The University of Kentucky football team began the 1950 season with an 83-0 victory over South Dakota at old Stoll Field, establishing the losers as the worst team to play the Wildcats in Lexington since, oh, The Jazz Age.
But now South Dakota is in danger of being, ah, dethroned, for lacking of a better word. On Saturday, the 2016 Wildcats will close out their home schedule against the Governors of Austin Peay, who have won once – once! — in their last 45 games.
Beginning in 2013, the Governors have gone 0-12, 1-11, 0-11, and 0-10. Their lone victory came against Murray State in 2014, although this season they did lead Tennessee State until losing in the closing seconds.
The Governors are not members of NCAA Division I, which used to be Division I-AA until the NCAA established the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) for the big football schools. Last week they lost by 37 to Eastern Kentucky.
This will be a scrimmage, not a game, but it will give the Wildcats six wins for the season, making them eligible for a bowl invitation. Assuming a road loss to national title contender Louisville in the final game, a 6-6 record would mark the high point of the four-year Mark Stoops era.
Like most sports fans in the Commonwealth, about all I know about Austin Peay is that the immortal James “Fly” Williams somehow found his way from New York City to Clarksville, Tenn., to play basketball for the Governors in the early 1970s.
When UK played Fly’s team in the 1973 NCAA tournament, it gave rise to two of the most creative banners in college history. One said, “The Fly’s Open, Let’s Go Peay!” and the other said, “UK Unzips Fly, Takes Peay.”
I’m pretty sure Las Vegas won’t put out a gambling line on Saturday’s game. It figures to be too much of a mismatch. If the Wildcats were made a 50-point favorite, the bookies sill couldn’t balance their books.
Now I understand that every team has to schedule a breather or two. But this is more than a mere breather. It’s a joke. Surely, with just a little effort, UK Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart could have scheduled a very beatable FBS team that would have given the Cats at least a modicum of competition.
The good about this UK season is that the Wildcats won four Southeastern Conference games – Mississippi State, Vanderbilt, and South Carolina at home and Missouri on the road. This gives them the right to claim title to being the best of the SEC’s worst.
Still, the three home SEC wins came by a total of 13 points, meaning UK wasn’t exactly blowing out their wretched brethren. The Wildcats also blew a home game against Georgia they easily could have won.
In other words, after four years, the jury still is out on Stoops. There’s no reason for Barnhart to give him a contract extension, but there’s probably enough reason to keep him another season, given the still sizable amount of his incredible buyout.
The strengths of this season’s team have been an outstanding running game and offensive line. In addition, the Wildcats had an excellent place-kicker in Austin MacGinnis, whose 51-yard field goal at the buzzer lifted them to victory over Mississippi State.
But they still need a quarterback who can throw and receivers who can catch. And their defense is so porous it must have been crafted by Wiki Leaks.
Assuming the Wildcats are invited to a low-level bowl, it can only be hoped that they’re matched against somebody they can beat. The problem with letting 6-6 teams into bowls is that some of them will finish at 6-7, which doesn’t look particularly impressive to recruits or anybody else.
The fans who show up at Commonwealth Saturday will be coming for the party, not the event. I’m not sure if I’ve ever felt sorry for a UK foe, but Austin Peay might qualify. If the Governors can keep the final margin under 40, it will qualify as a moral victory.
But far be it from me to rain on Saturday’s party. A week later, the Cats have to go up the road to renew acquaintances with Mr. Lamar Jackson and UofL teammates.
Billy Reed is a member of the U.S. Basketball Writers Hall of Fame, the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame, the Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame and the Transylvania University Hall of Fame. He has been named Kentucky Sports Writer of the Year eight times and has won the Eclipse Award twice. Reed has written about a multitude of sports events for over four decades, but he is perhaps one of media’s most knowledgeable writers on the Kentucky Derby