LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- In 2018, the University Kentucky football team swept to its 10th and final victory of the season by dispatching Penn State in the Citrus Bowl. That was a Kentucky team that defeated a ranked Florida team on the road as well as a ranked Mississippi State squad in Lexington. The Wildcats won their first five games, handled Louisville 56-10 and finished that season ranked 12th.
Big deal.
Voters in the 2019 Associated Press preseason Top 25 poll shrugged.
Syracuse, Washington State and Nebraska were all ranked in the Top 25 in that preseason poll. UAB and Fresno State earned votes.
Kentucky did not. The Wildcats were in Vanderbilt territory. Even after a 10-3 season, the Wildcats failed to earn a single vote from any of the 62 voters.
That is news you should remember today. Confirmation arrived of the next step coach Mark Stoops and his staff have taken to give Kentucky football credibility. Coming off another 10-3 season, the Wildcats have earned consensus Top 25 status.
It arrived with the news that Kentucky is ranked No. 20 in the 2022 AP preseason poll, making the Wildcats the fifth-highest ranked team in the Southeastern Conference.
This is no fluke. I checked the numbers from seven polls and computer rankings. You can find Kentucky in the Top 25 in six of seven rankings.
Here are the numbers, starting with the best:
- No. 11: Pro Football Focus
- No. 18: ESPN Football Power Index
- No. 20: AP media poll
- No. 21: USA Today coaches' poll
- No. 21: Athlon Sports college football magazine
- No. 24: Lindy's college football preseason magazine
- No. 35: Phil Steele college football preseason magazine
Average ranking in those seven polls: No. 21.
That is quite a journey for a program that earned no votes in the AP preseason poll in 2021, 20 votes in 2020, none in 2019 and one vote in 2018.
And you wonder why Stoops and his players roar in defense of the program any time somebody says something insensitive about Kentucky football?
A breakdown of the ballots from writers and TV people from across the nation, compiled at collegepolltracker.com, shows Kentucky earned support from coast to coast.
Only 10 of 63 voters did not vote for Kentucky, while 24 voters had the Wildcats ranked higher than No. 20.
That group included Rece Davis, ESPN's host for its popular College GameDay program, who voted Kentucky No. 18, ahead of Michigan State, Arkansas and Cincinnati.
Mike Barber of the Richmond (Virginia) Times-Dispatch gave the Wildcats the most love, ranking Kentucky No. 10, ahead of Oregon, Utah and Wisconsin.
Kentucky also earned a No. 12 vote from Bryce Miller of the San Diego (California) Union-Tribune; a No. 13 vote from Sam McKewon of the Omaha (Nebraska) World-Herald and a 15th-place vote from Andy Greder of the St. Paul (Minnesota) Pioneer-Press.
Virginia, California, Nebraska and Minnesota?
That does not read like Southeastern Conference home cooking. That reads like recognition of the work that Stoops and company have done upgrading Kentucky's reputation from hopeless to a program to watch.
The highest votes that Kentucky received from writers in SEC cities came from Nick Kelly of the Tuscaloosa (Alabama) News and Tom Murphy of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in Little Rock. Both voted UK No. 16.
And so it goes. It's simply a poll and not even the poll that matters. That, of course, would be the college football playoff poll, which does not appear until October. Tune in then.
All this poll does is wipe away Kentucky's opportunity to play the No Respect card — unless the conversation turns to the opinion of basketball coaches.
After handling an improved Miami (Ohio) team in its home opener Sept. 3, the Wildcats will need to handle Florida in Gainesville Sept. 10 to hold their position. You know there are people in the SEC East itching to get Florida and Tennessee back into the position of being the prime threats to Georgia.
If being snubbed last season did not ensure a losing season for the Wildcats, crashing these preseason polls does not guarantee a winning season for a Kentucky squad with several important players to replace.
But it's certainly a change from three, four or five years ago. It's a sign that serious football observers around the country respect the work Stoops and his staff have invested in Kentucky football.
As they should.
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