Western Kentucky’s first three weeks have been brutal by any measure, and the Hilltoppers now face the kind of scheduling gauntlet that can swallow a season whole before it ever gets moving.
WKU opened with a 4,246-mile round trip to Reno, where Nevada beat the Hilltoppers 49-14. That trip happened because a previously scheduled home-and-home with Cincinnati disappeared when the Bearcats bought out the series two years ago, leaving Western Kentucky athletics director Todd Stewart trying to patch a hole in the schedule.
“We had a home and home (scheduled) with Cincinnati, and they bought us out two years ago, and that created a void that we just were not able to fill,” Stewart said. “So the only way to fill it was to plug in Nevada, which isn’t bad, but it’s a lot longer trip, obviously, than Cincinnati.”
The next stop was even rougher. Western Kentucky went to No.
2 Georgia last week and got blasted 70-20. Georgia paid the Hilltoppers $1.9 million for the game, a figure Stewart said amounts to roughly 17% of WKU’s overall football budget as listed on the Equity in Athletics Database.
And now comes the third straight road game: a trip to No. 4 Indiana, with the Hoosiers paying a $1.1 million guarantee. WKU has never beaten Indiana, going 0-5 in the series, though the last three meetings were all tight: Indiana won by three points in 2015, by two in 2021 and by three in overtime in 2022.
Since that 2022 game, Indiana has changed completely under Curt Cignetti. Stewart put it plainly: “We didn’t intentionally decide to play Georgia and the defending national champions in back-to-back weeks,” Stewart said, noting the last time WKU played IU, “we had just taken them into overtime.
We thought ‘Yeah, we’ll do this again for $1.1 million.’ But they’re, obviously, in a different place now than they were (before).”
That’s the reality of scheduling in college football, where games are booked so far ahead that the version of a team you think you’re getting may not be the one that shows up. Stewart pointed to WKU’s 2019 date with Arkansas as proof.
The Razorbacks were 8-5 in 2015 when the game was added, but by kickoff they were in the middle of a 2-10 season, and WKU won 45-19 in Fayetteville. “This time around we’re getting an Indiana team that’s a lot better than what we thought it would be” when the game was scheduled, Stewart said.
While WKU is dealing with that road grind, Kentucky has a different problem closer to home: the punt game. At his weekly news conference Tuesday at Kroger Field, UK coach Will Stein said it straight. “I think we need to punt the ball better.”
Thomas O’Hara, the Murray State transfer handling punting duties for Kentucky, is averaging 41.1 yards per kick through two games. That’s below his numbers from the past two seasons at Murray State, when he averaged 44.9 yards per punt in 2024 and 43.8 last year.
Stein said Kentucky’s effort to direct punts away from Alabama returner Ryan Coleman-Williams last week may have affected O’Hara’s rhythm in the Wildcats’ 45-17 loss. O’Hara averaged 40.8 yards on five punts in that game.
“You got a dangerous returner back there, and schematically we were trying to get it away from him,” Stein said. “So what that can do to somebody, you overthink it.”
Asked whether the punter’s job was open this week before Saturday’s game at No. 9 Texas A&M, Stein gave O’Hara a public show of support.
“I love Tom,” Stein said of O’Hara. “...
He had a really-good day (Tuesday in practice), which I was proud of him, how he responded.”
Kentucky’s loss to then-No. 12 Alabama was the Wildcats’ eighth straight defeat against AP Top 25 teams. Since the start of the 2024 season, UK is 1-9 in those games.
That’s a sharp drop from the stretch between 2018 and 2023, when Kentucky beat 11 Top 25 teams and went 11-15 against ranked opponents.
There should still be chances for the Wildcats to change that this season. In this week’s AP Top 25, six future Kentucky opponents are ranked: No.
7 LSU, No. 9 Texas A&M, No.
15 Tennessee, No. 20 Missouri, No.
23 Louisville and No. 24 Oklahoma.
Florida is just outside the poll at No. 27.
Kentucky has not often played this many ranked teams in one season. It has happened only five times in program history - 1969, 1976, 1998, 2007 and 2020.
If the 2026 Wildcats end up facing seven AP Top 25 teams, they would match the school record. In 1976, Fran Curci’s fourth UK team played seven ranked opponents and went 4-3 in those games.
In Other News...
Kentucky Just Landed In One Early Season Spotlight Again
Through the first two weeks of the 2026 college football season, Kentucky has already found itself tied to one of the sports biggest television draws. The Wildcats trip to Alabama landed among the most-watched games in the sport so far, part of a busy early slate that also featured Texas-Ohio State at the top of the list, along with heavyweight matchups like Oklahoma-Michigan, Wisconsin-Notre Dame and Clemson-LSU.
For a program that is often gauged not just by wins and losses but by how often it shows up in the national conversation, that kind of exposure matters. The weekly Nielsen tracking has made clear that the SEC is still the center of gravity for college footballs biggest audiences, and Kentuckys place on that list is another reminder that even early-season results can have a wide reach. The more interesting question now is whether the Wildcats can keep turning those kinds of spotlight games into something bigger once the ratings numbers stop and the real pressure starts. [Read more 🡒]
Kentuckys 2027 Class Still Hinges On Two Huge Frontcourt Battles
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That leaves Kentucky continuing to chase several other high-end bigs, with CJ Rosser and Lewis Uvwo both still in play as they sort through multiple programs. Both prospects have official visits on the schedule, and those trips should go a long way toward showing whether Kentucky can turn one early commitment into a stronger foundation in the paint. [Read more 🡒]
Former Wildcats Just Sent A Loud Week 1 NFL Message
Seventeen former Kentucky players saw action across NFL Week 1, giving Wildcats fans plenty to track once the college calendar turned over to pro Sundays. The group made its presence felt in all three phases, with pass rushers, receivers and offensive linemen logging meaningful snaps for teams from one end of the league to the other.
ZaDarius Smith and Josh Hines-Allen were among the biggest defensive standouts, each piling up pressure off the edge, while Deone Walker was part of Buffalos late push in a tight win over Houston. WanDale Robinson also kept his name in the box score by leading his team in receptions and yards, and Luke Fortner was in the starting lineup at center, another reminder that Kentuckys pro pipeline is still producing players who are hard to miss when the games count. [Read more 🡒]