Kentucky Wildcats not worrying about past failures

2014 was a year full of ups and downs for the Kentucky football program.

After a promising 5-1 start to the season, the Cats went on to lose their final six games while failing to reach bowl eligibility for the first time in four seasons. Of the Cats' seven losses, four saw the Cats trailing by 10 points or less in the fourth quarter, and three were decided in the closing minutes.

Senior defensive back A.J. Stamps was among those representing UK at SEC Media Days, and he made it clear the Cats are not dwelling on their past failures this coming season.

"When we look back, we would do (some) things differently, but we don’t like to talk about the past … it’s in the past," Stamps said. "We’ re just focused on the process we have to take to get ready for this season.

"We don’t dwell on it. We kind of use it as motivation to kind of pick us up and uplift us to let us know we can compete with other teams."

Senior defensive tackle Melvin Lewis echoed those sentiments, saying, "We addressed that at the end of last year and put that behind us."

Even with Kentucky's bowl drought, it's clear this team isn't approaching 2015 as if making a bowl is the ultimate goal, but rather something they expect to accomplish. Senior offensive tackle Jordan Swindle made that clear.

"If we go to a bowl game this year, that's a success," Swindle said. "I want to do better than that, but that's my minimum bar."