What Kentucky football’s loss to Iowa in Music City Bowl means for program’s momentum

Jon Hale
Kentucky head coach Mark Stoops, center, watches his players in the first half of the Music City Bowl NCAA college football game against Iowa, Saturday, Dec. 31, 2022, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Mark Zaleski) (Mark Zaleski/AP)

Kentucky football closed out the 2022 season with a 21-0 loss to Iowa in the Music City Bowl.

Here is a closer look at what the loss means beyond the scoreboard.

BOWL STREAK SNAPPED

With the loss, Kentucky snapped its four-game bowl winning streak and 20-game non-conference winning streak. The non-conference winning streak was the longest active one in the country entering the day.

UK is now 12-10 all-time in bowl games and 5-3 in the Mark Stoops era. Here is a look at UK’s all-time bowl results:

  • Great Lakes Bowl (Dec. 6, 1947): Kentucky 24, Villanova 14

  • Orange Bowl (Jan. 2, 1950): Santa Clara 21, Kentucky 13

  • Sugar Bowl (Jan. 1, 1951): Kentucky 13, Oklahoma 7

  • Cotton Bowl (Jan. 1, 1952): Kentucky 20, TCU 7

  • Peach Bowl (Dec. 31, 1976): Kentucky 21, North Carolina 0

  • Hall of Fame Bowl (Dec. 22, 1983): West Virginia 20, Kentucky 16

  • Hall of Fame Bowl (Dec. 29, 1984): Kentucky 20, Wisconsin 19

  • Peach Bowl (Dec. 31, 1993): Clemson 14, Kentucky 13

  • Outback Bowl (Jan. 1, 1999): Penn State 26, Kentucky 14

  • Music City Bowl (Dec. 29, 1999): Syracuse 20, Kentucky 13

  • Music City Bowl (Dec. 29, 2006): Kentucky 28, Clemson 20

  • Music City Bowl (Dec. 31, 2007): Kentucky 35, Florida State 28

  • Liberty Bowl (Jan. 2, 2009): Kentucky 25, East Carolina 19

  • Music City Bowl (Dec. 27, 2009): Clemson 21, Kentucky 13

  • Compass Bowl (Jan. 8, 2011): Pittsburgh 27, Kentucky 10

  • TaxSlayer Bowl (Dec. 31, 2016): Georgia Tech 33, Kentucky 18

  • Music City Bowl (Dec. 29, 2017): Northwestern 24, Kentucky 23

  • Citrus Bowl (Jan. 1, 2019): Kentucky 27, Penn State 24

  • Belk Bowl (Dec. 31, 2019): Kentucky 37, Virginia Tech 30

  • Gator Bowl (Jan. 2, 2021): Kentucky 23, N.C. State 21

  • Citrus Bowl (Jan. 1, 2022): Kentucky 20, Iowa 17

  • Music City Bowl (Dec. 31, 2022): Iowa 21, Kentucky 0

A DISAPPOINTING YEAR ENDS ON A LOW NOTE

Winning the Music City Bowl would not have erased all the sour taste from a season that began with hopes of contending in the SEC East and reaching a New Year’s Six bowl game, but it would have at least sent Kentucky into the offseason with some momentum.

Instead, Stoops and company finish the year at 7-6 overall and 3-5 in SEC play. The momentum of two 10-win seasons in four years has stalled. There is hope for a bounce-back in 2023 thanks to Kentucky’s early work in the transfer portal, but the roster has major holes to fill.

Kentucky’s next chance to establish some positive buzz will come when the NFL regular season ends. Then, the program is expected to announce the return of Los Angeles Rams offensive coordinator Liam Coen to Lexington. The combination of Coen and North Carolina State quarterback transfer Devin Leary should excite fans heading into 2023, but it is fair to expect some skepticism after the Wildcats failed to back up their summer hype this fall.

LITTLE FAN BOOST IN NASHVILLE

A month of grumbling about Kentucky playing in the Music City Bowl translated into an Iowa advantage in the stands despite the short trip for many UK fans. The Hawkeyes side of the lower bowl was mostly full, while Kentucky brought its fewest fans of the program’s six trips to the Music City Bowl.

Attendance was announced at 42,312, the fourth-smallest crowd in the 25-year history of the game and smallest since 2005.

Whether the Kentucky-Louisville men’s basketball game starting at the same time as the bowl game in Lexington affected the crowd size is unclear, but that was one of several factors likely keeping as many UK fans as normal from traveling to the Music City. A second straight matchup with Iowa led to some complaints, as did the decisions of stars Will Levis and Chris Rodriguez to opt out of the game.

It says something about the progress of the program under Stoops’ leadership that fans can be jaded about reaching mid-tier bowls, but the crowd in Nashville was a far cry from the 68,000-plus that watched UK play in the Music City Bowl in 2006 and 2007. Each of UK’s five previous trips to the game featured crowds of at least 48,000.

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