Kentucky doesn't just want a bowl -- it wants to win out: 'We got a real heartbeat right now.'

Kentucky was drowning with no obvious life raft to save the program — or Mark Stoops as head coach. Sitting at 2-5 on the year and winless in the SEC, coming off a three-touchdown home loss to rival Tennessee, a path to bowl eligibility was technically there if you squinted hard enough, but you had to be crazy to consider it a legitimate possibility.

And, fortunately, it appears this group of Wildcats has a few screws loose.

First, it was an old-fashioned slobberknocker on the Plains, beating Auburn 10-3 to force the Tigers to make a coaching change. Then it was an absolute ass kicking at home to end the losing SEC losing streak at Kroger Field dating back to 2023, a 38-7 win over Florida. After beating FCS title contender Tennessee Tech in dominant fashion to turn a four-game losing streak into a three-game winning streak, the Wildcats are just one victory away from returning to the postseason.

It wasn’t quite the path they had planned, but they’ll take the momentum.

“We got a real heartbeat right now, and the guys are juiced up and excited,” Cutter Boley said of the winning streak. “But I think in everybody’s minds, this is where we should have been anyway. This is where we pictured ourselves being, you know? Maybe not like this exact scenario, but week after week, everybody just stayed high-spirited. We knew every week, we just needed to get a win and go 1-0. These guys have done a great job of that.”

Now, it’s about going 1-0 this week against No. 13 Vanderbilt, sitting at 8-2 on the year with a shot at the College Football Playoff — but not with a home loss to the unranked Wildcats. Can they spoil the fun for Heisman candidate Diego Pavia, coming off a 45-38 win over Auburn?

That’d kill two birds with one stone as they reach bowl eligibility.

“Yeah, absolutely (it’s something we talk about),” Boley said of going bowling. “That’s the goal at the end of the year, to make it to the postseason. I think ultimately, that’s something that’s all in our minds, but our ultimate goal is to go 1-0 and take the next opponent. Going into next week, we just have to treat it like every other week and try to go 1-0 — not think of the future, not think of the past.”

They’re sticking to the script across the board, even if a win Saturday technically means Kentucky is bowl eligible. It’s not about obsessing over the six-win mark and what it means necessarily, it’s just about winning the week and beating Vanderbilt.

Just as it’ll be about winning the week and beating Louisville immediately after. Then it’ll be time to focus on the bowl.

“I feel like, honestly, we’re just taking it one thing at a time, one game at a time, one week at a time,” Seth McGowan added. “We’re not looking at a bowl game right now. Right now, we’re looking at Vandy. After that it’s going to be the next opponent. When that comes, that’s a bridge that we’ll cross and that we’re excited for. We know it’s in our path, but we’re just focused on the next game right now.”

The thinking behind that is if you push all your chips in on one win to go bowling, you’re letting your guard down for the other game to close out the regular season. It works both ways — if they obsess over Vanderbilt to simply confirm postseason status, the focus won’t be where it needs to be against Louisville.

The approach needs to be the same for both weeks, because the plan is to win both to finish the year at 7-5. Then they’ll push for 8-5 after finding out the bowl location and opponent.

“We’re going to constantly keep showing up and do what we do. We’re one win away from the bowl game, but we got two games left and we’re looking to win both of them,” Kendrick Law said. “And not just get to a bowl, but we want to play somewhere decent and someone good.”

It was hard to believe in the vision when the Wildcats hit rock bottom, but fortunately for fans, the guys on the field kept the faith. That’s why they’re 1-0 for three straight weeks — and potentially three more.