Kentucky opened Southeastern Conference play Saturday with a 35-28 win over Missouri in front of a rowdy crowd at Kroger Field.
Here’s a look at what the outcome means for UK beyond the scoreboard.
Recognized
The whole world wasn’t watching — the game was aired by SEC Network, not a national broadcaster — but UK-Mizzou was the only matchup of SEC opponents in the season’s first three weeks, so it carried quite a bit more weight in terms of importance on the college football schedule than is typical for this bout. It’s fair to assume that a sizable number of folks watched Kentucky’s new offense take it to the Tigers’ new defense.
The outcome gave Kentucky its sixth win over its last seven meetings against the Tigers and, in a bigger-picture sense, delivered a blow to the notion that Missouri is passing UK in the Eastern Division. South Carolina’s been on a slide, Tennessee’s in rebuild mode and Vanderbilt exists, all factors that have allowed Kentucky to inch its way up the standings in recent years, but its dominance of Missouri has played a major role, too. UK was *just* looking up at the Tigers at the end of 2020. Saturday’s effort made it less likely that that’ll be the case in 2021, and should pay dividends on the recruiting trail.
SEC East
Any hope Kentucky might have this season of representing the East in Atlanta would have been squashed with a loss to Missouri. Starting SEC play in an 0-1 hole with three preseason top-25 opponents looming would not have been ideal.
Florida comes to town to kick off an October gauntlet following UK’s trip to South Carolina at the end of this month. LSU travels to Lexington after the Gators; while they’re not as intimidating as they were in a 2019 dash to the national title, the Tigers’ raw talent will have been afforded half a season’s worth of experience by the time they face Kentucky. A march to Athens, where SEC East-favorite Georgia resides, follows before a bye week. A 2-3 start in the conference isn’t unrealistic.
A 1-4 start, though, would have been incredibly disheartening after an offseason full of optimism. Many entering the year anticipated UK to go 0-3 in that October stretch, but with the understanding that it would do so after starting 4-0 with two SEC wins among the four. Beating Missouri gives UK some wiggle room to finish this year with a winning or even record in the league even if it can’t spring an upset in October. If they can surprise a team or two, even better.
Momentum
The caveats were overbearing and understood following UK’s win over Louisiana Monroe, but there was no harm in watching that win — and Missouri’s against Central Michigan last week — and thinking the Cats would have the upper hand at home. And no fan should be ridiculed for being excited after seeing Kentucky throw the ball with aplomb for the first time in ages.
Fans can be fickle, though, and while their interest in the program wouldn’t have evaporated had UK lost, a win makes it easier for them to stay deeply engaged with games against Chattanooga, an FCS lamb, and South Carolina, in the midst of a program overhaul, up next. People might have been more guarded in their optimism leading up to the Cats’ next “big” game — Florida on Oct. 2 — had UK dropped the ball against Mizzou.
Saturday’s result should also be uplifting for UK’s ticket office, which through its efforts this week came close to filling the stadium for a Missouri contest that has never sniffed 60,000 (the highest turnout before Saturday was 58,008, in 2015).