For Head Coach Mark Stoops and the Kentucky Wildcats, the last two weeks have been a harsh reality of where the program sits in the Southeastern Conference. Georgia and Missouri punched Kentucky in the gut, and the Wildcats had no answer. All off-season, Coach Stoops preached that his 2023 Kentucky Football team would be ready for the physical nature of the Southeastern Conference. However, with the loss to Missouri on Saturday night at Kroger Field, the Wildcats face the harsh reality that where they currently stand in the Southeastern Conference might not be as high as once imagined.

Losing to Georgia is one thing, but getting embarrassed at home to a program you use as a measuring stick is next-level harshness for Coach Stoops and the Kentucky Wildcats. Missouri fought back after falling behind 14-0, with a fake punt converted for a touchdown; the Tigers changed the course of the game, outscoring Kentucky 38-7 to finish the game with a 38-21 win over the Wildcats. What made matters worse for the Wildcats was the comments made by Coach Mark Stoops during his weekly radio show when he stated that fans needed to ” pony up” more money for NIL to give the Wildcats a better chance at getting better players to compete with Georgia, Alabama, etc. Many thought after comments as strong as those, Kentucky would come out on Saturday night against Missouri with the mental fortitude needed to win in the Southeastern Conference.

For Kentucky, the loss to Missouri paints a rather harsh reality that many Kentucky Football fans will struggle to come to terms with. Here’s the truth about Kentucky Football and other programs like them. Competing for a bid to the College Football Playoffs is a lofty goal; sometimes, in football, one of those programs will push through and earn a bid to the Playoffs. For a large majority, having a successful program comes with relative competition for that second tier of college football dominance.

You see, Coach Stoops has done what no coach in Kentucky Football has done. He has taken Kentucky Football to the unthinkable, taking the Wildcats to seven straight postseason trips. Coach Stoops led the program to two wins in the Citrus Bowl over perineal Big 10 powers in Penn State and Iowa, not to mention the success over Florida, Louisville, South Carolina, and Missouri in his tenure as the Head Coach of Kentucky Football. Coach Stoops has taken a bottom-dwelling program like Kentucky Football and has changed the culture where the Big Blue Nation cares more about Football than Basketball.

So yes, if you’re a Kentucky Football fan, losing to Missouri on Saturday cut deep like a dagger in your back. Everything has a reality that when you’re in a program like Kentucky, the experience of packing out Kroger Field outweighs the negative of likely never getting that experience to take the blue and white to the College Football Playoffs. Kentucky Football fans are some of the most loyal fans in the country, and Coach Stoops has added fuel to the fire of the Big Blue Nation.

Kentucky has the bye week on the 21st before returning to action at Kroger Field on the 28th against the Tennessee Volunteers. A lot will have to change on both sides of the ball if Kentucky wants to play the Volunteers close. Tennessee has a long history of owning the rivalry with Kentucky, with the latest coming back in Neyland Stadium, where the Volunteers dominated the Wildcats 44-6.