SEC Photo
Mark Stoops’ football teams at Kentucky seem to win and lose games in streaks. Take the Benny Snell-led Wildcats from 2018. They started the season on a five game win streak, lost a game, then had additional winning streaks of two and three games while sandwiching a two-loss streak to Georgia and Tennessee.
And last year’s Lynn Bowden team did the same thing. They started the season with a two-game win streak, had a three-game losing streak before finishing out the year on a four-game win streak. Previous seasons prior to 2018 under Stoops show the same results, except the losing streaks were longer and the winning streaks were shorter.
This season has been no exception. This year’s version of the Wildcats started 0-2 and now find themselves at 2-2 heading into Columbia, Missouri this weekend to take on the Missouri Tigers and first year coach Eli Drinkwitz.
And the big question is, against a motivated Missouri, will the Cats continue their winning streak or start a losing streak? For Kentucky, this is a trap game. Here’s why. Missouri started the season on a sour note losing to Alabama 38-19 and then losing the second game of the season 35-12 to Tennessee. The Tigers then beat LSU 45-41 before being idled last week by a Covid 19 outbreak at Florida.
They are talented, but not enough to beat the likes of Alabama and Tennessee. Kentucky is coming off a huge win against the Volunteers and playing a 1-2 Missouri team could cause them to look past Missouri to Georgia next week.
This Tiger team is rested and motivated. Kentucky will be the first unranked team they have faced this season, and all the Tiger players have bad memories of the previous five meetings with the Wildcats.
No current Missouri player or coach has experienced a win against the Wildcats. That’s a winning streak of five in a row by UK. (There’s that streak thing ag
Missouri’s players are especially motivated to win this Saturday. They have the date circled on their calendar.ain)
Here’s what Missouri senior safety Joshuah Bledsoe had to say about the losing streak to UK, “Man, it sucks, it’s like every year it’s something. Why are we not beating this team? We should beat this team. We’ll get it done this year.”
Junior linebacker Nick Bolton felt the same way about the Cats. He said, “This game means a little more, not just for myself. I have not beaten them, but there have been a couple five-year seniors who haven’t beaten them. It means a lot for me for those seniors to go out the right way.”
So it looks like the Missouri players are coming into the game with a little bit of extra edge. A feeling that “we’ve got to get this fixed.” Similar to the Kentucky players feelings coming into the game against Tennessee last weekend and ending that 17 game losing streak in Knoxville. (There’s that darn streak thing again).
So when the Tiger players show up on Saturday, they’ve got one thing on their minds — ending this losing streak to Kentucky. Missouri wide receiver Barrett Banister said Tuesday, “It’s definitely something we need to fix. When Coach Drink (Eli Drinkwitz) asked everyone if they’ve beaten Kentucky and no hands go up it’s a tough feeling to swallow. … It’s time for us to get one.”
And the players aren’t the only ones talking about streaks. Drinkwitz said, “I’ve joined in the Mizzou family, I’ve joined with the history both good, past and future. So, yeah, we absolutely understand that it’s been a while since we’ve beaten these guys. I don’t think there’s anybody in our team room that’s beaten them while they’ve worn a Mizzou jersey so obviously that gives us a little bit extra motivation. Now that doesn’t have anything to do with our performance on Saturday. Our performance Saturday, we’re trying to be 1-0. The preparation that we put in this week determines the outcome.”
And he’s right. I’ve seen Kentucky players for years come out and say the right things about a losing streak, show up as the more talented team and then lay an egg. So being motivated to end the streak and actually ending it are two vastly different things.
Even Kentucky Head Coach Mark Stoops acknowledged that the streak has no bearing on who wins the game Saturday.
“The streak means absolutely nothing, right? I mean truthfully, it means nothing. We have to go win this week. So, I don’t even know what the streak is. This is a new (Missouri) staff, a new group and I have no idea what it is because it really means nothing,” Stoops said.
So there you go. A lot of talk from both sides about a streak that means nothing — if you’re a coach — and everything if you are a player. The real question is, not if the streak will provide enough extra motivation to allow Missouri to win the game, but will the Kentucky team that pummeled Mississippi State and Tennessee show up or will it be the Kentucky team that found a way to lose to Ole Miss and Auburn?
On that point I agree with the coaches, preparation and execution will win the game, no matter what the streak says.
— Keith Peel
