With bowl streak over, Kentucky pushes chips in on Louisville: "Freaking strap it up and let's go."

The Kentucky Wildcats have essentially nothing left to play for in 2024, their postseason dreams crushed following a seventh loss on the season to knock them out of bowl eligibility for the first time since 2015. It was a streak Mark Stoops and the coaching staff were proud of, something they didn’t take lightly or for granted.

“The bowl game streak is gone. It hurts. It’s not fun.” Stoops said following the 31-14 loss at No. 3 Texas. “It’s something we’re proud of as a program. We put a lot of work into it. There’s a lot of people. You can’t take that stuff for granted.”

Kentucky ends the season with a pathetic 1-7 record in SEC play, losing every game of importance outside of that miracle in Oxford — that optimism feels like a lifetime ago, doesn’t it? The Wildcats are no longer playing for an invite to their umpteenth Music City Bowl in Nashville, essentially all that was on the table going into the Texas game anyway. That doesn’t mean the season is quite over yet, though. One game remains on the schedule, and it’s a big one.

Louisville comes to town with Kentucky riding a five-game winning streak in the series, one dating back to 2018. It started with a 56-10 win in ’18, followed by finishes of 45-13 in ’19, 52-21 in ’21, 26-13 in ’22 and 38-31 in ’23.

If the program can’t push its chips in on the postseason, you better believe it’s going to fight to keep that streak alive in the rivalry matchup to close out the year.

“We talked about it after Tennessee, we talked after — it’s just football character,” defensive coordinator Brad White said Saturday. “You’re playing a rivalry game. It doesn’t matter if you’re 10-0 or 0-10, they are and we are. Throw records out the window in these kind of games. Freaking strap it up and let’s go. We’ve got to execute better, they’re a good football team. We’ll get on that (Sunday) and attack the week.”

Worried about buy-in among the players at a point where punting on the now and preparing for the future would be somewhat understandable? That’s not how they’re viewing next week’s finale. After a disappointing year in every sense, there’s a desire to right some of those wrongs at home in a game that is important to a fanbase that has put more into the program than it has received as of late.

Why not go out on a high note?

“We’ve got one more and it’s against our rival,” tight end Josh Kattus said. “All year we’ve shown good stuff, but we’ve also shown some bad stuff. Just haven’t been able to put it all together. That’s what we’ve got to do for this last game. Louisville is a talented team and we know they’re gonna want to come in and beat us in our place. We’ve got to put it all together for this last game.”

For the local talent, this game will always mean something — no matter what the records say or the current momentum of the programs.

“Yeah, most definitely (the rivalry is important),” hometown defensive back Ty Bryant added. “Growing up a Lexington kid, I was taught to not like Louisville. That’s just me personally. For the team, going out on a high note, that’s definitely important for us — especially with how rough the season has been.”

For Kentucky, Louisville is now the team’s bowl game. This is all they have left to play for and they want to make the most of it.