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Sep 21, 2024; Lexington, Kentucky, USA; Kentucky Wildcats head coach Mark Stoops walks onto the field before the game against the Ohio Bobcats at Kroger Field. Mandatory Credit: Jordan Prather-Imagn Images Jordan Prather-Imagn Images

Numbers to know before Kentucky's season-opener against Toledo

Originally posted on Kentucky Wildcats on SI
By Wyatt Huff | Last updated Aug 30, 2025 8:35 AM ET

Kentucky will open the 2025 season on Saturday welcoming in the Toledo Rockets to Kroger Field, who are the preseason favorites in the MAC. The two programs have only faced each other once in history, in 2019, where Kentucky came out of halftime in a close game before pulling away for a blowout victory.

Heading into the matchup, the general public, mainly national folks, beleive in Toledo entering the season, with some even having Kentucky on upset alert. That was also a big reason why the spread moved from Kentucky -12.5 all the way to -7.5, which is now back up to -9.5 due to a large number of people backing the Wildcats as the spread dropped. Let's take a look at some key trends and numbers heading into Kentucky's season-opener.

Kentucky's record in season openers

Jordan Prather-Imagn Images

Mark Stoops is heading into year 13 as the head coach of the Wildcats and he has a pretty favorable track record in past season openers. Since Stoops took over as the head man, Kentucky is 8-3 in their season openers, with their last season-opening loss coming against Auburn in 2020. The others are Southern Miss (2016) and WKU (2013). It's worth noting that their 2021 season-opening win was vacated, meaning it doesn't count towards the record.

Recently, though, it's been all Kentucky in their season-openers. The Wildcats have a really nice trend going, winning seven of their last eight, including five straight.

Toledo's history against Power 4, SEC schools

Matt Bush-Imagn Images

The Rockets are coming off of a season where they were able to grab some signature program wins. Last season, Toledo came into a road game at Mississippi State and absolutely dominating, winning 41-17, proving they are a very capable team. Not only that, the Rockets also pulled off a thrilling six-overtime win over Pitt in the GameAbove Sports Bowl, making them 2-0 against Power 4 teams last season.

Toledo is 2-4 all-time against SEC schools in particular, with wins over Mississippi State (2024) and Arkansas (2015). Also, since head coach Jason Candle took over in 2016, the Rockets have won 72 games, the most in the MAC in that span. Candle will be entering Kroger Field on Saturday looking to pull off the upset, but also is eying to become the all-time winningest coach in Toledo football history, as he is just one win away. It's also worth noting Toledo has not had a losing season since 2009, the third-longest streak in FBS.

There is plenty of hype around the Rockets entering the season, who have an exciting offense led by quarterback Tucker Gleason, along with a very talented secondary, but Kentucky knows not to take a team who is not only the MAC preseason favorite, but also a team who received a handful of AP Top 25 votes, lightly.

Kentucky will get a good first test on Saturday as they hope to show just how much they have improved since last season.

This article first appeared on Kentucky Wildcats on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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