Mark Stoops addresses end of Kentucky bowl game streak: ‘It hurts’

With their loss in Austin this weekend, Kentucky will not be bowl eligible for the first time since 2015.

Mark Stoops discussed the loss of the longest bowl streak in school history following a 31-14 loss at Texas. It’s something that they hate to see end considering what all they’d put into that accomplishment by their program over the last eight years.

“You know, I know the bowl game streak is gone and, hey, it hurts. It’s not fun,” Stoops said postgame on Saturday. “It’s something that we were proud of as a program. We put a lot of work into it, a lot of people.”

“There’s not, you know – you can’t take that stuff for granted,” said Stoops.

The Wildcats had nearly doubled their previous record of consecutive bowl berths with eight from 2016 to 2023 exceeding their five from 2006 to 2010. The run included four consecutive wins from 2018 to 2021. They won a Gator Bowl, a Belk Bowl, and a pair of Citrus Bowls to end two 10-win seasons.

UK had one of the longer bowl streaks in the league as well as nationally over that span. That’s why it bothers them that much more to see it not continue within the context of them in their conference.

“You know, it’s, you know, unless Oklahoma can pull out a big upset, there’s going to be two teams out of 16 that went to eight straight. Unfortunately, we’re going to break that streak,” Stoops said. “You know, that hurts, you know, because everybody thinks its easy. It’s not – not in this league and not, you know, with the guys we play.”

Kentucky, with a record that can at best finish after this weekend at 5-7, has lost one of its bigger achievements, if not the biggest one that they’ve had during the tenure for Stoops. There’s still one game to play, though, with it already determined that it’ll be the last of the year for the Wildcats.

“So, you know, it hurts. I feel for our guys,” said Stoops. “We’ll get back to work tomorrow.”