Stoops and the Wildcats had just wrapped up the season generations of fans had been hoping for. Finishing with a 9-3 record that included beating Florida on the road, obliterating Louisville and flipping the script on an improbable victory, this was the season lifelong Kentucky football fans had waited for. This match up with Penn State on ABC was a reward, something the fans definitely deserved. However, there was a lot at stake.
For starters, Mark Stoops hadn’t won a bowl game yet at Kentucky after failing to beat Georgia Tech and Northwestern. Benny Snell also had something to prove after being wrongly-ejected from the Music City Bowl the year prior, and he was just 107-yards away from breaking Sonny Collins’ rushing record.