1975 Kentucky Wildcats football team

The 1975 Kentucky Wildcats football team represented the University of Kentucky in the Southeastern Conference during the 1975 NCAA Division I football season. The Wildcats scored 132 points while allowing 183 points, finishing 2–8–1 overall, 0–6 in the SEC.^[1][2]

1975 Kentucky Wildcats football
Conference	Southeastern Conference
Record	2–8–1 (0–6 SEC)
Head coach	Fran Curci (3rd season)
Offensive coordinator	Jon Mirilovich (3rd season)
Defensive coordinator	Charlie Bailey (1st season)
Home stadium	Commonwealth Stadium
Seasons ← 1974 1976 →

1975 Southeastern Conference football standings

v t e	Conf.							Overall
Team	W		L		T			W		L		T
No. 3 Alabama $	6	–	0	–	0			11	–	1	–	0
Florida	5	–	1	–	0			9	–	3	–	0
No. 19 Georgia	5	–	1	–	0			9	–	3	–	0
Ole Miss	5	–	1	–	0			6	–	5	–	0
Tennessee	3	–	3	–	0			7	–	5	–	0
Vanderbilt	2	–	4	–	0			7	–	4	–	0
LSU	2	–	4	–	0			5	–	6	–	0
Auburn	2	–	4	–	0			3	–	6	–	2
Mississippi State	1	–	4	–	1			6	–	4	–	1
Kentucky	0	–	6	–	0			2	–	8	–	1
$ – Conference champion Mississippi State later forfeited 4 1975 wins and one tie due to NCAA violations. Rankings from AP Poll

Wally Pesuit and Tom Ranieri were chosen as team captains.^[3]

Kentucky opened with a 27–8 home victory against Virginia Tech, then lost 14–10 at home to Kansas, followed by a 10–10 tie at home against Maryland. A road game against Penn State ended in a 10–3 loss, putting Kentucky at 1–2–1 entering SEC play.^[4][5]

Kentucky lost its home conference opener to Auburn, 15–9, and then lost 17–14 at LSU. A 21–13 loss at Georgia was followed by a 23–10 home win against Tulane. A 13–3 road loss at Vanderbilt and 48–7 road loss at Florida led to a 17–13 home loss in the season finale against Tennessee.^[6][7]

The 1975 Kentucky team lost only two games by more than 9 points, and had three losses by 4 or fewer points.^[8][9] The Maryland team that tied Kentucky 10-10 finished the season as the Atlantic Coast Conference champions, with an undefeated record in conference play.^[10]

Schedule

Date	Opponent	Site	Result	Attendance	Source
September 13	Virginia Tech*	Commonwealth Stadium Lexington, KY	W 27–8	56,616	[11]
September 20	Kansas*	Commonwealth Stadium Lexington, KY	L 10–14	56,467	[12]
September 27	No. 20 Maryland*	Commonwealth Stadium Lexington, KY	T 10–10	55,000	[13]
October 4	at No. 10 Penn State*	Beaver Stadium University Park, PA	L 3–10	60,225	[14]
October 11	Auburn	Commonwealth Stadium Lexington, KY	L 9–15	57,722	[15]
October 18	at LSU	Tiger Stadium Baton Rouge, LA	L 14–17	61,083	[16]
October 25	at Georgia	Sanford Stadium Athens, GA	L 13–21	50,000	[17]
November 1	Tulane*	Commonwealth Stadium Lexington, KY	W 23–10	56,500	[18]
November 8	at Vanderbilt	Dudley Field Nashville, TN (rivalry)	L 3–13	33,815	[19]
November 15	at No. 14 Florida	Florida Field Gainesville, FL (rivalry)	L 7–48	59,671	[20]
November 22	Tennessee	Commonwealth Stadium Lexington, KY (rivalry)	L 13–17	56,000	[21]
*Non-conference game Rankings from AP Poll released prior to the game

^[22][23]

Roster

1975 Kentucky Wildcats football team roster
Players			Coaches
Offense Pos. # Name Class OT 69 Warren Bryant Jr WR 80 Randy Burke Jr RB 41 Steve Campassi Sr RB 40 Sonny Collins Sr C 53 Thon Dornbrook Fr WR 87 Bill Finn So G 59 Dan Flower So QB 5 John McGrath Jr OT 65 Wally Pesuit Sr QB 12 Derrick Ramey So	Defense Pos. # Name Class LB 87 Lester Boyd Fr DE 97 Art Still So DT 83 Bob Winkel So LB 51 Michael Emanuel Sr	Special teams Pos. # Name Class	Head coach Fran Curci Coordinators/assistant coaches Legend (C) Team captain (S) Suspended (I) Ineligible Injured Redshirt

Team players in the 1975 NFL Draft

Player	Position	Round	Pick	NFL club
Sonny Collins	Running back	2	36	Atlanta Falcons
Wally Pesuit	Tackle	5	151	Dallas Cowboys
Steve Campassi	Running back	16	439	Philadelphia Eagles

^[24]