Is UK really bowl worthy?

Mark Story / Herald-Leader Sports Columnist

Mark Story

When the 2008 Kentucky football season began, my view of what constituted success for Rich Brooks & Co. was simple.

If UK reached six wins to become bowl eligible for a third straight year for the first time since the 1950s, the season would be a complete success.

No qualifiers. No questions asked.

On a cold Saturday night before a Neyland Stadium crowd dotted with abundant empty seats for Phillip Fulmer's swan song, the 2008 Kentucky season ended the way UK football seasons always do.

With a dispiriting loss to Tennessee.

The Volunteers' 28-10 drubbing of the listless Cats ran the embarrassing streak of UK's consecutive football losses to UT to 24.

Still, Kentucky ends 2008 with six wins. It will go to a bowl — maybe the same exact bowl — for a third straight year.

Yet, having witnessed Kentucky do exactly what I set as the standard of success for 2008, I find myself in the mood to ask some questions.

Has any team ever compiled a less impressive body of work to become bowl eligible than the 2008 Kentucky Wildcats?

Among major conference competition, Kentucky beat two mediocre teams — Louisville and Arkansas — and one bad one in Mississippi State.

UK won its two conference games by a combined total of two points — and needed a miracle rally to get its one-point win over Arkansas.

Kentucky's other three wins came in "guarantee games" against teams from lower conferences who accepted big paydays to come to Commonwealth Stadium.

Even one of those teams, Middle Tennessee, was one yard from beating the Cats on the last play of the game.

Which brings us to: Can there be many — any — worse teams ever to reach a bowl than the current Cats?

UK is going bowling after finishing last in the Southeastern Conference East. It limps into the post-season having lost four of its last five.

It will not have beaten a team with a winning record this season. Unless Louisville upsets Rutgers in its season finale, Kentucky (6-6) will not even have beaten a .500 team in 2008.

The UK offense was bad all year. The Kentucky defense started strong but wore down. The Cats' special teams, well, we won't even go there.

Should The Long-Suffering UK Football Fan consider this a success?

Does Rich Brooks?

"Am I happy with six wins?" Brooks said. "Hell no, I'm not happy with six wins. But in the grand scheme of things, it's better than five, four or three."

Brooks noted that this will be only the second time in Kentucky's football-challenged history that the Wildcats have played in bowls in three consecutive years.

"So in the grand scheme of things, is this season a success? You're damn right it is," Brooks said.

Mitch Barnhart, the Kentucky athletics director, says those who question whether Kentucky deserves to go bowling in 2008 need to try a little game of compare and contrast.

"Two of the greatest college football programs of all time — Michigan and Tennessee — are staying home," Barnhart said of the bowl season. "Auburn and Arkansas are staying home. UCLA will be staying home.

"You look at us. We lost 97 percent of our offensive production from last year to the NFL. We lost one of our best athletes (dismissed quarterback Curtis Pulley) before this season even started. Then, our best wide receiver (Dicky Lyons Jr.) and our fastest running back (Derrick Locke) got hurt."

"With all we had to fight through, to be able to continue the momentum of our program by going to another bowl is significant."

Even with my questions, here's why I buy that.

Louisville built from a 1-10 football team in 1997 to the Orange Bowl champions in 2007 by stringing together a consecutive series of trips to Motor City, Humanitarian, Liberty and GMAC Bowls.

Getting that month of extra practice that comes from a bowl is huge for player development.

Being able to truthfully tell high school prospects that your school regularly plays in bowls is important to recruiting.

What UK did to become bowl eligible is as thin as pigskin achievements get.

But on the often tortured journey that is UK football, there have been many years when Kentucky could not have beaten six bad-to-mediocre teams to get bowl eligible.

There is no question about that.

Reach Mark Story at (859) 231-3230, or (800) 950-6397, Ext. 3230, or mstory@herald-leader.com. Your e-mail could appear on the blog Read Mark Story's E-Mail at Kentucky.com.