Embarrassment has a chance to turn to glory this week.Tennessee is next on the schedule, so of course all the talk is about the Volunteers’ 24-game winning streak over the Cats, a streak Christian Johnson called embarrassing. It’s the nation’s longest active streak in major college football among opponents that play every year and the second longest overall (Penn State has a 27-game game winning streak over Temple).But negatives somehow have a way of presenting opportunities. If there was ever a time to end “the streak,” this would be the year.Kentucky is riding a season of emotional highs and program firsts. With wins at Auburn and Georgia, losing streaks that spanned decades, what better year than this to tear down the tallest barrier of them all?”There are so many streaks I have been hearing about, and we have changed a lot of them, but some of them remain unchanged,” head coach Rich Brooks said. “That is my job to try to get more positive things happening in what used to be a rivalry, but of late hasn’t been because they have owned it.”Kentucky can take some pride in that fact that it owns its own destiny. With a win over the Vols, the Cats would secure second place in the Southern Conference Eastern Division.The last time that happened?”I don’t know when the last time Kentucky finished second in the SEC East,” Johnson said.No worries, Christian. It’s never happened. Since the SEC split into the two divisions in 1992, the Cats have never placed better than third in the division. Traditionally, teams like Georgia, Florida and especially Tennessee have held the Cats in check. Now, against one of their biggest rivals, the Cats have a chance to climb the food chain and open the door to some bowl scenarios that some thought vanished after the Mississippi State loss.”All I know is that with a win, that puts us in second place in the SEC East,” Brooks said. “With that comes a little different picture in the end of the season scenario. … The knock is that we are a bottom feeder in the SEC. Finishing second in the SEC East would put us above some teams that, historically, we have obviously struggled against. Even though we may not have beaten them all, it would be a major step forward and put us, if you will, at the top of the mountain.”Playing against Tennessee has often seemed like a hurdle the height of Mt. Everest. In recent years, the Cats have outplayed the Vols, only to come up on the short end of the stick on the scoreboard.Johnson believes it’s all about confidence, which they now have after ending some notoriously long streaks against other SEC opponents.”A lot of times in college football, players let their emotions (get the best of them) and they get amped at what the what the coaches tell them and they start to believe that they can win. But their self-confidence in the back of their head is what tells them, ‘Man, this might be a little difficult,’ ” Johnson said. “Until they go out there and start doing it, that’s when their confidence shoots through the roof.”Believe the Cats when they say they’re not overconfident. Just because the Vols have five losses and are still learning under first-year head coach Lane Kiffin doesn’t mean they’re not aware of the longtime hex.But there is something to be said about competing and beating some of the league’s top teams this year. Where there used to be doubt there’s now belief.”I don’t think that confidence has really been a problem,” senior defensive tackle Corey Peters said. “Year in and year out playing in the SEC you’re going to go against the best competition. Every weekend we’ve been competitive in almost every game.”Peters believes this game is not only important for ending the streak but for generating some positive momentum for quite possibly a high-profile bowl game.”We haven’t finished the season strong since I’ve been here,” Peters said. “We’ve always started strong and then down the stretch, for whatever reason, we haven’t finished very well at all. I think it’s important to keep that momentum going into the bowl game and just keep moving the program forward.”It could also cement a lasting legacy for a senior class that has helped turn the program around. Instead of just being known as the class that took the program to four straight bowl games, it would give them the unique identify of being the team to finally topple the Vols on Senior Day.”Most of them obviously came in here prior to some of the success, and they bought the vision and the hope to do something here at Kentucky,” Brooks said. “This class, arguably, has done more than anybody in over a half a century in this program. There is still a lot left to accomplish, hopefully. I am just pleased that these guys four years ago, some of them five years ago, decided to come here. They put their faith in what was going to happen here, and they came in and helped make it happen.”