Optimism is the mind-set in Lexington this year, but the hiring of Billy Gillespie and his subsequent recruiting conquests are definitely not the only cause. For the first time in years, the excitement on campus stems from Kentucky football, now not only a distraction until basketball season starts for the Wildcats faithful.

Last year the Wildcats told people to believe, and they delivered, going 8-5 and beating highly rated Clemson to take the Music City Bowl, their first Bowl win since 1984. This season they are aiming for their first back-to-back eight-win seasons since 1976-77. They have also said they want to be a force in the SEC East and maybe even the SEC championship game -- lofty goals for a program generally an afterthought in the big, bad SEC.

Head coach Rich Brooks is the leader of the optimism crew and even compared this year’s Wildcats favorably to his Pac-10 winning Oregon team of 1994, saying “I do think that this team has more talent on it. I do think that this team probably has more talent and more playmakers than that team possessed.” The Cats have lots of reason to believe the talk of challenging in the SEC and making the top 25 by season’s end but there are also lots of reasons to curb that optimism just a little bit.

The first of which is their 2007 recruiting class. Yes, it added a lot of much needed depth for the Cats, but the top-ranked player from the class, defensive end D.J Stafford, didn’t make the grades and will be spending this year at Junior College. The Wildcats’ recruiting class was only good enough to be ranked 58th in the nation by Scout.com, leaving them above only Vanderbilt in the SEC. Brooks was positive about the class at the time, however: ““I think you could see that this year, even though our classes haven’t been ranked extremely high, we have closed the gap on the field with athletes that can play and win in this league.”

And it is true that this is the first year since the violations in the Hal Mumme era that Kentucky is back up to the full scholarship quota, which can’t hurt. And last season’s success has seen the Wildcats get hold of some better talent. Indeed Brooks thinks some of his class are underrated: “I can guarantee you that some of these three stars are as good as any four stars in the country -- they just don’t have that star next to their name. They are going to play, and they are going to start and they are going to be good performers.” He cited the examples of current stars Wesley Woodyard and Keenan Burton to back up his point, and considering those two players, you might expect some stars to be found among this year’s class that no-one else saw coming.

A further problem is depth behind pre-season All-America QB Andre Woodson. Last year’s back-up, Curtis Pulley, who was a nose ahead of Woodson on the depth chart going into spring 2006, dropped out due to academics and will be red-shirting this season, which leaves very little depth. Freshman QBs Mike Hartline and Will Fidler have both floundered and neither has made a grab for the back-up position. So much so that true freshman Matt Lentz is being mentioned as a contender for the mop-up spot. Of course if Woodson was to get injured, Kentucky’s season would be likely to head straight down the hole. It’s no wonder that Brooks has kept his prize QB in a red jersey all through practice.

If Woodson stays healthy, however, the battle to be backup will be academic. ESPN has named him to its All-America team, ahead of the likes of Brian Brohm and Pat White. ESPN also ran a feature on how this year is the first year that Woodson has the supporting cast around him to give him a realistic chance of knocking off Brohm in all the years they have been playing against each other. A lot of people are excited about this years “Kentucky Bowl,” as it is the first season in years where it’s not a foregone conclusion who will win before the kick off. Certainly Louisville will go into the game as the favorite, but it is at Commonwealth Stadium, and the fans will be baying for a Wildcat victory, something that might just be a possibility this year. If it happens, expect both the goalposts to get torn down, not just the one that ate it after the Georgia game last year. Also expect a much heavier fine to land on the UK Athletic department’s doorstep.

The absolute worst thing for Kentucky, however, is something they can do little about: the schedule, which ranks as one of the hardest in the nation. If college football had RPI, Kentucky would be right up there. The Wildcats have the most preseason top-25 opponents of any team, with six of their 13 games against top-notch opposition, including two top-five teams. Kentucky faces No. 2 LSU, No. 3 Florida, No. 11 Louisville, No. 13 Georgia, No. 15 Tennessee and No. 20 Arkansas. Ouch. Four of those games are at Commonwealth Stadium, but even at home, it’s hard to see the Cats taking out either LSU or Florida. A victory over Louisville might just be possible and Tennessee looks ripe to take its first beating from the Wildcats since 1984 if last season’s game in Knoxville is anything to go by. Kentucky also has challenging games at South Carolina, Mississippi State and Vanderbilt, all of which are must-win if the Cats want to be in the mix for a bowl game, never mind a top-25 spot. If the Cats drop any of the games on the rest of their schedule, against Eastern Kentucky, Kent State and Florida Atlantic, the season can be written off straight away, and last year will be remembered as a fluke.