Kentucky Football Refuses to Quit: "Everyone Still Believes"

Morale is low, exceptionally low, around Big Blue Nation. The Kentucky football program is reeling from eight straight SEC losses. In the middle of the toughest part of the schedule, it’s hard for fans to find reasons to be optimistic.

The clouds aren’t hanging low over the Joe Craft Football Training Center. Mark Stoops said this football team is united, and the offense echoed that sentiment on Tuesday.

“It’s an emotionally resilient group,” said offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan. “We’ve thought that about them as a whole from day one when we got started. I think the offensive line has always been a very mature group. They set the tone.”

Even though it is a new group, the Kentucky offensive line is made up of experienced players from all levels of football. They’ve seen plenty of good and bad throughout their careers. They started preparing for the season-long roller coaster long before it began.

“It’s something preached to us, even throughout camp, there’s ups and downs to every season,” Jager Burton told KSR.

“The teams that win a lot of games are the teams that keep battling through that, stay together as a team and don’t fall apart through adversity. Adversity is a part of football. It’s a part of life. That’s what football gets you prepared for. Nobody’s got a complete smooth ride in life or football. We’re staying together, practicing as hard as we can, just ready to get on the right side of the scoreboard.”

The saying is that joy wouldn’t feel so good if it wasn’t for pain. Even though they’ve experienced quite a bit of it on the field, this team wants to prove it is resilient. There is an “us against the world” mentality developing that Cutter Boley believes is bringing the team together.

“I feel like everyone still believes, and everybody is coming to work every single day,” said the Kentucky quarterback.

“We know what team we can be. We’re the only ones in here in the locker room every day, and we see what we can do. Every single one of these dudes believes we can win every game we play. We just gotta put it all together. We’re starting to put all of those pieces together, for sure.”

That belief will be put to the test when Texas brings one of the best defenses in the country to Kroger Field on Saturday. Kickoff is set for 7 PM ET on ESPN.