Three years ago when Kentucky defeated Vanderbilt in Commonwealth Stadium to clinch bowl eligibility, there was a sense of jubilation the program had not felt in nearly a decade.Players embraced each another, fans high-fived one another and Big Blue Nation celebrated like it was going to a BCS bowl. Offensive lineman Christian Johnson even has a newspaper clipping he saved of players mimicking a bowling motion from their sixth win in 2006.  Oh, how the times have changed.On Saturday against Vanderbilt in Nashville, Tenn., the Cats clinched bowl eligibility for the fourth straight season, but there were no on-field celebrations or tears of joy shed. It was a job well done, but it was just another day at the office for the Kentucky football program.Bowl eligibility is no longer the ultimate goal. It’s now a stepping stone.”It’s quite a bit different,” head coach Rich Brooks said of the differences in becoming bowl eligible this year as opposed to a few years ago. “It was unbelievable elation not only amongst our team but in our fan base when we got bowl eligible (three years ago). I think that time we were celebrating for so long that we almost turned around and lost to Louisiana-Monroe. It’s significant, but there was no major celebration.”No, in Nashville on Saturday it was a pat on the back and get back to the drawing board. With the sixth and bowl eligibility clinching victory in the bag, it’s now time to focus on the bigger goals at hand.It might sound like a broken record, but with two games remaining (at Georgia and vs. Tennessee), UK has put itself into position to accomplish the season-long goal of climbing the Southeastern Conference food chain.”What it did is it put us in position to continue to do what we all want to do on this football team and this football program and that is climb the SEC ladder while knowing that we have a chance to be somewhere in the postseason,” Brooks said.UK put itself in that same position earlier in the season after a historic win at Auburn. The Cats reached .500 with a manageable second-half schedule and improved to 4-3 the following week with a victory over Louisiana-Monroe. Talk started to circulate around Lexington that UK could win out and go to a New Year’s Day bowl. Egos grew and players lost focus.The next thing the Cats knew, they were walking off the field on Halloween disappointed and distraught with a letdown loss to Mississippi State. They were unable to manage the expectations of a bigger bowl game while focusing on the task at hand.Brooks is hoping that stretch will serve as a valuable lesson now that they’ve rebounded and put themselves back in position to attain some of those initial goals.”They figured since we beat Auburn that we would be rocking and rolling and we were on our way,” Brooks said. “The focus to attention and detail was not there that week. As I told them Sunday, all of those guys that were talking about wanting to climb the food chain and get to a better bowl, it’s in their lap. They can do it if they choose to do it, and if they don’t do it, they’ve only got themselves to blame.”Johnson, who suffered through a three-win season in his first year in 2005, understands the opportunity they have ahead of them with games against Georgia and Tennessee. Not only is it a chance to step up the bowl ladder, it’s an opportunity to knock down a barrier of opponents that have traditionally stood in the Cats’ way in the SEC East.

“This is one of the reasons I came to Kentucky. This is one of the reasons that I feel like all my teammates came to Kentucky,” Johnson said. “We’re still a program on the rise. We’re not where we need to be.”When Brooks spoke of the opportunity UK had, he credited the senior class with putting the program in its current position. But their work isn’t done. Notching bowl eligibility a fourth straight year is special, but Johnson wants more in his final season at UK.”Just the fact that we’ve done something that Kentucky hasn’t done with four bowl games and the possibility of winning four bowl games, it’s like I’m leaving a certain legacy,” Johnson said. “I can say that I played when we won four bowl games.”Johnson looks back on that newspaper clipping from time to time. After all, he was a part of the celebration. But he doesn’t want his final legacy to center on clinching bowls.He wants to leave a lasting impression that they took this program to the next level.”You could just see how it is changing around here and I think the expectations will keep going for Kentucky,” Johnson said. “Before you know it we’ll be in the top tier of the SEC, expecting us to win nine or 10 games. I feel like that’s how the tide is going to roll for us.”