of the Wildcats this year? Do they close the gap on Florida and Georgia? Do they get revenge after losing at home to Tennessee last year? Will this be a sub-.500 team for Stoops and Kentucky fans will get ready for basketball season by Oct. 1? Ultimately, Kentucky will go either 5-5 or 6-4, depending on how the Tennessee game goes for them.

Playing at Alabama and at Florida don’t feel like winnable games. Though they could stun Georgia to potentially be perfect at home this year, don’t count on that happening, Big Blue Nation. Y’all have a shot at beating Auburn down on The Plains but don’t bank on that either. Kentucky should beat both Mississippi schools at home, Missouri, South Carolina and Vanderbilt to be at least 5-5.

Kentucky is good enough to be the third-best team in the SEC East, but not quite second place.

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