In the cursed year that has been 2020, all words written about sports involve contingency clauses.
So, if the Southeastern Conference can convince its football players it is safe to play amid the coronavirus pandemic;
If a threatened player boycott does not spread from the Pac-12 all around college football;
And if the Power Five conferences and the NCAA do not enter into a bitter divorce with unknown ramifications ...
... we are going to find out this fall just how authentic the improvement Mark Stoops has brought to the Kentucky Wildcats football program actually is.
The announcement last week that the 2020 SEC football season _ if it is played _ will feature a 10-game, all-league schedule sets up the ultimate test of how legitimate the Stoops-era ascension is.
In many past seasons, an all-SEC football schedule would have been the death knell for Kentucky aspirations of success.
Since the Southeastern Conference was formed in 1933, UK has played 86 football seasons (the Wildcats sat out the World War II season of 1943).
For Kentucky, those 86 seasons of SEC football have yielded:
_ Sixty-three seasons with a losing record in league games.
_ Fifteen years in which the Wildcats broke even against conference foes.
_ Only eight winning SEC seasons _ 1949 (4-1); 1950 (5-1, SEC champions); 1953 (4-1-1); 1954 (5-2); 1964 (4-2); 1976 (5-1, SEC co-champions; includes a forfeit victory over Mississippi State of a game Kentucky lost on the field); 1977 (6-0); and 2018 (5-3).
The good news for UK is that it enters the 2020 all-league slate off the Wildcats' best four-year stretch of SEC success in four decades.
From 2016 through last season, Stoops and troops have won a combined 16 league games (16-16).
The only other time in school history that Kentucky earned 16 SEC victories in a four-year stretch was from 1976-79 (16-8) under Fran Curci.
On paper, UK will enter this season's all-SEC gauntlet with an unusual array of assets.
Start with four returning starters from one of the best run-blocking offensive lines ever at Kentucky. The "Big Blue Wall" was recently tabbed by Rivals.com as the fourth-best offensive front in college football entering 2020.
If quarterback Terry Wilson is 100% recovered from the torn patellar tendon in his left knee that ended his 2019 in the season's second game, UK will have a veteran signal caller with a knack for directing the Wildcats to victory (12-3 as a starter).
One positive factor for UK in the SEC delaying the start of the 2020 season until Sept. 26 is that Wilson has three more weeks to prepare for his return to game action.
Kentucky returns all three running backs _ A.J. Rose (826 rushing yards, 5.5 yards a carry, six touchdowns in 2019); Kavosiey Smoke (616, 6.1, six) and Christopher Rodriguez (533, 7.5, six) _ that were in its regular rotation a season ago.
Defensively, UK brings back standout nose guard Quinton Bohanna, disruptive "rush end" Boogie Watson and veteran linebackers in Jamin Davis (mike), DeAndre Square (will) and Jordan Wright (jack).
In the secondary, other than safety Jordan Griffin, Kentucky welcomes back all key contributors from a unit that finished second in the country last season in passing yards allowed (167.8).
The Wildcats will also get back safety Davonte Robinson, the ex-Henry Clay High School star, who was emerging as a standout late in the 2018 season but who missed all last year after a preseason injury.
Senior punter Max Duffy, last season's Ray Guy Award winner, should again be a field-position-altering Kentucky strength.
The Kentucky questions start with offensive playmaking.
With Lynn Bowden now in Las Vegas with the Raiders, we will find out if Kentucky has anyone with the big-play capacity to stress SEC defenses.
UK has not had a wideout who could consistently "take the top off" of defenses since Jeff Badet left after 2016. Against a steady diet of Southeastern Conference DBs, can Kentucky at last get the vertical passing game back in its offensive repertoire?
Defensively, UK will be without massive defensive linemen Calvin Taylor and TJ Carter, each of whom graduated. Projected replacements Phil Hoskins and Josh Paschal will bring more athleticism, but less bulk.
The anticipated absence of junior inside linebacker Chris Oats due to an undisclosed medical condition is a worrisome loss.
Historically, Kentucky football teams have tended to get worn down by the meat grinder of a normal SEC schedule.
This year, you are adding two more league games with no FCS or MAC "breathers" allowing the possibility to rest starters.
After Stoops' reconstruction of the UK program, do the Wildcats not only have the depth to survive 10 straight games against SEC rosters but to thrive?
If the 2020 season is actually played, a winning record for Kentucky against an all-SEC slate of foes would be a substantial sign of program progress.
