Unranked Kentucky walked into Kyle Field and won 31-21, ending a 19-game A&M home streak against unranked teams and beating the Aggies for the first time since 1952. Half the country says this proves the "Kentucky is a basketball school" joke is dead; the other half says one September shocker doesn't rewrite a century. Which one are you?
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Add your commentLook, I've been making the Kentucky football joke since 1987 and I'm not ready to retire it after one game in September. Call me when they're in the SEC Championship. I'll wait.
A&M was overrated, the offense has looked shaky since week one, and that defense gave up chunk plays all night. This says more about A&M's problems than Kentucky's rise. Don't let one upset rewrite the whole narrative.
I was in Section 112 at Kyle Field last Saturday. The silence after that third-quarter drive was something I have never experienced in that stadium. Grown men in maroon just... sitting there. Kentucky came in and handled business like they belonged. Owe them an apology? We owe them straight-up respect.
I'm a lifelong Wildcats fan and I cried a little bit watching the fourth quarter. I'm 58 years old. I have sat through so many brutal losses in that program. You people making jokes don't understand what this felt like for people who've been there through the dark years.
I coach high school football in western Kentucky and I can tell you recruiting in this state changed the moment Stoops arrived. Kids who used to leave for Tennessee or Louisville are staying home. Saturday just put a megaphone on something that's been true for a while.
That 214-like comment above is exactly the energy of someone who's never watched Kentucky play a full season. They've been building something real under Stoops for years and people just refuse to see it because "lol basketball school."
I'll say this: if Kentucky goes on to finish 9-3 or better and beats a ranked team in a bowl game, THEN I will formally, publicly, in writing, retire the joke. One game against a team that can't figure out its quarterback situation doesn't fully do it for me. Set the bar at something real.
The comment saying this is more about A&M's problems — okay, maybe, but Kentucky still had to execute. You don't accidentally score 31 points at Kyle Field. Someone had to throw the ball, catch the ball, and make the blocks. That was Kentucky.
Honestly I had them losing by three touchdowns. Genuinely wrong on this one and I'll say it clearly: Kentucky looked like the better football team on Saturday night, not just the luckier one.
The "basketball school" label was always lazy. Kentucky football has produced NFL players for decades. The joke was always more about the fanbase's priorities than the program's actual talent ceiling, and even that has been shifting. Some of y'all are just slow to update.
Nobody is asking you to tattoo "Kentucky Football" on your arm. Just admit you were wrong about this game, update your priors slightly, and move on. That's it. That's all the apology needs to be.
Here's the thing that actually gets me: Kyle Field holds over 100,000 people. Kentucky came in as underdogs and won in front of that crowd. The mental toughness required for that is not something a mid-tier program just has. That's a program that believes in itself.
If you disagree that this is a legitimate program now, explain how you square that with the fact that Mark Stoops has taken them to a bowl game seven out of the last eight years. That's not a fluke. That's a staff, a culture, and a recruiting pipeline working.
Somebody owes them an apology? No. Respect? Absolutely yes. Apologies are for when you were rude. Most people were just making an observation based on history. History updated. Move accordingly.
Ending a 19-game home streak against unranked teams isn't "one September shocker." That streak means A&M was beating EVERYBODY at home. Kentucky walked in there and snapped it. The context actually makes this more impressive, not less.
The person who wants to wait for a bowl win is being intellectually honest and I kind of respect it even though I disagree. But also — beating A&M at Kyle Field for the first time in 72 years should count for SOMETHING on the ledger before we even get to bowl season.
@the 58-year-old fan — same. Different age, same feeling. My dad used to say "football is just something we do between basketball seasons." I don't think that's true anymore and it feels really good to say it.
my cousin goes to UK and she's been telling me for two years the football team is actually good now and I told her she was coping. she has not stopped texting me since saturday. she deserves this
not to be that guy but Kentucky hasnt beaten A&M since 1952 so like. yeah. that means something
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