How about football madness?

The Football Cats did their part to make this one of the best UK athletic weekends in recent memory. After Cal's rousing speech ushering in his era in Lexington, many had forgotten that there was even a football game this weekend. But after tonight basketball will take a back seat (at least for a while). The Cats 21-14 win over Auburn marks the biggest road win in years and certainly the biggest of the Rich Brooks era.

As we have said before, Cobb is truly special and his big play late in the 4th quarter put the team in a great position to pull out the win. Yet this game was about defense and the Cats showed how far this unit has come. With the game tied at 14-14 Auburn got the ball back only to go 3 and out. To me that was the game. Sure, Auburn had a chance to tie the game on their last drive, but all the momentum had clearly swung in favor of the Cats. Last week Kentucky outplayed South Carolina only to lose by 2 points. This week Kentucky outplayed Auburn and were rewarded for their efforts. To say this was a big win is a gross understatement. As a matter of fact it could of saved the season for the banged up Cats.

Now the schedule softens up some over the next few weeks and the chances that Kentucky becomes bowl eligible for a fourth consecutive year is likely. Just to note, I was charged with predicting the Kentucky season for BBNR back in August. We are now at the midway point and I am happy to say that we have predicted every game right so far. That's right, we called this win just as we did the previous 3 losses. Our final prediction was 8-4 with an Outback Bowl appearance. So let's take a look at the second half of the season.

Games that we predicted as wins: La Monroe, Mississippi State, Eastern Kentucky, Vanderbilt and Tennessee.

Games we predicted as losses: Georgia

After what we have seen, is it not possible to see an 8-4 finish? Even Georgia is a winnable game. Now 6-6 and 7-5 are also possible finishes. Who could forget Mississippi State's upset win over the Cats two years ago in Commonwealth or the heartbreaking loss to Tennessee in OT? Even Vanderbilt stuck us a tough loss last season. But we are sticking by our original predictions. However let's not get ahead of ourselves, for tonight we should live in the moment and enjoy this historic win.