After Tennessee loss, Kentucky football must now win out to extend eight-year bowl streak

Kentucky football fell to 3-6 on the season and 1-6 in Southeastern Conference play with a 28-18 loss to Tennessee on Saturday.

Here is a look at what the loss means for the rest of the Wildcats’ 2024 season.

There is only one option left to extend the bowl streak

UK’s loss to Auburn put the Wildcats’ bowl hopes on life support but did not mathematically eliminate the Wildcats from bowl contention. The loss to Tennessee does not technically change that equation, but the Volunteers looked like the more vulnerable of the two top-10 opponents on the November schedule due to middling offensive numbers.

Now, Kentucky’s only remaining hope of playing in a bowl for the ninth consecutive season is to win out. UK must beat Murray State and Louisville at home and win at No. 6 Texas in its first trip to Austin as conference rivals.

Because Kentucky has not been mathematically eliminated from bowl contention, Mark Stoops and his players will continue to promote the belief that the streak can be extended — at least in their public comments. Fans will have no reason to share that optimism, though.

Kentucky last missed a bowl in 2015. While there was one losing record in that stretch (due to the SEC playing a conference-only schedule in 2020), one more loss will clinch Kentucky’s worst season since the turning point of the Stoops era.

Even with an offense that has struggled to score points all season and a defense that has been decimated by injuries, UK should be able to beat FCS Murray State after the upcoming bye week. A win against Louisville in the regular-season finale is far from guaranteed though, even with UK’s five-game winning streak in the Governor’s Cup rivalry.

Losses to Texas and Louisville would mean Kentucky lost six of the last seven games, bringing back memories of Stoops’ 2014 and 2015 UK teams.

Could Murray State attendance bring back memories of Joker Phillips era?

Slotting its annual FCS opponent in November presented a clear opportunity for Kentucky to catch its breath after a grueling SEC slate when the 2024 schedule was released, but the timing of that game combined with UK’s current form could lead to the smallest crowd of the Stoops era in a non-pandemic season.

Kentucky has lost four straight overall and went 0-4 at home against SEC foes this season. The upcoming bye week offers more reason for the few fans who might still be engaged in the season to check out, especially considering the basketball regular season starts Monday.

The Murray State game will not be shown on television but will be streamed online for anyone with an ESPN+ subscription or a cable package that includes the SEC Network. The lack of a TV broadcast and a 1:30 p.m. kickoff might be enough to at least draw a bigger crowd than the infamous 2012 game against Vanderbilt when a mostly empty stadium watched Kentucky get blown out the day before Phillips was fired.

Kentucky had a chance to give fans another reason to show up for the final two home games on Saturday. Now only the most die hard of fans will see much value in watching the Murray State game.

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