This year's football team could jumpstart Stoops' bowl-game generation

Kentucky's defensive unit met with the media Wednesday evening, reflecting on the Vanderbilt win and previewing the UT Martin Game. As expected, most of the players were asked about their chance to officially clinch bowl eligibility this Saturday. Many players gave the stereotypical "one game at a time - we're not looking ahead" answer. Yusuf Corker's response, however, struck me as one that stands out.

"[This week] just gives us a little more motivation to be bowl eligible and keep the tradition going at Kentucky to always make it to a bowl game," Corker said.

The tradition to always make it to a bowl game? Before Kentucky went to Jacksonville for the TaxSlayer bowl in 2016, the Cats hadn't seen the postseason since January 8, 2011. Even before Rich Brooks' memorable bowl-game run beginning in 2006, UK hadn't qualified since Hal Mumme took his team to the Music City Bowl since 1999. In total, the Cats have participated in just 19 bowl games since their first appearance under Bear Bryant in 1947. This season, Mark Stoops could become only the third coach in school history to take his team to four consecutive bowl games - only Bryant and Rich Brooks have done that so far. The tradition, if we're honest, isn't qualifying for a bowl game - it's the opposite.

That is, until this year's team. Now, there's a new tradition in play, and it's one that includes the postseason. "I've been to a bowl game every year since I've been here, so that's pretty much all I know. I don't really know a season ending after 12 games," Boogie Watson laughed. "I'm excited to keep that going and go to a fourth-straight bowl game." Watson, a junior outside linebacker, and his classmates could become Mark Stoops' first class to leave the program with an entire collegiate career's worth of bowl games. Even last year's impressive team can't say that. Josh Allen and the like joined the Wildcats in 2015, when the Cats failed to failed to topple that six-game threshold (5-7 record, 2-6 in the SEC). Being included in Stoops' first bowl game "generation" isn't lost on Watson. "It means a lot to me. With the class that just left, a lot of those guys came in 2015 and had a lot of success, especially last year. They kind of get a lot of praise for changing the culture, but even those guys didn't go to a bowl game their first year. For me personally, when I leave here, I hope I can say I went to five straight bowl games. That's something only me and my class [under Stoops] can say for the moment." This Saturday, they could become the first. Let's hope they won't be the last.