I’ve been reading message board posts and articles about how Kentucky fans are debating whether or not to travel to a bowl game to watch the Cats play.  The most used excuse is that these guys are not very good and that they are disappointed in how the season turned out.  Another one is that they do not want to go back to Nashville if the Cats play there and Memphis is such a bad city they don’t want to go there. 

Did I miss something?  Did UK all of a sudden become a top-tier program and become too good for the smaller bowl games?  Did a 6-6 season all of a sudden become a major letdown for our program, the same program that lost it’s starting quarterback, running back, tight end, and two wide receivers last year? 

The answer is NO.  At the beginning of the season if you would have told me that the Cats would have gone .500 and be on the verge of a thirf straight bowl game I would have taken that in a heartbeat.  Regardless of where it is, a third consecutive bowl appearance is a big accomplishment for this young team.  It’s so rare in Lexington that it hasn’t been done since the 1950s.  So wherever it may be playing, I expect the Kentucky football team to see a sea of blue in the stands, whether it be Memphis or Nashville. 

Five years ago when the Cats went 4-8 and then followed it up with a 2-9 and then a 3-8 record, every Cat fan would have given anything to see the big blue play in three straight bowl games.  No one expected it to come so quickly but it did.  And now, we are actually debating on whether the fans will show up for it.  Yeah right.  To those fans that are undecided if they want to go because they fear the Cats may lose or don’t want to go back to Nashville again I say this, if you’re not there you will not be missed.  I guarantee you will regret being able to say you were there when the Cats won three straight bowl games.  We have suffered enough as UK fans in the past that we owe it to ourselves to go bowling with this team. 

Granted, I expected more from this team after their 4-0 start but it suffered through injuries as well as it had to get more experience as a whole.  I only missed three of the 12 games this year believing that something special would happen at each and every game.  In the opener we saw something special in that our defense actually controlled a game.  In the Arkansas game, that something happened in the form of two Mike Hartline strikes to Randall Cobb in the last three minutes.  I traveled to Knoxville last weekeend in hopes that something even more special would happen but it wasn’t meant to be.  Oh well, the team will move on and so should we.  There is a bowl game to get ready for and the team has begun it’s preparation.  Are you ready?