Quick turnarounds are uncommon after previous Kentucky bowl streaks have been snapped

jon hale

Sat, Nov 23, 2024, 7:11 p.m.·3 min read

The end of Kentucky football’s eight-year bowl streak had looked certain for weeks, but it was not until Saturday’s loss at Texas that the Wildcats were mathematically eliminated from postseason play.

Now, Kentucky coach Mark Stoops has another bit of program history to overcome if he wants to prove the 2024 losing record was a fluke and not a harbinger of bigger problems in the new-look college football landscape. In a program that has rarely known long stretches of success, dips in form have usually become long lulls.

Only once in program history has Kentucky lost a bowl streak only to return to a postseason showcase a year later, and that anomaly came in 1949 after the program reached its first ever bowl in 1947 then went 5-3-2 without receiving a bowl bid in 1948. Every other time UK lost a bowl streak, it went at least four seasons before returning to a bowl game.

Of course, the current bowl system looks much different than it did for much of program history with even mediocre 6-6 Power Four teams guaranteed to play in a bowl. That reality offers more hope for Stoops to mount a quick bounce-back in 2025, but quick success will not come easy.

Here’s a closer look at how long it took UK to return to postseason play after previous bowl streaks were snapped.

Post-Bryant era

Legendary coach Paul “Bear” Bryant” led Kentucky to arguably the best three-year stretch in program history with bids to the Orange Bowl, Sugar Bowl and Cotton Bowl from 1949 to 1951, but after dipping to 5-4-2 in 1952 Kentucky went 24 seasons without a bowl. Much of that drought can be attributed to the program’s inability to replace Bryant, who went 7-2-1 in a bowless 1954 season before leaving for Texas A&M. Three different UK coaches would follow Bryant without reaching a bowl until Fran Curci returned the Wildcats to postseason play in 1976. That success proved short-lived though as the program was placed on probation, preventing the 10-1 1977 team from playing in a bowl.

Jerry Claiborne turns it around

Inheriting a program dealing with the lingering effects of probation, Jerry Claiborne went 0-10-1 in his first season as coach in 1982, marking UK’s fifth consecutive losing season. He mounted one of the best single-season turnarounds in program history to go 6-5-1 with a Hall of Fame Bowl berth in 1983 then followed that with a 9-3 record and second straight trip to the Hall of Fame Bowl in 1984. The success proved difficult to maintain though as UK dipped to 5-6 in 1985 and would go eight straight seasons without another bowl berth.

Another probation stalls success

Bill Curry returned UK to postseason play with a Peach Bowl berth in 1993 but would not lead the Wildcats to another bowl in his tenure. The four-year drought that followed the Peach Bowl ended when Hal Mumme and Tim Couch led the Wildcats to the Outback Bowl in 1998. Kentucky reached the Music City Bowl in 1999, but the Mumme era collapsed to 2-10 in 2000 before recruiting violations ended Mumme’s tenure and placed the program back on probation. UK would go six consecutive seasons without another bowl — though the 7-5 2002 team would have played in one if not for the postseason ban. Rich Brooks ended that streak with a Music City Bowl win to cap an 8-5 2006 season.

The Stoops era

Kentucky went to five straight bowls from 2006 to 2010, but dipped to 6-7 with a BBVA Compass Bowl loss to Pittsburgh in 2010 in the first season of the Joker Phillips era. Two more losing records, including a 2-10 mark in 2012, cost Phillips his job, leading to the hire of Stoops. It took Stoops four seasons to end the six-year bowl drought with a Gator Bowl berth in 2016. That started the current eight-year bowl streak that ended Saturday.