{"id":76331,"date":"2024-11-24T12:30:00","date_gmt":"2024-11-24T18:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/with-bowl-streak-over-kentucky-pushes-chips-in-on-louisville-freaking-strap-it-up-and-lets-go\/"},"modified":"2024-11-24T12:30:00","modified_gmt":"2024-11-24T18:30:00","slug":"with-bowl-streak-over-kentucky-pushes-chips-in-on-louisville-freaking-strap-it-up-and-lets-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/with-bowl-streak-over-kentucky-pushes-chips-in-on-louisville-freaking-strap-it-up-and-lets-go\/","title":{"rendered":"With bowl streak over, Kentucky pushes chips in on Louisville: \u201cFreaking strap it up and let\u2019s go.\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Kentucky Wildcats<\/a> have essentially nothing left to play for in 2024, their postseason dreams crushed following a seventh loss on the season to knock them out of bowl eligibility for the first time since 2015. It was a streak Mark Stoops<\/a><\/strong> and the coaching staff were proud of, something they didn\u2019t take lightly or for granted.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe bowl game streak is gone. It hurts. It\u2019s not fun.\u201d Stoops said following the 31-14 loss at No. 3 Texas. \u201cIt\u2019s something we\u2019re proud of as a program. We put a lot of work into it. There\u2019s a lot of people. You can\u2019t take that stuff for granted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kentucky ends the season with a pathetic 1-7 record in SEC play, losing every game of importance outside of that miracle in Oxford \u2014 that optimism feels like a lifetime ago, doesn\u2019t it? The Wildcats are no longer playing for an invite to their umpteenth Music City Bowl in Nashville, essentially all that was on the table going into the Texas game anyway. That doesn\u2019t mean the season is quite over yet, though. One game remains on the schedule, and it\u2019s a big one.<\/p>\n

Louisville comes to town with Kentucky riding a five-game winning streak in the series, one dating back to 2018. It started with a 56-10 win in \u201918, followed by finishes of 45-13 in \u201919, 52-21 in \u201921, 26-13 in \u201922 and 38-31 in \u201923.<\/p>\n

If the program can\u2019t push its chips in on the postseason, you better believe it\u2019s going to fight to keep that streak alive in the rivalry matchup to close out the year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe talked about it after Tennessee, we talked after \u2014 it\u2019s just football character,\u201d defensive coordinator Brad White said Saturday.<\/a> \u201cYou\u2019re playing a rivalry game. It doesn\u2019t matter if you\u2019re 10-0 or 0-10, they are and we are. Throw records out the window in these kind of games. Freaking strap it up and let\u2019s go. We\u2019ve got to execute better, they\u2019re a good football team. We\u2019ll get on that (Sunday) and attack the week.\u201d<\/p>\n

Worried about buy-in among the players at a point where punting on the now and preparing for the future would be somewhat understandable? That\u2019s not how they\u2019re viewing next week\u2019s finale. After a disappointing year in every sense, there\u2019s a desire to right some of those wrongs at home in a game that is important to a fanbase that has put more into the program than it has received as of late.<\/p>\n

Why not go out on a high note?<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got one more and it\u2019s against our rival,\u201d tight end Josh Kattus<\/a><\/strong> said. \u201cAll year we\u2019ve shown good stuff, but we\u2019ve also shown some bad stuff. Just haven\u2019t been able to put it all together. That\u2019s what we\u2019ve got to do for this last game. Louisville is a talented team and we know they\u2019re gonna want to come in and beat us in our place. We\u2019ve got to put it all together for this last game.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the local talent, this game will always mean something \u2014 no matter what the records say or the current momentum of the programs.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, most definitely (the rivalry is important),\u201d hometown defensive back Ty Bryant<\/a><\/strong> added. \u201cGrowing up a Lexington kid, I was taught to not like Louisville. That\u2019s just me personally. For the team, going out on a high note, that\u2019s definitely important for us \u2014 especially with how rough the season has been.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Kentucky, Louisville is now the team\u2019s bowl game. This is all they have left to play for and they want to make the most of it.<\/p>\n

The post With bowl streak over, Kentucky pushes chips in on Louisville: \u201cFreaking strap it up and let\u2019s go.\u201d<\/a> appeared first on On3<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Kentucky Wildcats have essentially nothing left to play for in 2024, their postseason dreams…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76331\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}