Kentucky bowl projections entering bye week

The Kentucky Wildcats’ hopes of winning their first-ever SEC East title ended Saturday as they were defeated in Athens by the No. 1 Georgia Bulldogs 30-13 in a game that saw ESPN’s College Gameday come to town.

Kentucky scored two touchdowns against a Georgia starting defense that entered play only, having allowed two touchdowns all year, but the Bulldogs defense held SEC leading rusher and UK running back Chris Rodriguez to just seven yards while the Dawgs’ offense was too much for the Wildcat defense to handle.

Despite the loss, UK did not dip too far in the newly released AP Poll as they dropped from No. 11 to No. 15 entering their bye week.

The rest of their schedule is manageable as in two weeks they’ll travel to Starkville to take on Mississippi State (3-3, 1-2), then they will host Tennessee (4-3, 2-2) and close out SEC play by traveling to Vanderbilt (2-5, 0-3).

They’ll then wrap up the regular season by hosting non-conference foe New Mexico State (1-6) and by visiting the arch-rival Louisville Cardinals (3-3).

Thus, a 10 or 11 win regular season is very much in the realm of possibility for the 6-1 Wildcats keeping their hopes of a New Year’s Six bowl bid alive.

Here’s where some different news outlets currently have them going bowling:

• CBS Sports: Outback Bowl vs. Purdue Boilermakers
• Saturday Down South: Peach Bowl vs. North Carolina State Wolfpack
• ESPN’s Schlabach: Peach Bowl vs. Iowa Hawkeyes
• ESPN’s Bonagura: Peach Bowl vs. Iowa Hawkeyes
• 247 Sports: Citrus Bowl vs. Michigan State Spartans
• A Sea of Blue’s Aaron Gershon: Peach Bowl vs. Iowa Hawkeyes