As 2005 turned to 2006, Corey Peters was getting the VIP treatment at some of college football's swankiest addresses.

The all-expenses-paid junket that is an "official recruiting visit" whisked the Louisville Central star to Ohio State, Michigan and Auburn.

Hometown Louisville and state university Kentucky also had red carpets to roll out for a four-star defensive tackle with every positive intangible a coach could want.

By the time the coveted prospect wrapped up his travels, Peters had noticed a repetitive narrative to all his non-UK visits

Why go to Kentucky? You'll never win. Go to Kentucky, bowl games will be things you watch on TV. You can do better than Kentucky.

"That was kind of the common denominator of all the places I visited," Peters said. "Not so much from the coaches, but from the player hosts and even some people in my community. Most definitely, they said Kentucky football was pretty much hopeless."

As Peters talked, he had just finished a workout for UK's Dec. 27 meeting with Clemson in the Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl.

It will be the fourth bowl game Peters will have played in for Kentucky.

The school that couldn't win at football is 30-21 since Peters said no to those bad-mouthing football titans and yes to Rich Brooks and Joker Phillips.

Said Peters: "Four years ago, I bought into what Coach Brooks and Coach Phillips were selling. And it has worked out pretty much the way they said it would."

College football's old money had the same why-waste-yourself-at-Kentucky spiel for Micah Johnson. The most highly recruited player to sign with UK during the Brooks era, the linebacker from Fort Campbell said no to Georgia, Virginia Tech and Notre Dame.

"Every sales pitch negative against Kentucky was sold to me," Johnson said. "They talked about tradition, (that) Kentucky was not a program known for winning."

Pause.

"It feels good," Johnson said, "to have won some games here, won some big games and some bowls. Hopefully, we can get another one."

OK, UK hasn't exactly become a BCS bowl regular. When it comes time for the football post-season, the Cats are as much at home in Tennessee as Dolly Parton.

Still, the current UK senior class will leave Lexington having never known anything but winning seasons. During their careers, regal football names such as Georgia (twice), Clemson, Arkansas (twice), Louisiana State, Florida State and Auburn have tasted defeat at the hands of Kentucky.

Of all the graduating Cats, the one I feel the best for is the classy Peters.

At the time he pledged his allegiance to UK, his hometown school, U of L, was soaring. In Peters' first game as a Wildcat, Bobby Petrino's brash lads humiliated Kentucky 59-28.

"I took more grief for choosing Kentucky over Louisville than turning down those big football schools," Peters said. "I had people tell me I was stupid. You know, the barber-shop talk."

Why did he pick UK at a time there seemed few logical reasons for a Louisville product to do so?

"They were honest with me from the beginning, and I felt comfortable with that," Peters said. "They didn't come in and say we were going to win the national championship (my) freshman year."

What Kentucky did tell him, Peters said, was that he'd have a chance to play right away. That, if he worked hard, he could establish himself as a regular by his sophomore year. That he could be an All-Southeastern Conference performer by his senior year.

"They said we were going to win some games and go to some bowl games," Peters said. "And I could tell in Coach Phillips' eyes and Coach Brooks' eyes they believed it. That made me believe it."

When the 6-foot-3, 295-pound Peters dons his No. 91 UK jersey for the final time in Nashville, he will do so as a 2009 first-team All-Conference selection by the SEC's coaches.

It should be of special note to Louisville barber-shop patrons that Peters leaves Lexington having helped UK win three in a row over U of L.

If Peters could somehow hook up with those trash-talking recruiting hosts of four years ago, he'd have an interesting fact to drop on them. Of his five recruiting finalists — Ohio State, Michigan, Auburn, Louisville, UK — only the Buckeyes have matched Peters and the Wildcats in going to four straight bowls.

"I had a gut feeling, and I decided to go with that feeling," Peters said of picking UK. "When you feel that sure, it doesn't matter what somebody else says."

Someone far more gifted with words than I might have said Corey Peters took the road less traveled and, for UK football, that's made all the difference.