By Keith Taylor
Kentucky Today
For the first time this season, Kentucky is ranked in the Associated Press Top 25 poll.
The Wildcats debuted at No. 24 on Sunday after beating Texas A&M and South Alabama. Kentucky (3-1) overcame a slow start and rolled to a 45-21 win over Sun Belt member South Alabama on Saturday.
Kentucky is one of 10 Southeastern Conference schools ranked in the poll. Texas is No. 1, followed by Georgia at No. 2. Alabama is No. 7, Florida is eighth, followed by Ole Miss at No. 9.
Former Kentucky player and assistant coach Jon Sumrall has Florida off to a 4-0 start after a 52-28 win over Ole Miss on Saturday.LSU, which plays at Kentucky on Oct. 10, is No. 11, while Mississippi State made its debut at No. 16 this week. Tennessee fell to No. 17 after a narrow loss to Texas on Saturday. Kentucky is 24th, while Missouri is at No. 25 this week.
Following a pair of conference setbacks, Texas A&M dropped out of the poll. Louisville also fell out of the Top 25 after a loss to Wake Forest on Saturday.
Kentucky will now play seven straight conference games, starting with a road game at South Carolina on Saturday. Kentucky coach Will Stein said the Wildcats need to perform better than it has in the past two home games against Alabama and South Alabama to duplicate the same success in the three victories.
“We didn’t play well this game (against South Alabama)in terms of the entirety of the game. There were some spots that was really good and some spots that were really bad. There wasn’t a lot of just consistent play throughout the day.
“I am excited that we won. My message is, this is not going to sustain winning over the next (seven) weeks or however long we have of SEC play. We have to be better. Our guys are going to take this and be able to watch the tape. The best way to coach a football team is off game tape. The reality is we did not play to our best of our ability. But it is nice to obviously leave here with a win.”