There’s no place like home.

To some this is just a cliche; to the Kentucky Wildcats, it’s been the guiding light of their football program for more than five years.

Kentucky hasn’t won a game away from home since it won its 2010 season opener at Louisville more than four years ago. It hasn’t won a road game outside the commonwealth of Kentucky since beating Georgia between the Hedges in November 2009. To put that into context, Aaron Murray, now graduated from UGA, was a redshirt freshman the last time Kentucky won outside its home state.

Wins outside Commonwealth Stadium have been hard to come by for a Kentucky program that was torn down by Joker Phillips and rebuilt by Mark Stoops all since the start of the 2010 campaign. That will have to change if Kentucky hopes to reach a bowl game this season for the first time in four years.

The Cats are 5-3 in 2014, leaving them one win shy of bowl eligibility. But if they can’t win on the road, they may not ever earn that win. Three of Kentucky’s final four games this season are on the road, and the lone home game is against the lone ranked team in the SEC East — the one-loss Georgia Bulldogs. Thus, Kentucky will either need to stun the Dawgs or finally break through and win a road game to reach postseason play.

The Cats’ three road games come against three beatable teams in Missouri (this weekend), Tennessee (Nov. 15) and Louisville (Nov. 29). Kentucky wouldn’t have to travel far to face Louisville at the site of UK’s last road win, but Louisville is also the best of Kentucky’s three road opponents. The Cards are No. 25 in the nation and came close to upsetting No. 2 Florida State Thursday night. They won’t be an easy out for Kentucky in the always-heated Governor’s Cup rivalry.

A win at Tennessee won’t be easy either. The Cats and Vols will enter the matchup with two of the SEC’s youngest teams, and Kentucky proved in a 38-point road loss to LSU it can be overwhelmed by daunting environments like the one they’ll face in Neyland Stadium.

Kentucky hasn’t won a road game in Knoxville since 1984, a streak that spans 14 straight road losses to the Vols. Kentucky and Tennessee match up well this season, but the Cats will still have a lot to overcome playing the game away from home.

Which brings us to this weekend’s game against Missouri, Kentucky’s easiest road game of the bunch. The Tigers are 6-2 this season, but both those losses came on their home field. Mizzou lost a stunner to Indiana early in the season, then was housed 34-0 at the hands of the Georgia Bulldogs earlier this month.

If Kentucky wishes to snap its long losing skid away from home, this would be the week to do so. The Wildcats boast the SEC’s fourth-best pass rush with 21 sacks in eight games, while Missouri has been one of the worst teams in the SEC when it comes to pass protection. If Kentucky plays like it did in a 45-31 performance against No. 1 Mississippi State last week, it can very well beat Mizzou.

Granted, last week’s game against MSU was at home in Kentucky, which doesn’t ensure the Cats can do the same on one of its furthest SEC East road trip of the year. The team has the talent, but if that talent doesn’t start to travel better it will be wasted on a slew of 6-6 seasons in the coming years.

No matter who Kentucky beats on the road, it just needs a road win. If it can do that, then UK can start focusing on winning multiple road games before the end of the year, which could improve its postseason standing even more. The better UK’s bowl berth looks, the more it will in turn help with recruiting this offseason. The future growth of the program could hinge on the team’s ability to win a road game before the end of the season, ensuring a step in the right direction with a winning record and postseason appearance.

If the Cats can’t win a road game, they’ll likely end the season 5-7 after starting it 5-1, which would be a disastrous way for the Cats to end what would still be their best season since 2010. There’s a lot at stake in Kentucky’s three remaining road contests, which does not bode well for a team with absolutely no history of winning away from home. Even Kentucky’s fifth-year seniors were redshirts the last time UK won a road game, meaning not one player on the roster has actually played in a road victory.

Every team loves its home-field advantage, but the best teams are the ones that can play just as well away from home. This is the next step in Kentucky’s development as a program under Mark Stoops. The Cats will either sink or swim based on how they finish this season away from home, beginning this weekend in Missouri.

There’s no place like home, but Kentucky must make a home away from home this November or home is exactly where they’ll be when bowl season arrives this December.