Will Stein has his Kentucky Wildcats 4-1 through his first five games at the helm. On Saturday, the Wildcats traveled to Columbia, South Carolina, and knocked off Shane Beamer’s Gamecocks in incredible fashion with a walk-off 2-point conversion.
Kentucky once trailed in the game 17-0, but would end up beating South Carolina in the first overtime when Willie Rodriguez caught a pass from Kenny Minchey in the first overtime, completing the largest road comeback in school history.
Now, Will Stein has himself
in some elite territory at Kentucky. Stein is the first coach since Bear Bryant to start 4-1 in their first five games as the head coach of the Wildcats.
So at this point, Kentucky fans are on cloud nine because even the most optimistic Kentucky fans weren’t predicting the Cats to have one loss at this point in the schedule.
Now, after what we’ve seen on the field, where will Kentucky’s season end up?
ESPN College Football Power Index gives Kentucky an 84.3% chance of making a bowl game and an 8.5% chance of making the College Football Playoff. Not super high, but both of those numbers have gone up week by week. Coming into the season, the over-under win total was set at 4.5 wins, so if this metric holds, I would say it’s a success, considering Kentucky comfortably gets the over in year one of the Stein era.
As for bowl games, a couple of national media members have placed their predictions following the 35-34 victory at South Carolina.
Steven Lassan of Athlon Sports has Kentucky playing Northwestern in the Music City Bowl. A little flashback as the two programs faced off nine years ago in the same bowl game. A bowl game in Nashville always draws a good showing from Big Blue Nation, since it’s not too far to travel.
Brett McMurphy of On3 predicts Kentucky will play in the Gator Bowl against Pittsburgh. Kentucky has played the Panthers only once in school history, in early 2011, in the BBVA Compass Bowl. This is an intriguing matchup this week, especially since the Panthers are the only thing standing in the way of Kentucky putting a number next to their name on the score bug next Saturday. Pittsburgh received two more votes than Kentucky, getting them to 25, and Kentucky fell out, despite the road win at South Carolina.
ESPN’s Kyle Bonagura has Kentucky playing Tulane in the Birmingham Bowl, while fellow writer Mark Schlabach has the Cats playing Minnesota in the Music City Bowl.
CBS Sports has Kentucky playing in the Liberty Bowl, while College Football News has Will Stein’s crew playing Memphis in the Birmingham Bowl.
My personal prediction right now is the Music City Bowl against the Wisconsin Badgers. The Badgers are 4-1 and one of the hottest teams in the country right now, in a make-or-break season for head coach Luke Fickell. Wisconsin stunned Penn State last week in Happy Valley, 24-20, then returned to Camp Randall Stadium and beat Michigan State, 31-3. Obviously, Kentucky has history with Wisconsin on the hardwood, but not so much on the gridiron, having played only once in 1984.
With the slim chance of making the College Football Playoff, these are some realistic predictions, but for me, and a lot of Big Blue Nation, we’ll keep our hopes high. Two quotes to remember are from two wise men named JoJo Kemp and Will Stein: “Why not Kentucky? Why not us?” and “If you’re scared, go to church.”
