Kentucky won its third straight bowl under Mark Stoops. How significant was it?
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Gator Bowl wrap-up: Kentucky 23, North Carolina State 21
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The University of Kentucky football team capped its 2020 season with a top-25 victory after overcoming North Carolina State, 23-21, in the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl at Jacksonville, Fla.
Here’s what that win does for the program heading into next season.
Wins are wins
Winning non-playoff bowl games doesn’t typically have an Earth-shattering impact on a program’s stature, but one thing will always hold true: it is better to win bowl games than lose them, and Kentucky has put itself in the business of winning them.
Saturday’s victory was Kentucky’s third straight postseason win, the third time it has achieved such a streak and the first time under head coach Mark Stoops. It also was the program’s 11th bowl win in 20 total appearances, allowing it to remain one of 10 Southeastern Conference teams with all-time winning records in the postseason (The four that don’t? Arkansas, South Carolina, Texas A&M and Vanderbilt).
It also never hurts to win in front of what likely was the biggest TV audience to watch a Kentucky game this season. Ratings information isn’t available for the SEC Network, on which UK played all but one of its games, but its reach is hamstrung because it’s a regional station. A total of 2.51 million viewers, per data collected by Sports Media Watch, watched Kentucky play Florida on ESPN in late November; that could end up being the highest-rated game involving Kentucky this season, but it’s worth noting that 2.6 million watched UK beat Virginia Tech in the Belk Bowl last year.
Streak
The win was UK’s fifth overall and its fifth this season against a Power Five football team, extending its streak with at least that many P5 wins to three years.
Kentucky has achieved that feat in four of the last five years. The bulk of those wins have come against fellow SEC teams but three were against in-state rival Louisville, against whom the Cats didn’t get to play in 2020 but with whom they have extended their annual series to 2030. They’ll renew that rivalry in Louisville next November.
If you include historic Louisville, a member of the Big East until 2014, Kentucky before 2016 hadn’t beaten at least five Power Five clubs since 2007, when it defeated the Cardinals, won three SEC games and ended the year with a victory over Florida State (ACC) in the Music City Bowl.
Positivity
The 2021 season, if we’re fortunate, will look nothing like the 2020 campaign, but rather more like the majority of other college football seasons that came before it.
Kentucky got through a 10-game regular season and played in its postseason bowl without a major COVID-19 outbreak forcing postponements or cancellations. The Cats weren’t without their issues, as they hovered near the minimum-player threshold toward the end of the regular season and paid for it with poor on-field results. But in a year where “getting through it” was a mantra for all of us, the Kentucky football team symbolized that effort.
Yeah, it finished 5-6, and what it did achieve ultimately won’t be remembered by many outside of the Bluegrass State. Some within the fan base, undoubtedly, are disappointed by where it ended. Given what this team brought back from the 2019 edition, it’s hard to fault them for feeling that way.
However, the Cats finished with a victory and, had they played a normal schedule, likely would have four more wins to show for their effort. Call that spin, if you want to, but it’s a new year —why not lean toward optimism and look forward to whatever 2021 has in store?
This story was originally published January 2, 2021 at 3:44 PM.
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