In what has so far been an uneven and trying Kentucky Wildcats football season, one thing has been apparent.
Mark Stoops has had it up to here with talk about UK's history of long losing streaks.
After Kentucky steamrolled Tennessee 34-7 two weeks ago to snap a 17-game losing skid at Neyland Stadium, Cats outside linebacker/rush end Jordan Wright posted video of Stoops' postgame talk to the Wildcats on Instagram.
"We hadn't won here (since) ... I'm tired of that (bleeping bleep)," Stoops is seen remarking.
If Stoops wants to put an end to all talk about long Kentucky losing streaks for the foreseeable future, he can do it this weekend — if the underdog Cats can find their way to a shocking upset of No. 5 Georgia on Saturday at high noon at Kroger Field.
At the end of what has been a bountiful decade of Kentucky streak busting, Georgia is a remaining problem.
Consider: Last year was the first college football season since 1996 that kicked off without Kentucky having an active, decade-long losing streak against an SEC East foe.
Alas, that changed last Oct. 19 when Georgia shut out UK 21-0 beneath torrential rain at Sanford Stadium. That was the 10th straight victory for the Dawgs over the Cats.
Simply put, UK needs to overturn its losing skid vs. the Bulldogs before it becomes another decades-plus albatross around the metaphorical neck of the Cats football program.
Since 2010, Kentucky has finally been able to climb out from under a series of embarrassing streaks.
In 2010, Randall Cobb, Mike Hartline and Co. sparked the Wildcats to a 31-28, come-from-behind upset of No. 10 South Carolina that snapped UK's 0-17 record against teams coached by Steve Spurrier.
The following year, injuries forced Kentucky to start a wide receiver at quarterback in its season finale. Improbably, Matt Roark directed UK to a 10-7 victory over Tennessee that ended a 26-game losing skid against the Rocky Toppers.
Those two victories are the positive legacy of the otherwise ill-fated Joker Phillips head coaching era at Kentucky.
Under Stoops, Josh Allen, Benny Snell and Terry Wilson led a 27-16 upset of No. 25 Florida in The Swamp in 2018 that broke UF's 31-game win streak against UK.
That same season, Stoops coached Kentucky to its first winning SEC record (5-3) in 41 years and its first New Year's Day bowl victory (27-24 over Penn State in the VRBO Citrus Bowl) in 67 years.
This year's UK road upset of No. 18 UT was the Wildcats' first victory in Knoxville in 36 years.
Having dug out from underneath all of that negativity, the last thing Kentucky needs to do is to fall into another enduring losing rut against Georgia.
So far, the Bulldogs have been Stoops' kryptonite.
Not only is Kentucky 0-7 vs. Georgia under Stoops, only one of the games — a 27-24 defeat in Lexington in 2016 — has even been close.
Otherwise, UK's margin of defeat vs. the Dawgs under Stoops has been 42, 32, 24, 29, 17 and 21.
Historically, UK has never had much success vs. Georgia. The Dawgs lead the all-time series 59-12-2.
However, until this current stretch, Kentucky had never been blanked by the Bulldogs for an entire decade.
UK beat Georgia in the 1930s (once), 1940s (twice), 1950s (once), 1960s (once), 1970s (twice), 1980s (once), 1990s (twice) and in the "00s" of the 21st century (twice).
As a Georgia safety in 1998, current Bulldogs head coach Kirby Smart intercepted a Tim Couch pass at the Bulldogs' 25-yard-line in the fourth quarter to help preserve a 28-26 Dawgs victory over Kentucky.
Since leaving the post as Nick Saban's defensive coordinator at Alabama to return to his alma mater as head man before the 2016 season, Smart has made Georgia the best SEC football program located outside of Tuscaloosa.
For UK, breaking through against the Dawgs is going to be a chore.
Still, it's one Kentucky needs to figure out.
The long losing skids vs. Florida and Tennessee did much to keep positive perceptions of the UK football program from developing.
When one considers the contributions made to Kentucky football in just the past two years by recruits from Georgia — think Calvin Taylor (Augusta); T.J. Carter (Mableton); Yusuf Corker (McDonough); Jamin Davis (Ludowici) and Christopher Rodriguez (McDonough) — it is obvious why UK does not need the negative brand attention in the Peach State that would come from a decades-long losing streak vs. UGa.
So it is imperative that Stoops find a way to not let Georgia develop into the next long-running story of Kentucky football futility.
In doing so, the UK coach can also save himself from the next round of annoying "losing streak questions."
