What's Next for Kentucky After Embarrassing Loss to Tennessee

You don’t want to hear it right now. I get it. Losing to Tennessee stinks. It’s even worse when it’s a 38-point loss and the Cats actually entered the game ranked with a conceivable chance to ruin the Volunteers’ special season.

Instead of dancing on Knoxville graves and drinking Voluntears, Kentucky suffered its worst loss as a Top 25 team to another ranked team in program history. Despite the deflating defeat, it does not have to completely derail the 2022 Kentucky football season. Let me explain.

No One Picked Kentucky to Beat Tennessee in the Preseason

Football is a week-to-week season. Following each win and each loss, the fans’ mood swings wildly. After the South Carolina loss you were probably ready to call the season a disaster. After the Mississippi State win you probably talked yourself into a Kentucky victory over the Vols. Dreaming big and overreacting is what makes college football great.

If you press rewind and look back at our perception of the Kentucky football program in August, 10 out of 12 KSR prognosticators picked the Wildcats to lose this football game to Tennessee.

Kentucky has won only one game at Neyland Stadium since 1984. This is the best Tennessee football team in almost 25 years. The Vols have an innovative offense that is leading the nation in almost every statistical category, orchestrated by a quarterback that will be in New York for the Heisman Trophy ceremony.

Expecting a UK win in this scenario is asking too much. Did we want the Wildcats to look better? Of course, but a loss by 38 points counts the same as a three-point loss.

Proof Cats Can Get Off the Mat

The UK loss to Tennessee is the worst by margin of defeat, but it’s still not the worst loss of the Kentucky football season. That honor belongs to the egg the Cats laid without Will Levis against South Carolina. It featured just as many special teams and offensive blunders as tonight’s loss in Knoxville, but it was at home to an opponent Kentucky dominated over the last eight seasons.

Despite the jaw-dropping defeat to Shane Beamer, the following week Kentucky played one of its best games of the season in a 27-17 win over a Top 25 Mississippi State team. The Wildcats showed intestinal fortitude by responding with an authoritative win over a high-powered offense. Levis’ injury slightly alters the circumstances, but this Kentucky team proved it has the hard-nosed character of previous Mark Stoops teams that all knew how to respond to adversity. UK must apply that proof of concept next week in the Show Me State.

8-4 Finish on the Table for Kentucky

Despite tonight’s disaster at Tennessee, Kentucky can still finish the regular season 8-4. The Wildcats have won eight regular season games only five times since Bear Bryant was on the UK sidelines in the early 50s. Even though every player on the team and every fan in the Kroger Field stands wanted more before the season kicked off, an 8-win season should never be scoffed at by Kentucky football fans.

To reach that 8-win plateau (a win for some preseason over win-total bettors), Kentucky must win at Missouri and defeat Vanderbilt and Louisville at Kroger Field. Despite big conference wins by the Tigers and the Cardinals Saturday afternoon, the Wildcats should be favored in all three of those games.

Will three more wins come easily? That’s unlikely, particularly with the way the offense has played, however, ending the season with a rivalry win and a Don’t-Call-Me-Outback Bowl berth is on the table. One devastating loss does not completely ruin a season right away, so long as the Wildcats don’t let this losing feeling linger for more than a day.