Losers of five straight, all against SEC opponents, the 2015 football season is unraveling in Lexington.

Relief should come Saturday against C-USA opponent Charlotte.

At home against a 49ers team that hasn’t won since Sept. 12, these five Wildcats will have to make an impact to begin to salvage what’s left of their season:

1. QB Drew Barker: There’s no question who the most important player on the field for Kentucky will be, newly named starting QB Drew Barker.

In replacing the ineffective QB Patrick Towles (1 TD to 7 INTs during the five-game losing streak), Barker will get his first career start against an opponent he should dominate.

It’s an interesting move by coach Mark Stoops (making Barker’s first opponent a lackluster Charlotte team), but hopefully Saturday will build Barker’s confidence for a long career in Lexington.

2. RB Stanley “Boom” Williams: In his first game back from injury, Stanley Williams rushed for his fourth 100-yard game of the season, 114 yards on 13 attempts, in the loss. The talented sophomore is averaging nearly 7 yards a carry and you can bet he’ll receive more than 13 carries this week with the freshman QB behind center.

3. WR Garrett Johnson: As Kentucky’s only receiver with a 100-yard game this season — he has two — Johnson could be used early and often to help get Barker into a rhythm Saturday.

At 5-foot-11, 182 pounds, the former 3-star recruit has shown at times to be one of the best playmakers on Kentucky’s offense. The problem has been his reliability.

The wide receiver ranks eighth in the SEC at nearly 16 yards per catch, but with only 25 receptions on the season, he just hasn’t made the consistent impact in the passing game the Wildcats need. Maybe all he needs to explode is a new quarterback.

4. SLB Jason Hatcher: The 49ers are one of 19 teams averaging fewer than 20 points, but unfortunately the Wildcats lost to the No. 3 lowest scoring team in the nation last week, Vanderbilt, 21-17.

The Wildcats should get back on track this week, especially with the return of the emerging Hatcher. Hatcher had been out since late October, but returned in the Vanderbilt game to record eight tackles, 2.0 for loss. In his past four games the four-star linebacker has four tackles for loss and one sack.

5. DB Chris Westry: Since winning SEC Freshman Player of the Week in Week 2, Westry hasn’t been the breakout star many in Lexington expected. Other than an interception on Mississippi State QB Dak Prescott, and he doesn’t throw many of those, the Wildcats’ top cornerback hasn’t made the impact Kentucky needs.

The Wildcats have allowed at least 50 receiving yards to their opponent’s No. 1 WR in every week of the losing streak, including four catches for 52 yards to Georgia WR Malcolm Mitchell in a game the Bulldogs finished with just 90 total passing yards.

If ever there was a week to rebuild his confidence, it’s Week 12 against Charlotte.