Kentucky's matchup with South Carolina on Saturday at Kroger Field could be the Wildcats' final game of the season.
Speaking Monday during his weekly Zoom video conference, UK head coach Mark Stoops was asked about whether the Wildcats would play in a bowl game if they receive an invitation.
"I haven't addressed that yet," Stoops said. "I need to visit with our team. I think the biggest thing would be the mindset of our team, to make sure that they would be all-in and wanted to do that. I certainly would want to, and I think our staff would and our administration."
Teams typically need to win six or more games to qualify for a bowl game invitation, but due to the Covid-19 pandemic, those requirements were waived for this season.
"There's going to be a lot of teams playing in bowl games with three and four wins," Stoops said. "And so, we need to win this game (against South Carolina) that's for sure, but I'll address that next week with our team, and it will really be the temperature of our football team. I don't want to go into it half-hearted. I want to go in with the all-in mentality and ready to play and compete."
Kentucky (3-6) plays South Carolina (2-7) on Saturday in a matchup of teams that have not lived up to their goals against a modified 10-game SEC schedule.
Stoops said his main concern at this point is sending his seniors out on the right note in their final home game.
"Hopefully, we'll send them off the right way," he said. "They've been very instrumental in helping us win a lot of ballgames over the past several years. Obviously, this year has been very frustrating, has not gone the way we wanted it to. It has been very well-documented, how different it is and unsettling and disappointing. Hopefully, we can finish the right way."
The Cats have endured a difficult year of adversity, including losing a starting linebacker, Chris Oats, to a life-threatening medical condition during the summer, and seeing beloved offensive line coach John Schlarman pass away in November after a two-year battle with cancer.
"It's hard to put into words how difficult it has been because people will say it's an excuse," Stoops said. "... But it's certainly been one of the more trying times and coaching experiences of my life, and I've been through some tough ones."
Stoops noted that it says a lot about his players' character that they've not had one player quit or opt-out, despite the difficult circumstances surrounding the season. "They really have fought, and I think that says something about them. When you look around the country, it's really easy to say 'I give. I submit. I quit.' Look for a rock to hide under. But nobody's doing that here. I appreciate and respect that in our players.
"We need to coach better and play better in moments, but I do love this team."
Kentucky enters the regular-season finale on a two-game losing streak after falling to No. 1 Alabama (63-6) and No. 6 Florida (34-10) the last two weeks while missing several key players and staff members due to Covid-19 issues.
Unlike some other teams across the country, UK did not miss a regularly scheduled game this season.
"It hit us at a very bad time," Stoops said. "When you're already thin and beat up at the end of the year and you're playing two of the top five or six ranked teams in the country, it's not when you want to be thin.
"It's just circumstances. It's just what it is... We've worked extremely hard to keep our players safe and to adhere to the protocols that were in place, but it's hitting us. I see other guys cancelling and I hear teams cancelling day of and a player here or a player there, shoot, we have 26 or 27 people in this building that have it right now, but we're still competing and playing by the rules. We're not going to duck anybody. We're going to play."
