Kentucky seniors excited for Citrus Bowl to come "full circle"

DeAndre Square and Luke Fortner will both be a part of their second Citrus Bowl on New Year’s Day, but in different roles this time around.

The Kentucky football seniors were members of the legendary Wildcat squad that beat Penn State in the 2019 Citrus Bowl. That UK team closed the season with 10 wins for the first time since 1977. Square was just a rookie inside linebacker at the time, earning Freshman All-SEC honors before making his first career start in that postseason win over the Nittany Lions. Fortner, on the other hand, was a sophomore offensive guard who played in 11 of the team’s 13 games, but sat out the bowl game due to an untimely injury.

On Sunday, Kentucky was once again selected to make the trip to Orlando for another Citrus Bowl appearance. The opponent is very familiar to Wildcat head coach Mark Stoops, who played defensive back for the Hawkeyes from 1986-88. For Square and Fortner, this game could mark the end of their careers in Lexington (pending Square’s decision to use his extra year of eligibility or not). However, it would be a perfect way to go out.

“I’m really excited to play this game,” Fortner told the media on Sunday. “When I first got here, Kentucky, we went 7-5 my freshman year (in 2016), it was when Coach Stoops really started turning the program around, and to be able to be a part of that and be able to continue to like build towards something like another Citrus Bowl victory in the last four years would be really big for us, especially for a game–you know, I didn’t get to play in that 2018 Citrus Bowl. So it’s kind of like a do-over for me, so I’m really excited to be out there.”

Square shared a similar sentiment.

“It was fun being down there my freshman year so to do it again my senior year, to come full circle, I think it would be pretty fun to have everybody down there,” Square said on Sunday.

A key piece of the Kentucky defense that helped beat Penn State in 2019, Square registered a then-career-high six tackles with one sack. When UK goes up against Iowa on Jan. 1, he’ll need to put up similar numbers.

But Kentucky still has plenty of time to prepare for the Hawkeyes. In just under four weeks’ time, the two teams will collide at Camping World Stadium. It’s a potentially classic ending to two storied Wildcat careers, and they hope to share it with the rest of the Big Blue Nation.

“You can never say enough about the BBN,” Square added. “To me, they’re the greatest, you never get enough love. They always got always so much love for you, they always at every game they can possibly come to. They just show a lot of love and make you feel special to be a Wildcat.”

“We never question whether or not they’re (the BNN) going to show up to these games and we’re excited to see how much blue is in that stadium for sure,” Fortner said.

If Kentucky fans have anything to say about it, the crowd will be as blue as the oceans of Florida.