After three straight disappointing seasons, Kentucky athletics director Mitch Barnhart says it’s time for Kentucky to get back to the program’s winning standard.
From 2016 through 2023, Kentucky became one of the SEC’s most consistent teams, making eight straight bowl appearances and winning 10 games twice under Mark Stoops, but the past three years have been a far cry from that success. UK went 7-6 in both 2022 and 2023 before bottoming out at 4-8 in 2024, ending the program’s long bowl streak. Other
than 2024, the last time Kentucky failed to make the postseason was in 2015, and the Cats haven’t won a bowl game since beating Iowa in the 2021 Citrus Bowl.
Barnhart addressed it on Tuesday, noting attendance has dipped slightly to an average of 57,401 through two games. Still, he emphasized the program’s goals remain the same.
“It’s not a mistake our coaches took us to eight straight bowl games, and we’ve won ten games in two different seasons,” Barnhart said. “This isn’t a staff that doesn’t know how to win… we’ve had a set of circumstances that have not served us well the last couple of years, and we’ve got to find our way back.”
Barnhart made it clear the focus is on winning, not survival.
“There’s no mistake about it. We are supremely focused on finding wins. This isn’t about just surviving and being able to make sure that all the finances work for us. That’s not what this is about, and if you walk out and say that, I would be supremely disappointed in that.”
Meanwhile, according to KSR’s Nick Roush and Zack Geoghegan, redshirt freshman quarterback Cutter Boley is expected to start this Saturday against Eastern Michigan in place of injured quarterback Zach Calzada.
