Vince Marrow on Kentucky's SEC Championship dream: "This may be the year"

Since they arrived in Lexington, Mark Stoops and Vince Marrow’s goal for Kentucky Football was getting to the SEC Championship in Atlanta. Almost ten years and a lot of hard work later, Marrow believes this may finally be the season they do it.

There’s one big roadblock in the way of that dream: Georgia, the defending national champions. At the end of his appearance on Kentucky Sports Radio today, Marrow reflected on Kentucky’s performance vs. Georgia in recent years. The hype for the 2018 game vs. the No. 6 Bulldogs in Lexington was huge, but the Cats lost 34-17. A year later, Kentucky got shut out 21-0. In 2020, Georgia won 14-3. Last season, the Cats scored two touchdowns vs. the No. 1 Bulldogs in Athens, which no other team had done at that point of the season; however, costly errors led to a 30-17 loss.

“In [2018], we were not ready for that game,” Marrow said. “But when we played them last year and went down there, I’m telling you, our guys went in and we were not — we really thought we would win that game. I don’t think you remember, but we had three field goals blocked. Wan’Dale [Robinson] drops the touchdown pass and then we missed the field goal on that and then we had two more field goals blocked. So we lost 30-17. I’m just telling you, if we picked that fumble up — the one they said wasn’t a fumble — that’s a different game because now they’re only up by three and we’re going into halftime.”

“We’re gonna try to get to Atlanta. This may be the year”

Kentucky hosts Georgia on November 19, the second to last game of the season. If the Cats have the year we’re dreaming of, that game will decide the SEC East. You could hear the excitement in Marrow’s voice as he pictured a rowdy Kroger Field on a cold November night.

“This year — again, you take every game [seriously] — but I think it’s gonna come down to that game. November 19. Here. The second to last game. It’s gonna be cold, probably. Kroger Field’s gonna be rocking. It’ll be cold. It’ll be a good time to play some football.”

What gives Marrow confidence this is the year Kentucky Football finally takes that next step? It starts with quarterback Will Levis.

“The strength is our quarterback. I think starting with him, we return three starters on the offensive line. Our tight ends are back, which is a very talented room. All of our running backs. Receivers.

“I think what fans are going to see is what Mark Stoops has built. You’re going to come and see a team that expects to win, that will win, and we’re gonna try to get to Atlanta. This may be the year where we look and say, this is the last door we need to kick in to get down there.”