BTI's Rants and Ramblings: The Mountain of History UK Fights Against for 5 SEC Wins

Expectations among fans are clearly high coming into this football season.  Following noticeable progress last year, culminating in a huge win at Louisville, plus tons of returning starters, people have floated the idea that UK might have its best SEC season in quite a long time.  Looking at the schedule, it is not unreasonable to make a solid argument UK COULD win 7 of its 8 conference games.  But just to get to FIVE conference wins would be something UK has not done in almost 40 years and certainly not since the conference split into 2 divisions in 1992.  Just look at some of the history (since 1992) UK will be fighting to get to that 5-win SEC plateau: Overall Record: 53-147 Home Record: 30-62 Road Record: 21-71 Avg. Margin of Victory in Wins: 10.1 Avg. Margin of Defeat in Losses: 19.0 20+ Point Losses: 60 30+ Point Losses: 36 40+ Point Losses: 14 Against 2017 Opponents vs. South Carolina: 9-16 vs. Florida: 0-25 vs. Missouri: 2-3 vs. Mississippi St: 9-16 vs. Tennessee: 1-24 vs. Ole Miss: 3-5 vs. Vanderbilt: 14-11 vs. Georgia: 3-22 0-win SEC Seasons: 4 1-win SEC Seasons: 3 2-win SEC Seasons: 9 3-win SEC Seasons: 4 4-win SEC Seasons: 5 5+ win SEC Seasons: 0 Personally, I think the schedule shapes up to give UK some opportunities to break through into that 5-win area.  But those of us who have been watching the program longer than the current players have been alive know that UK doesn't just have to face the guys in front of them.  They sometimes seem to have to face the history of this program.  There have been moments in time under Mumme and Brooks where that might have been close to happening but the Cats would always falter.  I think this year is another one of those chances.  The only game that appears to be a serious long shot is at Georgia and with 7 legitimate chances to win SEC games this year, it would be nice to see UK take 5 of them.