BY TIM WHITMIRE

AP Sports Writer

LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) – Mission accomplished.

Kentucky achieved its preseason goal of a New Year’s Day bowl bid on Sunday,accepting an invitation to play in the Outback Bowl in Tampa, Fla., against No.22 Penn State.

“We’re just ecstatic,” Kentucky coach Hal Mumme said in a teleconferencewith Penn State coach Joe Paterno and Outback Bowl officials. “It’s kind of aculmination of dreams, particularly for our seniors who have worked so hard toturn our program around.”

Kentucky improved from 5-6 in 1997 to 7-4 this season in Mumme’s second yearat the helm. The Wildcats were led by junior quarterback Tim Couch, a HeismanTrophy finalist who shattered school and conference passing records whileplaying in Mumme’s “Air Raid” offense.

The bowl appearance will be Kentucky’s first since the 1993, when theWildcats lost 14-13 to Clemson in the Peach Bowl.

Kentucky was coached by Paul “Bear” Bryant the last time it played in aNew Year’s Day bowl – a 20-7 win in the Cotton Bowl against Texas Christian in1952.

Mumme recalled the Wildcats’ seniors setting the Jan. 1 goal almost a yearago, at the first team meeting of the year.

“Their goal was not only to make a bowl game, but to make a New Year’s Daybowl game,” Mumme said, an ambition that was summarized in a slogan – “Focus:1-1-99” – and emblazoned on the practice T-shirts the Wildcats have worn allyear.

Paterno, whose team lost only to No. 3 Ohio State, No. 9 Wisconsin and No.15 Michigan in an 8-3 season, predicted “we’ll have our hands full” with theWildcats’ offense.

Paterno said he recruited Couch out of Leslie County High School in easternKentucky.

“I really have not seen him a lot in college,” he said. “I do know he wasa great, great high school player, probably as good a high school quarterbackas there is.”

For the Nittany Lions, Sunday’s invitation extends a run of New Year’s Daybowls to eight straight, matched only by Florida State.

“We have been on pins and needles now for about a week trying to find outwhere we might end up going. So most of the squad said Hey, if we could getthe Outback Bowl, that would be great,”‘ said Paterno, who has won more bowlgames (18) than any coach.

The Wildcats beat out 19th-ranked Georgia – a team which beat them 28-26 inLexington in October – for the Outback spot.

Outback spokesman Jim McVay said the Wildcats won because of Couch.

“One of the names that kept coming up on the SEC side as we evaluated wasTim Couch,” he said. ” … We said, We better grab this guy, bring him in,match him up against a real strong Penn State team.”

Georgia ends up staying home for the Dec. 31 Peach Bowl in Atlanta, wherethe Bulldogs will face No. 13 Virginia.

The Outback bid caps Kentucky’s most successful season in nearly 15 years,but one that also was marked by tragedy.

On Nov. 15, the day after the Wildcats clinched their first seven-win seasonsince 1984 with a 55-17 thrashing of Vanderbilt, transfer defensive end ArthurSteinmetz and another young man were killed and starting center Jason Wattsinjured when Watts’ truck crashed on a rural highway.

When a test showed Watts’ blood-alcohol content was 1 1/2 times the legallimit, he was charged with drunken driving and two counts of second-degreemanslaughter. Tests showed Steinmetz and the second victim, Couch’s childhoodfriend Scott Brock, also were drunk.

Watts has been kicked off the team and has left school as a grand juryprepares to consider his case this week.