You read that right. Kentucky currently sits in last place amongst the conference standings. Yes, happy Monday to you too.

After playing the first SEC game of the season for any Southeastern Conference team, South Carolina was immediately bumped up to first place and Kentucky was sent to dead last in the standings.

This stat is a little misleading, but is at the same time very much true. The reason being is because this past weekend’s matchup is the only SEC game that’s been played so far, but my main objective in writing this is that next week when the SEC teams start going head-to-head with each other — including Kentucky and Georgia — unless the Wildcats make an upset they will remain in last place and that will extend for nearly 3 weeks until they play on the road at No. 5 Ole Miss. If they don’t win that, it will go at least two more weeks on until they play Vanderbilt in Lexington. 

This is the route we’re currently looking at: You start off in last place (in SEC) after week two, then in week three a very likely loss to No. 1 Georgia is presented, followed up by a week four game versus non-conference Ohio that extends your last place positioning because a win won’t count since they aren’t in your conference all the way to week five. Then after that, you go to Oxford to take on currently ranked No. 5 Ole Miss hoping to defeat an SEC West school on the road for the first time in the Stoops era, and if that doesn’t get accomplished, then you have your BYE week right after that you sit through until week seven versus Vanderbilt. That’s going to keep you essentially in last place until week 7 guaranteed unless you find a way to upset Georgia or Ole Miss, both seemingly near impossible feats.

Unfortunately, this dark road is just beginning. I hate it as much as you do, but I don’t think many are aware of this bottom of the SEC streak we’re about to adventure with. I really didn’t get to fathom any of this being a possible until the hours after the game concluded because as all of us I expected Kentucky to be 2-0 right now. That loss to the Gamecocks will be a damper on for the rest of the season and will likely be one Mark Stoops’ biggest regrets for the rest of his time as the head coach here.

The overall fan base seems blatantly down on the football program and Stoops and I don’t think I’ve ever seen it this bad. It’s weird how quickly things can flip because I know fans were extremely excited for the start of the season and that feels like it was just the other day. I believe the only way to really “even out” that bad of a loss for the sake of your season’s record and bowl chances would be to upset one of the four top-ten opponents remaining in Georgia, Ole Miss, Tennessee, and Texas, but who’s projecting that to happen? I can’t say I am.

Mark Stoops conducted his Monday presser today at noon to recap the South Carolina matchup and to preview the incoming Georgia matchup. You can see very clearly he knows things have to get fixed and that they have to get fixed pretty quickly or else this season might get real ugly.