After another Tennessee loss, can Kentucky football stop bleeding in time to save season?
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Game day: No. 21 Tennessee 33, Kentucky 27
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Kentucky football’s losing streak hit three games with a 33-27 loss to Tennessee on Saturday. The Wildcats fell to 5-3 on the season and 2-3 in SEC play with a difficult final four games remaining.
Here’s what the loss means beyond the scoreboard.
When will the losing streak end?
Considering Kentucky was a home underdog to Tennessee, the outcome cannot be considered a surprise, but it still ratchets up the pressure with the season in danger of spiraling out of control.
On paper, next week’s game at Mississippi State looks like a good chance for the Wildcats to stop the bleeding. The Bulldogs have struggled for much of the first season of the Zach Arnett era with their only SEC victory a 7-3 win over an Arkansas team that is 0-5 in league play. Still, a Kentucky win is no sure thing considering the Wildcats’ current form and the fact UK has not won in Starkville since 2008.
If Kentucky cannot win at Mississippi State, fears of a repeat of the 2014 collapse that saw the Wildcats start 5-1 then lose the final six games will be hard to ignore. UK figures to be a sizable underdog at home against Alabama on Nov. 11. The final two games are on the road, at South Carolina and at No. 18 Louisville. South Carolina is just 1-5 in SEC play, but the Gamecocks did beat UK in Lexington last season and could be playing for bowl eligibility.
The most likely scenario remains that Kentucky wins at least one of the Mississippi State and South Carolina games, but every loss adds to the pressure. We simply don’t know how a team built around one-year transfers for hire will respond if the losing streak continues next week.
A fitting end to the SEC East era of the rivalry
The future of the Kentucky-Tennessee rivalry is in flux with the SEC yet to commit to a future schedule format once Oklahoma and Texas join the league. The border rivals will play next season, the first year with 16 SEC teams and no divisions, but if the SEC stays at an eight-game schedule long term it is unlikely Kentucky and Tennessee will continue to play every year. Even if the conference schedule goes to nine games, there is no guarantee Kentucky and Tennessee will be paired as permanent opponents.
The two teams have played every season since 1919 with the exception of 1943 when neither school fielded a football team due to World War II. In an eight-game format where every team has only one fixed opponent, Tennessee is likely to be paired with Vanderbilt and Kentucky with South Carolina.
Regardless of what happens in the future, whenever Kentucky and Tennessee face off moving forward they will no longer do so as division rivals. Since the league split into two divisions in 1992, Tennessee is 29-3 against Kentucky. All three UK wins in that span have come since 2011, but Kentucky was unable to take advantage of Tennessee’s struggles for most of the last decade.
The final game between the rivals during the SEC East era ends like most of the others over the last 32 years, with a Tennessee win. Vols coach Josh Heupel is now 3-0 against Kentucky, ending any hope UK had passed Tennessee in the SEC pecking order.
This story was originally published October 28, 2023 at 10:28 PM.
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