Predict the rest of the Kentucky football season with a bowl prediction

With Kentucky football in its bye week, it’s the perfect time to reflect on the journey so far and predict what might lie ahead. It’s an early bye week on the calendar, so it’s difficult to really know what we have in these Wildcats. Are they a great SEC team after narrowly losing to Georgia and upsetting Ole Miss? Or do we look back at the curb-stomping South Carolina inflicted on Kentucky and ask ourselves: Are the Wildcats a bad team? Or maybe they’re just a little Jekyll and Hyde?

Kentucky enters this week at 3-2 overall and 1-2 in the SEC. Their best win is against a #6 Ole Miss and their worst loss is against a South Carolina team that is 25th in FPI at 9.1, actually behind Kentucky. That means the Gamecocks game, even if it wasn’t competitive, could actually be the anomaly of the season rather than the expectation.

If Kentucky beats what they’re supposed to beat and loses against who they’re supposed to lose against, they’re at 7-5 according to Vegas odds. However, 8-4, 9-3 and 10-2 are still in play. 10-2 is a daunting challenge because that’s a win-win scenario, and Kentucky head coach Mark Stoops has never made a run like that. The most consecutive wins for Stoops is six, coming into the 2021 season. That means they had the luxury of two of those wins coming against weaker competition (Chattanooga and UL Monroe).

That being said, these six straight wins in 2021 were truly an impressive streak in their own right. In the fifth game of the season, they beat a Florida team that was ranked 10th. They would then beat LSU and eventually No. 1 seed Georgia stopped the run. Winning the rest of the way would be a streak of seven straight, and most of those, aside from Murray State, are SEC games, including two top-five teams in Tennessee and Texas.

So a 10-2 Wildcats team is too much to ask, as much as I’d like to see it, and I’m having a hard time getting the images of their embarrassing loss to the Gamecocks out of my head. Do you have another clunker in store for us, or have you cleaned your palette of them?

Let’s take a look at their schedule, give some predictions, and let me put on my optimism hat:

Their next game is against a Vanderbilt team that showed real threat to pull off a major upset last week. Against a No. 7-ranked Missouri team, they nearly pulled it off, losing 30-27. However, they also lost the previous game against a Sun Belt team, Georgia State, 36-32.

Prediction: Win 27-13

Florida has been yo-yoing this football season. They are 2-2 with wins over the SEC’s worst team, Mississippi State and Samford. They lost to Miami and Texas A&M. This week against UCF could be instructive to see if they are actually more of an average team or if they are actually bad.

Prediction: Win 20-10

Auburn isn’t good this year, but for some reason this game makes me a little nervous. Maybe it’s because it’s coming up just before the Kentucky-Tennessee game and I fear the Wildcats will be looking ahead. Auburn will most likely be on a four-game losing streak at this point and will be desperate to beat Kentucky. This is a trap game and I don’t like it, but I will predict a win here.

Prediction: Win 23-20

I hate to say it, but Tennessee is looking really good this year. Touring in the SEC is tough, but against a top opponent even less so. Kentucky will want this game more than any other game on their schedule, and they will be ready to beat the Volunteers. Can they do it? My heart says yes, but my brain says no. Pooh.

Prediction: Lose 19-10

A little warm-up game in the middle of Kentucky’s toughest phase of the game – nice! This will feel good between Tennessee and Texas.

Prediction: Win 34-6

I really want to give Tennessee the upset, and I think Kentucky has another big upset on its hands. As much as I want it to be the Vols, I actually think it’s the Longhorns. I think Kentucky’s defense stands up to Steve Sarkisian’s offense really well and could give Texas some problems. If I can look far enough into my crystal ball, this will look and feel like the Ole Miss game.

Prediction: Win 20-17

Louisville is not as good as expected or as it appears to be so far. I think they’ll have four or five losses when Kentucky plays them. Kentucky won’t lose to either rival this year and Louisville will still be licking its wounds from what could have been another season.

Prediction: Win 31-16

That would be a great result for Kentucky, and I hope the Wildcats can reach a bowl game this season at 9-3. It feels like it will be an 8-4 season, but I don’t know exactly where that will be. You probably have some further irritation in you, but maybe not. Kentucky could also struggle against a team it shouldn’t have. However, if that prediction comes true, they are 9-3 and could easily find themselves in a top bowl and possibly even a College Football Playoff conversation.