Two straight losses don’t help Kentucky football in latest polls

A bad week for Kentucky football continued to get worse on Sunday as the Cats dropped like a rock in the Associated Press poll.

Coming off back-to-back losses, including a 24-7 dismantling at Tennessee on Saturday, UK fell eight spots to No. 20 in the newest weekly poll.

The College Football Playoff Committee, which decides the four teams that will play in the national semifinal games and the prestigious New Year’s Six bowl teams, will come out with its new rankings on Tuesday night.

Coming in at No. 11 in the CFP ranking last week, Kentucky (7-3, 5-3 Southeastern Conference) looked like it had a solid chance to play in one of those top-tier bowls after the holidays.

Kentucky took a sizable dive in the Amway coaches’ poll that came out earlier on Sunday, tumbling from No. 9 to No. 21 overall.

The Cats have two more games left in the regular season, first is a Senior Day matchup with Middle Tennessee State (7-3, 6-1 Conference USA). UK will honor nearly 20 players in the annual ceremony at Kroger Field.

On Twitter on Sunday morning, senior linebacker Josh Allen asked Kentucky fans to continue to support the team this weekend despite its recent struggles against SEC East foes Georgia and Tennessee.

“If there is one game I want and need everyone to show up to it’s this one this weekend,” he posted.

Kentucky said that 16 seniors will be honored in the pre-game ceremony on Saturday, but it did not say if there were any players forgoing their final seasons of eligibility. A full list of the seniors will be released on Monday.

In its final regular-season game, UK will play Louisville at Cardinal Stadium. The Cards fired coach Bobby Petrino on Sunday morning after Louisville started the season 2-8 overall and winless in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

This story was originally published November 11, 2018 at 2:05 PM.