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Cats look to end streak, pack for New Year's Day

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LEXINGTON - The Kentucky Wildcats’ goal of ending a 24-game football losing streak to the Tennessee Volunteers feels like more than just talk this week as the two teams prepare to battle Saturday at 7 p.m. at Commonwealth Stadium (on ESPNU).
It feels like a time bomb ready to explode...like, surely, the moon and the stars have to align one of these days, hopefully Saturday, and lift Coach Rich Brooks’ team to that pot-of-gold win over UT.

Brooks and company will say goodbye Saturday to a class of 26 seniors who have lifted Kentucky football back to respectability, on and off the field, so it would seem like there could be no more fitting time to end The Streak.

Not only have those 26 seniors not tasted victory against the Volunteers, but none of them were even BORN when Kentucky last beat Tennessee, 17-12, in 1984.

Making this place and time even more poignant is that the 68-year-old Brooks may not be around the program that much longer. He has three years remaining on his contract at UK, with the next head coach in waiting, current offensive coordinator Joker Phillips, ready to take over whenever Brooks gives up the reigns.

And there’s also the fact that Kentucky, 7-4 overall and 3-4 in the Southeastern Conference, could ensure itself second place in the SEC East and a probable bid to the Outback Bowl in Tampa (Jan. 1 at 11 a.m.) with a win. With a loss, the Wildcats will tie for fourth in the East and probably go to the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl Dec. 31 in Atlanta.

Kentucky is coming off a rare win at Georgia, 34-27, last Saturday.

Tennessee comes into Saturday’s game at 6-5 overall and 3-4 in the SEC, off a 31-16 win at home over Vanderbilt.

Biggest win yet
UK senior lineman Christian Johnson no doubt spoke for a lot of the Wildcat seniors on Monday when he said:
“If we could do that (beat Tennessee), it would probably be our biggest win because we have beaten Louisville, we beat Georgia, beat Auburn, beat LSU ... so this game would be huge for us. Really huge.

“And for coach, too,” Johnson added, referring to Brooks. “I want Coach Brooks to get this win. This is my last year here, and he has told us his time is winding down, too. I’m not saying this is his last year, but obviously it’s coming soon.

“So I think this is a must win.”

Near the end of his portion of a press conference on Monday, Alan Cutler of WLEX-TV in Lexington politely asked Brooks if, indeed, he is coming back next year.

“I am kind of like the old energizer bunny,” Brooks said. “I might need to get some batteries recharged, but we will talk about that at the appropriate time.”

A few questions later, another reporter tried to ask Brooks again about retirement. That reporter did so as Brooks was in the middle of answering a question from another reporter.

Brooks was more than a little agitated, and he had every right to be.

“I’m not going to answer anything about that any more,” Brooks all but shouted, referring to retirement talk. “I’m going to talk about Tennessee ... no charging the batteries, no coming back next year ... none of that junk, okay? This is not the appropriate forum. We have a huge football game with a lot at stake, and we’ll address those issues at the appropriate time, okay?”

Later, after the press conference appeared to be over, Brooks went on another rant about the retirement question, saying he didn’t want that to distract his team from the task of beating Tennessee.

Focus seems good
I don’t believe Brooks needs to worry about that. Unlike the victory at Auburn early this season, I don’t believe the win at Georgia has created any big heads on the Kentucky side. If anything, that win has made the Wildcats thirsty for bigger and better things, and none could be bigger and better than a win over the Volunteers and a bowl game in Florida.

“The only thing I want to do is beat Tennessee this week,” said UK’s brilliant senior defensive tackle Corey Peters when asked about a potentially lucrative bowl game. “That’s what our focus is right now. I think it’s important. We’ve made so much history and done a lot of great things around here ... ended a lot of streaks and won some tough road games and everything like that.

“But I think this has been the most glaring mark,” Peters added, referring to the losing skid to Tennessee. “It’s definitely one we want to end and get it back to where this is a rivalry and not just a series.”

Brooks is clearly moved by such talk, and by this group of seniors who are looking at their fourth straight bowl game.

“This class has, arguably, done more than anybody in over a half century for this program,” Brooks said. “There is still a lot left to accomplish, hopefully. I am just so pleased that these guys four years ago, some of them five years ago, bought into the vision for this program and decided to come here and do something here at Kentucky. They put their faith in what was going to happen here and came in and helped make it happen.”

When asked if he reminds his players about the steak against the Vols, Brooks said, “I think all I need to mention is second place in the SEC East and the rewards that would come with that.

“That has been the knock, that we’re a bottom feeder in the SEC, and finishing second in the East would put us above some teams that, historically, we have obviously struggled against,” he added. “That would put us closer to the summit. You establish a base camp, and then you go to the next camp before you get to the summit, and finishing second in the East would establish another camp climbing up the mountain.

“Understanding that 4-4 and finishing second is not like finishing 7-1 or 6-2 and finishing second, but one of the reasons you see so many teams clumped below Alabama and Florida is that the bottom feeders don’t like the bottom, and they are not as bad as the bottom feeders used to be. I’d say that this league, from top to bottom, is probably about as strong as it has been in a long, long time.”

And Brooks indicated that Johnson and Peters might be right - ending the streak to Tennessee might be the most significant part of those steps up the ladder that these seniors have fought so hard to accomplish.

“I think this would obviously be a significant thing,” Brooks said, referring to a win over the Vols. “I think this (senior) class could make their own identity, if you will, rather than just going to a fourth straight bowl. If they are able to beat Tennessee and finish second in the SEC East, that would be a major statement.”