Wanting more: As SEC expansion looms, can Kentucky football close gap with league's elite?

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — No SEC East foe has played Georgia closer the past two seasons than Kentucky. Last season, the Wildcats gave up 16 points to the Bulldogs in a 16-6 loss — the fewest Georgia scored in any game during its 15-0 campaign. In 2021, Georgia topped UK 30-13 at home — but the Wildcats trailed just 14-7 at the half before the Bulldogs pulled away in the final two quarters.
"Let's not talk about them. We don't need to aggravate them," UK coach Mark Stoops said with a smirk on Wednesday during SEC football media days. "They are the type of team, you challenge them, they are going to make you look bad."
Becoming the type of program that ruthlessly dispatches opponents and can rival Georgia, Alabama, LSU and other longtime powers in the conference is Stoops' aim. To do that, the Wildcats must close the gap between themselves and the SEC's elite — which have doubled as the nation's top programs the past quarter century.
"Putting all the pieces together — that's what it takes to win at the highest level," Stoops said. "In this league, you're great across the board. You've got dynamic playmakers, with strength and size on the perimeter. Your fronts are obviously dominant. So you're good, top to bottom. I think all of us are always trying to strive for that."
One way the Wildcats are trying to accomplish that is through attention to detail in everything they do.
"You can't win if you're not consistent," senior defensive lineman Octavious Oxendine said. "You're not (the only one) punching the clock, because everybody around the country is doing it. Georgia is doing it. Bama's doing it. Tennessee's doing it. Vanderbilt's doing it. Every SEC school is doing it. So if you're not punching the clock at the same time they're punching the clock — and (doing it) better — you can't compete."
Simply competing in the SEC, much less winning at the same clip Kentucky has enjoyed the last seven seasons, all capped by bowl appearances, will soon become more arduous. In 2024, Oklahoma and Texas join the fray. While Stoops said he hasn't noticed OU or Texas making in-roads into more traditional SEC recruiting territories yet, he expects that to change soon.
As well as the Wildcats have recruited recently — two of Stoops' best classes since taking over the program prior to the 2013 season have come in the past four years (2020, 2022) — the fact remains they still lag behind the programs they're chasing in the league's highest echelon. UK's 2022 haul was the only time in Stoops' tenure the Wildcats have signed one of the league's top-five classes.
"Our recruiting has also taken the next step," said Eli Cox, a senior in line to start at right guard this fall. "We're no longer developing — like I was low three-star, two-star who developed into a starter. Now we're developing four stars.
"And I think building on that continued success on the recruiting trail and building on that development is where you take that next step to play with those types of programs like that. Because they're not just developing the players, they're developing highly-rated players with high ceilings.”
Outside of the Wildcats' 2022 haul, every other UK signing class ranked ninth or lower in the 14-team conference — even though all of Stoops' classes have been among the top 38 nationally, per the 247Sports composite rankings.
The additions of Oklahoma and Texas likely will push UK even further down the conference pecking order — on the recruiting trail and financially.
UK ranked seventh in revenue and expenses among public SEC schools in fiscal year 2022. If Oklahoma and Texas were already members, Kentucky would drop to ninth in both categories. (As a private university, Vanderbilt is not required to disclose its spending.)
UK has increased football spending 35% — to more than $36 million — in the past five years. But that figure topped only two other public schools in the league: Missouri ($32.8 million) and Mississippi State ($29.1 million).
Despite UK's rising expenditures in football, it was the only public school in the conference to spend more money in basketball recruiting than football recruiting in FY22.
As Kentucky has continued its ascent under Stoops, it has won at a level nearly unseen in the program's history. UK has four 10-win seasons since the football program began; two of those double-digit victory campaigns have come in the past five years (2018, 2021).
"We want way, way, way more than that," Oxendine said. "It's not just about a 10-win season or just going to a bowl game. Like yeah, we've been to seven straight (bowls). We've been there, done that and we're going to keep doing that. But we want the bigger picture.
"We want our name on the billboards. We want to stay top-ranked the whole entire season. We want those type of things."