Music City Bowl UK’s Chance to Turn New Page
Kentucky is bowl eligible for the second season in a row – a notable achievement – but 2017 didn’t end the way the Wildcats wanted.
A pair of losses to close the regular season left a sour taste in their mouth, but it doesn’t have to last into the offseason.
A trip to the Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl offers UK a chance to finish the season strong.
“I think it’s a great opportunity for us,” Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart said on Sunday. “It creates a great opportunity for our team to respond and reestablish who we want to be and to have an opportunity to show how proud of young men we have in our program and what it means to represent this program in a bowl game and so we’re excited about that.”
Barnhart wasn’t just thinking about on-field results either. A first-quarter scuffle against Louisville was followed by a handful of personal-foul penalties as the game got away from the Wildcats. Frustration, Barnhart said, led to the Cats losing their composure.
“What we saw last Saturday is not who we are,” Barnhart said. “Never has been. And it’s not who we will be and that is for sure. I will assure you that their focus will be on reestablishing the way that they play on the field and the way that they’ve represented this program on and off the field.”
Head coach Mark Stoops addressed the issues with his team swiftly. Now it’s time to move on.
“I think you’ll talk to these guys and you’ll find they’re a very proud group of guys,” Barnhart said. “Our team is a group of guys that are proud of who they are and what they’ve tried to accomplish.”
The Cats know the best way to prove that will come on Dec. 29, as UK faces a Northwestern team carrying a seven-game winning streak and a No. 21 ranking in the final College Football Playoff rankings in Nashville’s Nissan Stadium at 4:30 p.m. ET.
“That bad taste in our mouth from that last game hasn’t gone away,” quarterback Stephen Johnson said. “A lot of us are really trying to go out and get this win. Last year, we were really excited because we beat Louisville, our rival, and now we have that bad taste in our mouth and we are eager and anxious to go and win this last game.”
As Johnson noted, UK enters this year’s bowl much differently than the TaxSlayer Bowl in 2016. The Cats were fired up to play a season ago, but this year their preparations will come with a chip on their collective shoulder.
“I just think we’re hungry as a team,” wide receiver Charles Walker said. “We’ve had the week off, we’ve had players coming in every day watching film, doing workouts, getting their footwork right. I think the team is hungry.”
Walker is a member of a senior class that will be playing its final game in Blue and White. He’s heard from his coaches and younger teammates about how they want to get win number eight for him and his fellow seniors, but he’s thinking just as much about the future of the program as anyone.
“For the team and the seniors it’s important but also the underclassmen,” Walker said. “It’s 15 more practices for them and then of course the game. It kind of starts next season for them and ends our season and my four years. It’s important to the seniors but it’s also important for the team, collectively. It’s big.”
Another senior, Courtney Love, wants to guard against letting the importance of the game lead to the team playing tight. He hopes fans will assist in that effort.
“I don’t think we need to put any unnecessary pressure on ourselves but we do need our fans to help uplift us and we need to uplift our fans,” Love said. “I think it’s going to work hand in hand. We definitely need to just go out and play our best football and be the best team we can be that day. During our preparation, do as much as we can to get on these guys and be really prepared and focused to play the game we know how to play.”
In winning seven regular-season games, including four in Southeastern Conference play, UK has played at a high level at various points in 2017. The Cats want to do it one more time at the Music City Bowl.
“When you lose a couple games and the way we lost, it stings a little bit and I assure you they will bounce back with an incredible effort,” Barnhart said. “Gives us a chance to respond as a team. Having that bowl game gives you a chance to practice. Gives you a chance to respond as a team. It also gives our fans a chance to respond. And I’m asking our fans to respond and join us in Nashville.”
