Why Kentucky’s win vs. Virginia Tech in the Belk Bowl matters so much
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Game day: Kentucky defeats Virginia Tech in Belk Bowl
Click below to read all of the coverage from the Lexington Herald-Leader and Kentucky.com after the University of Kentucky’s 37-30 victory over Virginia Tech in the Belk Bowl at Charlotte, N.C., on Tuesday.
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The University of Kentucky football team finished its season with a victory over Virginia Tech in the Belk Bowl on Tuesday. It was UK’s second straight postseason victory and the program’s 10th overall.
Here’s a look at the significance of the outcome beyond the final score.
#Winning
No, it’s not the College Football Playoff, the Sugar Bowl or even the Citrus Bowl that it conquered almost exactly a year ago — but, for the University of Kentucky football program, every victory, especially those in front of a nationally televised audience, still matters a great deal.
Kentucky lags most of the Southeastern Conference in bowl wins, but jumped ahead of South Carolina with Tuesday’s outcome; the Gamecocks, who didn’t qualify for the postseason, are 9-14 all-time in bowl games. UK also ranks ahead of Vanderbilt, another 2019 non-qualifier who’s 4-4-1 all-time in the postseason.
The Wildcats improved to 10-9 overall in bowl appearances, joining nine other SEC teams with winning records in the postseason. In addition to South Carolina and Vanderbilt, Arkansas (15-24-3) and Texas A&M (19-22) have records that are at or below .500 among all SEC squads. It’s a razor-thin margin of differentiation, but for a program looking to climb up the ranks, anything it can point to as a mark of progress is worth touting.
UK’s win also improved the SEC’s record in bowl games this year to 4-1. So far only Mississippi State — a 38-28 loser to Louisville in the Music City Bowl on Monday — has fallen. Alabama (vs. Michigan in the Citrus Bowl), Auburn (vs. Minnesota in the Outback Bowl) and Georgia (vs. Baylor in the Sugar Bowl) play on New Year’s Day while Tennessee will take on Indiana in the Gator Bowl on Thursday.
Eight = great
As far as raw wins are concerned, this Kentucky football team is in rare company.
Only 10 other UK football teams have won eight or more games in a season. This is the second to do so under Mark Stoops, who’s now matched Rich Brooks for the number of eight-win teams at Kentucky. They’re tied for the the No. 2 spot among Wildcats coaches in that respect.
Paul “Bear” Bryant won at least eight games four times at UK, the most in school history. Bryant’s 1950 team finished 11-1, setting a school record for victories after a win in that season’s Sugar Bowl. He also had one team finish with nine wins (1949, the Orange Bowl loser that year) and two with eight wins (the 1951 squad that won the Cotton Bowl and the 1947 team that won the Great Lakes Bowl).
Stoops’ 2018 team was the third in school history to hit double-digit victories; it matched Fran Curci’s 1977 squad with 10 wins. Stoops’ other two bowl teams in 2016 and 2017 could have finished with eight wins but each lost in their respective postseason appearances.
Streaking
Kentucky won its fourth straight game since losing a heart-breaker to Tennessee at Kroger Field last month. That is the program’s second-longest stretch of wins under Stoops.
UK won its first five games of the 2018 season and matched that streak by winning its last three games that season and its first two this season. Before last year, Kentucky hadn’t won four consecutive games since 2008.
The Wildcats open the 2020 season against Eastern Michigan at home. They haven’t lost to a non-Power Five team under Stoops, so it could match its best streak of wins under him to kick off the fall. UK would need to beat Florida the next week in Gainesville to better it.
This story was originally published December 31, 2019 at 3:26 PM.
