The 2025 season is probably the most pivotal campaign of Mark Stoops‘ tenure as the head coach of the Kentucky Wildcats, and it hasn’t gotten off to a very good start against the Toledo Rockets.
The Cats came out in the first half and were unable to build any consistency on offense against a team that Kentucky has a massive talent and size advantage over, entering the locker room nursing a 10-2 lead.
In total, the Stoops’ offense managed only 103 total yards in the half and turned the ball over twice, including an ugly interception by the team’s new quarterback, Zach Calzada.
Calzada also went down in his own end zone early in the second quarter while taking a costly sack, which is what got Toledo on the board with their only points in the half.
The seventh-year senior did manage to score an early touchdown on the ground, punching the ball in for the Cats on a QB sneak from the 1-yard line halfway through the first quarter.
Still, the overall lack of production from the offense does not bode well for a Kentucky team that was desperately looking for some improvement in that department heading into the year.
If this is what the offense ends up looking like all season, then Stoops could be on the outs sooner rather than later in Lexington.
