The Wildcats compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the Eastern Division of the Southeastern Conference (SEC).

The Wildcats play their home games at Kroger Field in Lexington, Kentucky and are led by head coach Mark Stoops.

[8] Head coach Jack Wright led the team to a 7–1 record in 1903, losing only to rival and southern champion Kentucky University.

[13] Notable players who played for Bryant at Kentucky include Howard Schnellenberger, Jim Mackenzie, Jerry Claiborne, Steve Meilinger, George Blanda, Vito Parilli, and Bob Gain.

[14] Cleveland Browns assistant Blanton Collier was hired to replace Bryant as head football coach at Kentucky in late 1953.

[15] Collier's assistants during his tenure at Kentucky included the likes of Bill Arnsparger, Chuck Knox, Howard Schnellenberger, and Don Shula.

[29] For all intents and purposes, however, Curci's tenure ended soon afterward, when the NCAA slapped the Wildcats with two years' probation for numerous recruiting and amateurism violations.

[37][38] Despite the high hopes that the Kentucky football program would rise under his leadership, Curry's Wildcats teams never achieved much success.

[41] Coach Hal Mumme came to Kentucky from Valdosta State and brought an exciting, high-scoring, pass-oriented offense known as the "Air Raid".

Mumme was popular among the Kentucky fans,[45] but the program was hit with severe sanctions for NCAA violations involving cash payments from an assistant coach to prospective recruits.

[65][66] Brooks led the team out of the probationary years to an 8–5 regular season record in 2006,[67] including a memorable upset over the defending SEC champion Georgia, snapping a nine-game losing streak to the Bulldogs.

[73] The 2007 Kentucky Wildcats football defeated the Florida State Seminoles 35–28 in the 2007 Music City Bowl in Nashville, Tennessee, on December 31, 2007.

[80] On July 10, 2023, the playing field at Kentucky's new indoor practice facility was named after Rich Brooks and his wife, Karen.

[84] The 2010 squad snapped a long-standing losing streak to South Carolina Coach Steve Spurrier by defeating the Gamecocks at Kroger Field.

[85] On November 26, 2011, Kentucky snapped the longest active FBS losing streak to any one team by defeating the Tennessee Vols 10–7 at Kroger Field.

[95] After nine months as the head coach of the Wildcats, Stoops and his staff signed the highest ranked recruiting class in program history.

They lost to Florida,[102] Auburn,[103] Mississippi State,[104] Tennessee,[105] Georgia,[106] Vanderbilt,[107] and Louisville,[108] and they defeated Louisiana-Lafayette,[109] South Carolina,[110] Missouri,[111] Eastern Kentucky[112] and Charlotte.

The next week, the Wildcats defeated the Eastern Kentucky Colonels in their home opener at the newly renamed Kroger Field in Lexington.

Responding to the criticized loss to Florida, the Wildcats defeated Eastern Michigan and Missouri at Kroger Field, improving their record to 5–1.

They then split the next two games, defeating South Carolina for the fifth straight season before losing for the first time, an overtime loss to Texas A&M on the road.

After the bye week, Kentucky defeated Vanderbilt at home then beat Missouri on the road thanks to a last second TD pass.

Kentucky then went on the road at Tennessee, falling to the Volunteers by a score of 24–7, ending their final SEC record at 5–3, the team's first winning season in conference play since 1977.

In Kentucky's final home game of the season, senior day, the Wildcats defeated Middle Tennessee by a score of 34–23.

Their final record was 10–3, which was Kentucky's second 10-win season, and the 4th time in program history, after beating (in order): Louisiana Monroe, Missouri, UT-Chattanooga, South Carolina, Florida, LSU, Vanderbilt, New Mexico State, Louisville and the Iowa Hawkeyes in the VRBO Citrus Bowl.

The win at Missouri clinched bowl eligibility for the 7th consecutive season for the Wildcats, the longest in Kentucky school history.

Kentucky's losses were to (in order): Ole Miss, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Georgia Bulldogs, and the Iowa Hawkeyes in the Music City Bowl.

[125] The polls for the 1950 national champion, taken before the bowl games were played, list either Oklahoma (AP, Berryman, Helms, Litkenhous, UPI, Williamson), Princeton (Boand, Poling), or Tennessee (Billingsley, DeVold, Dunkel, Missouri, Don Faurot Football Research, National Championship Foundation, Sagarin (ELO-Chess)).

Oklahoma was named national champion by AP and UPI Coaches' Poll, both which awarded their titles before the bowl games.

It was rolled onto the field that year with the words "Ice Water" painted on it to avoid any outcries over a beer keg symbolizing a college rivalry.

To capitalize on the popularity of the rivalry, the game was usually played on Thanksgiving so that the large gate could solve the team's financial problems.