Kentucky football moves up in polls, but not as much as it hoped

There was a lot of abstract discussion late Saturday night about Kentucky potentially being ranked among the top 10 in the country following its 6-1 start to the season.

After a 14-7 victory over Vanderbilt at Kroger Field where the Cats showed they still have a few things on which to improve, Coach Mark Stoops told his team: “Hold your head high, you’re a 6-1 football team on your way moving up into the top 10, and we have another great opportunity this week.”

Kentucky will have to settle for continuing to be on its way to top-10 status this week with the Cats jumping two spots to No. 12 in Sunday’s Associated Press poll. UK is still a few steps away from being rated among the country’s 10 best teams.

The last time Kentucky was a top-10 team was on Oct. 14, 2007, when the Cats were ranked No. 8.

While he acknowledged that being a top-10 team going into the game at Missouri (4-3, 0-3 Southeastern Conference) on Saturday would be “cool,” junior linebacker Kash Daniel said UK isn’t poll watching.

“I’m just worried about Mizzou now,” said Daniel, who now has a cast on his broken left hand. “It would be cool to see the number by our name being (better) than last week. But ultimately being ranked is great and all, but anybody can be beaten on any day.”

Kentucky (6-1, 4-1) has to continue to be focused on larger prizes like the SEC East race with key games against Missouri, Georgia and Tennessee all coming up.

“Our time is starting to come,” Benny Snell said on Saturday night after his 169 yards rushing and go-ahead touchdown versus Vandy. “But we have to have that mentality. We’re still hungry.”

The Cats are a consensus top-15 team this week, coming in at No. 14 in the Amway Coaches Poll earlier on Sunday.

Along with Kentucky, there are six SEC teams in the latest poll: No. 1 Alabama, No. 4 LSU, No. 7 Georgia, No. 9 Florida, No. 16 Texas A&M.

This story was originally published October 21, 2018 at 2:14 PM.