Kentucky keeps rising in national polls. Here’s where the unbeaten Cats are now.

After earning its first top-25 ranking in more than a decade, Kentucky topped another Southeastern Conference foe by double digits and improved to No. 13 on Sunday in the Associated Press poll.

The unbeaten Cats, who are also No. 15 in the Amway coaches’ poll, will travel to Texas A&M on Saturday night to face a Mark Stoops friend and mentor in Coach Jimbo Fisher. The game will be played at 7 p.m. on ESPN.

“Jimbo is a very good coach,” said Stoops, who was Fisher’s defensive coordinator at Florida State before he came to UK. “He’s one of those guys that, he’s a play caller, he attacks and he will. He doesn’t just run plays, he’ll dissect what you’re doing and attack it and he’s very good, a very good coach.”

The new ranking is the Cats’ highest in the Associated Press poll since they were No. 8 on Oct. 14, 2007.

Kentucky (5-0, 3-0 SEC) has some notable stats superlatives nationally and in the Southeastern Conference this week, including the Cats being tied for third in the country in scoring defense, allowing just 12.6 points per game after five games. UK is No. 12 nationally in total defense, allowing 288.8 yards per game and 4.46 yards per play.

Senior linebacker Josh Allen leads the SEC and is tied for first nationally in tackles for loss this season with 10.5 so far. He’s tied for third in the country in sacks with six, which is tops in the conference.

Junior running back Benny Snell leads the league and is fourth in the country in rushing averaging 132.8 yards per game with eight touchdowns.

Kentucky’s next opponent, Texas A&M (3-2, 1-1) is coming off a 24-17 win over Arkansas on Saturday that Fisher called one of the Aggies’ worst games of the year so far. They had a 17-0 lead over the Razorbacks in the second quarter.

“We need to get things fixed,” Fisher said. “Had decent intensity, but our intelligence level, how to play and how to expect to win and play ahead and do things that champions do and good football teams do, we’ve got to grow in it.”

Other SEC teams in this week’s Associated Press poll include No. 1 Alabama, No. 2 Georgia, No. 5 LSU, No. 8 Auburn and No. 22 Florida. Others receiving votes include A&M, Missouri and Mississippi State.

This story was originally published September 30, 2018 at 2:38 PM.