No sooner did word break via Twitter on Sunday afternoon that Kentucky was headed back to the Music City Bowl for a postseason rematch with Iowa on New Year’s Eve at noon than the unhappiness started raining down on the Big Blue Nation.
Let’s work through the popular laments about UK’s bowl placement:
1.) Same old, same old. Between SEC basketball tournaments, trips to watch the Wildcats play at Vanderbilt and what will be UK’s record sixth appearance in the Music City Bowl, the Big Blue Nation logs more time in Nashville than Carrie Underwood.
For UK backers, almost anywhere else would have seemed a fresher destination.
2.) Same old, same old II. There’s nothing fresh about Kentucky’s opponent in Nashville, either. UK rang in 2022 with a 20-17 victory over Iowa in the VRBO Citrus Bowl. Now, with both Mark Stoops’ Wildcats and Kirk Ferentz’s Hawkeyes having each produced disappointing 7-5 regular seasons, the same two teams will ring out the old year with another meeting.
3.) An ill-conceived, playing style matchup. Kentucky and Iowa are mirror images. Both teams play stout defense and both have been, statistically, among the worst offenses in the FBS in 2022.
Games don’t always play out in accordance with the pregame narratives, of course, but if UK-Iowa doesn’t turn out to be a 9-7 slobber-knocker it will defy all the football that both teams have “put on tape” this season.
4.) An ill-conceived matchup II. What many hoped UK would seek out in its bowl was an opponent with sufficient defensive deficiencies to allow the Cats to:
A.) Help star senior running back Christopher Rodriguez make a viable push toward the 230 rushing yards he needs to pass Benny Snell as UK’s all-time ground gainer;
B.) Unleash an aerial show that would reassure standout true freshmen wideouts Barion Brown and Dane Key that they are in the right program;
C.) Both of the above.
Alas, an Iowa defense that is strong against the run (13th in the FBS), even stronger against the pass (ninth in the FBS) and more than decent at sacking your quarterback (35th in the FBS) figures to make all of those fun UK offensive aspirations nearly impossible.
5). A bowl choice designed to reignite the football/basketball feud. The “hot war” between the Kentucky men’s hoops and pigskin programs that John Calipari ignited with his “basketball school” remarks last summer had settled into a cold war.
By signing onto a bowl game that will kick off at the exact same time on New Year’s Eve as the UK-Louisville men’s basketball game will tip off, Kentucky has all but assured that the schism between its two money-making sports programs will again be front and center.
Will the football bowl game or the basketball contest vs. the Wildcats’ archrival get priority on the UK radio network? Will the ABC broadcast of Kentucky football or the CBS telecast of UK basketball get the higher ratings? Heck, which game will get the best-located screens in the commonwealth’s sports bars?
Yet whatever merits one assigns to the various complaints about Kentucky-Iowa 2.0 in UK-Music City Bowl 6.0, I promised some positives from the Wildcats’ bowl positioning. So this is what Kentucky could reap from agreeing to play a familiar foe in a highly familiar venue:
1.) Maximum time for UK football recruiters to work. Unlike some bowl cities that might have been more appealing to Wildcats fans (looking at you, Las Vegas), Kentucky choosing the bowl that was available to it that started latest in the calendar year should assure that Stoops, Vince Marrow and Co. have the maximum time to woo prospects — both high school and from the transfer portal — before the Dec. 21 college football early-signing date.
That seems especially important since Kentucky to date has only 13 commitments in its 2023 class.
2.) A better Nashville recruiting narrative. In recent years, Stoops and staff have made a big recruiting push into the rapidly growing Nashville metropolitan area. That emphasis has landed prized Kentucky freshmen Barion Brown, Keaten and Destin Wade plus class of 2023 receiver recruit Shamar Porter.
However, Kentucky did its recruiters in middle Tennessee no favors on the field in 2022 by losing to both Tennessee and Vanderbilt. By playing a bowl game in Nashville, UK gives itself a chance to leave a better impression on rising recruits in the area.
3.) A chance for UK’s Nashville-produced players to play in the Tennessee Titans’ stadium. How cool will it be for the aforementioned Kentucky frosh from the Music City to get a chance to play in their hometown’s NFL facility?
4.) A good television window. Playing in a New Year’s Eve bowl early in the day on an over-the-air television network (ABC) is an attractive option — even if the Music City Bowl is on opposite of the Sugar Bowl on ESPN.
5.) Big picture. Kentucky once went almost a quarter of a century without playing in any bowl. The fact that UK football has now been to the same bowl enough times that some Cats backers are tired of going represents tangible program progress.
