It's not controversial at all to say Kentucky's 10-win season, capped by a Citrus Bowl victory, was the best for the Wildcats in four decades.
The ride was thrilling for everyone with an interest in Kentucky football, so it made for plenty of fun moments.
But how much does it help the Wildcats moving forward?
Travis Graf, Special Contributor: Kentucky is a household name nationally this offseason. Winning a marquee matchup against a college football heavyweight while your roster features the best defensive player in the country and a great running back with a rockstar personality will do just that.
Warren Taylor, Staff Writer: The Citrus Bowl victory and the 10-3 season sent out an important message to recruits: Kentucky is no longer a football program with a stigma. The victories over Florida and Penn State show that anything is possible now in Lexington under Coach Stoops and company. They have seen how the staff developed unheralded players like Benny Snell and Josh Allen and turned them into players that will likely make some serious bank playing on Sundays. At worst the program stays as a destination for diamonds in the rough and in the best case scenario Kentucky starts to attract talent the like the Big Blue Nation hasn't seen in a long time.
Jeff Drummond, Managing Editor: I think it remains to be seen, but that trophy is going to look awfully good in the Joe Craft Football Training Center. Will fans view this season as a once-in-a-generation type year for the Wildcats, or will they view it as the natural progression we've seen since Mark Stoops arrived in Lexington and expect another step forward in 2019? Having high expectations is a so-called "good problem," and UK should be striving for even bigger things -- namely, winning the East and playing in its first SEC Championship game -- but I hope that thirst for "More! More! More!" doesn't overshadow the fact that this current team just accomplished something remarkable by this program's historical standards.
Justin Rowland, Publisher: While recruiting is the immediate impact (more on that in a moment), I think expectations are the biggest long term impact. I don't think many people believed it was realistic for Kentucky to recruit at the level it has recruited during the Mark Stoops era, and because of a history of failing to win nine or ten games in a season, many probably wondered what the ceiling was on the field. This Kentucky team just proved that it's possible for Kentucky to put a top ten team on the field. They might not match that next year or even in the near future, but nobody can claim it's merely wishful thinking to hope and strive for that. And expectations are a good thing. They're really a necessity in some respects. Recruiting wise, I think coupled with the draft Kentucky should have, the 2020 class could set up to be one of the best of the Stoops era.
Having said that, if you think this will cause people to put Kentucky in preseason top 25 lists, I don't see that happening. I think UK will again be underrated going into next season.
