UK hasn’t been 0-3 in SEC since 2013. Where can it go after a bye week?

Kentucky’s 24-7 loss at South Carolina left the Wildcats still searching for their first Southeastern Conference victory of the season and ended a five-game win streak against the Gamecocks that dated back to 2014.

Let’s look at the significance of Saturday’s outcome beyond the scoreboard.

Bye, bye, bye

As far as the potential investment level of more casual football fans is concerned, Kentucky’s bye week could not have arrived at a worse time.

Diehards won’t go anywhere — they want more, but they’ve sat patiently through worse starts to UK football campaigns — but they’re not the majority. As Kentucky football continues to sustain momentum toward becoming a perennial contender in the Southeastern Conference’s East Division — and by extension, a more nationally-respected brand — it needs fans who haven’t gone all-in despite decade-after-decade of losing football to jump aboard the train. Unfortunately, conversions like that don’t happen unless you’re winning more often than not.

Last year was an outlier in Kentucky football history — just one of three seasons that ended with a double-digit win total — but it’s not the kind of year the program continually needs to put together in order to curry favor with those outside its diehard base. But, three-game losing streaks to other SEC teams — especially ones like South Carolina, which had only beaten an FCS team before handling the Cats — is not something it can afford to do on that quest.

A strong season is still attainable — there’s only one “sure” loss left on the schedule, but losing to a not-so-special South Carolina squad is going to dampen expectations around the commonwealth, and likely ensures that Kentucky’s trek to Georgia is the last time it will be relevant, nationally, unless it sweeps what’s left outside of the Bulldogs.

Streaking

Kentucky is on its worst losing streak since 2017, when it finished the year with three straight losses — at Georgia, vs. Louisville at home and vs. Northwestern in the Music City Bowl.

UK hasn’t lost three straight against SEC opponents since 2015, when it lost five straight from Oct. 15 to Nov. 14; three blowouts were sandwiched between tight defeats to Auburn (30-27) and Vanderbilt (21-17).

The Cats are off to their worst start in SEC play since 2013, head coach Mark Stoops’ first year in charge of the program. UK went 0-8 in conference play that season; a win over Vanderbilt in 2014 would end what had grown into a 17-game losing streak against SEC foes.

On the bright side, it’s a streak that’s unlikely to grow: Arkansas, perhaps the weakest team in the league, comes to town on Oct. 12. Both UK and the Razorbacks will be coming off bye weeks.

Ego

Some pundits pegged South Carolina as a top-25 program before things got underway. Most picked the Gamecocks ahead of UK in the preseason. This loss, in early August, was predicted more than it wasn’t. It didn’t make any less sense to pick Carolina heading into Saturday, but the outcome sure stings more than it did on paper weeks ago.

UK’s played closer to the team it was expected to be than the Gamecocks have, and that’s discouraging, as they’ve disappointed to this moment. A 1-3 start, injuries, talk of the head coach’s firing and even a surprise transfer all combined to put in doubt the ability of South Carolina to supersede Kentucky, and yet it managed to outplay the Cats by a wide margin.

As far a postseason qualification goes, the Gamecocks needed a win far more than Kentucky did; a brutal slate lies in front of them, and a loss to the Cats would have all but ended any shot at a bowl. But, coming off a gut punch against Florida and a worse hangover at Mississippi State, Kentucky’s ego was in need of a boost, and instead all it got was another bruise — arguably its worst of season.

This story was originally published September 28, 2019 at 11:24 PM.