Kentucky’s losing streak at Tennessee is finally over. Don’t forget to celebrate.
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Game day: Kentucky 34, Tennessee 7
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Saturday’s Kentucky-Tennessee football game at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tenn.
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Kentucky went down to Knoxville and, for the first time since 1984, left with a win in hand. The Wildcats are now 2-2 in 2020.
Beyond the victory, here’s what Saturday’s 34-7 victory means for UK’s football program.
A rare win
If your stake in the Wildcats has existed for decades, a fair share of heartbreak has been handed to you by the Volunteers. One need not have been a fan for very long to experience disappointment in this so-called rivalry, though. Just look at the last decade’s worth of games: from 2010 to 2019, Kentucky won twice, which by recent standards is a resounding success. It kicked off the 2020s with another victory, just its third over the last 36 meetings.
The gains Kentucky has made as a program under Mark Stoops are monumental, but it’s been dispiriting that the Cats have been unable to make up much ground against their neighbors to the south. During his tenure, Vanderbilt has a winning record (4-3) over the Vols, including a three-game win streak from 2016-2018. UK hasn’t won two in a row in the series since 1976-77, and is the only Southeastern Conference East Division team that hasn’t won consecutive games over the Volunteers in the last decade.
For UK to be the program it desires to be, it needs to buck that trend. Tennessee is the more significant program, historically, but the Wildcats have caught up in many aspects. That includes their overall record; over the last five seasons (a full recruiting class cycle, including a redshirt season) UK is 37-27 while the Volunteers are 35-28. UK’s current bowl streak (four) is longer than any Tennessee has strung together since Phillip Fulmer was its head coach.
The Volunteers have lived rent-free in Kentucky’s head for too long. The pummeling Kentucky gave them on Saturday should serve as an eviction notice.
Winning record?
Kentucky’s “easiest” path to a winning record this season would have included victories over Mississippi and Tennessee, against whom it went 1-1. With games against national-title hopefuls Georgia (Oct. 31) and Alabama (Nov. 21) left on the schedule, coming out of the regular season with anything better than a 6-4 record seems farfetched, but a victory over the Vols certainly helps that quest.
Having a win over Tennessee in the bag makes reaching .500 in the regular season — a goal worth commending against a 10-game slate of SEC foes — more achievable, but not exactly a sure thing.
If you assume losses to ‘Bama and Georgia, getting to .500 would mean winning at Florida — not impossible, but the Gators will be a big favorite regardless of where they stand in the SEC East hunt — or overcoming South Carolina, who embarrassed the Cats last year in Columbia, in the season finale. The Cats would have to win those games in consecutive weeks.
Missouri’s proven to be no slouch and the Cats travel there next week. They should feel good about their chances, though: UK has won five straight against the Tigers, their best active streak.
The only “sure win” left on the schedule is at home against Vanderbilt on Nov. 14. There are a lot of years — 2019 was one of them — where three wins in the SEC would have been celebrated. If the Wildcats finished 3-7 this year, though? It’s harder to see.
Something to enjoy
Let’s just say it: this year has sucked, and yet another loss to the Volunteers would have made it all the more miserable for faithful members of the Big Blue Nation.
The outcome of any football game doesn’t change the ongoing realities of the world. For a few hours, though, even when games are frustrating to watch, they provide something of an escape. And a victory? For the next week, at a minimum, that’s something to be excited about. It’s a reason to get off the couch and talk to your buddies. It’ll trigger radio-show callers to phone in and talk about how Kentucky can win the SEC East if it can get by Georgia. Surely some poor couch, somewhere, won’t know what’s about to hit it.
And ya know what? If the people watching it are standing 6 feet apart, I say let it burn.
This story was originally published October 17, 2020 at 3:04 PM.
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