Lesser bowl not a letdown, Cats say

The University of Kentucky football team had talked all season about getting out of the state of Tennessee for a bowl, but this probably wasn't what the Cats had in mind.

A season of near-misses and lost opportunities has the Wildcats settling for the BBVA Compass Bowl in Birmingham, Ala., on Jan. 8, where they will face Big East representative Pittsburgh.

It's been a rough couple of weeks for the UK program. The Cats suffered a 26th straight loss to Tennessee to end the regular season and then had to deal with a pair of potential transfers. But the Wildcat players insist they're ready for the trip to Birmingham.

"Everybody's excited," said senior defensive tackle Ricky Lumpkin. "It's not where we want to be, because the season didn't go the way we wanted. There's a lot of opportunities we missed out on, and that's what more people are down about is what could have been. It's our fault. It's no one else's fault. Nobody's mad about the bowl. We're more mad about the things we didn't do this season."

"(Tennessee) is going to be a loss that's tough to get over," said junior offensive lineman Stuart Hines. "It'll linger for a while. But what we've got to do now is put that behind us and get excited to be playing in this bowl game. We need to come out and play our best and come out with a win."

Kate Bosworth Tamala Jones