For a Kentucky football program that has shown serious signs of improvement this season, last week’s 42-16 loss to Mississippi State was a step in the wrong direction. At (4-3) the team now must win three of their next five games to finish with their first winning season since 2009. Here’s coach Mark Stoops on how his team can get there:

First the coach had to give respect to last Saturday’s SEC Player of the Week Dak Prescott, who last week accumulated 465 yards of total offense with six touchdowns against the Wildcats.

Despite dropping back-to-back games, Kentucky is still hanging on by a thread to the third spot in the SEC East with two conference wins. Three straight games against SEC East rivals should decide the success of Kentucky’s season with Tennessee first up on the schedule.

The Volunteers have dropped some tough ones this season but they’ve lost their four games by a total of 19 points, three of which were against teams currently ranked in the Top 15. As well as Tennessee is playing right now, next week is going to be tough game for a slumping Kentucky to come out on top in.

Easily the most significant series last week for the Wildcats came in the game’s final moments when freshman Drew Barker took over at quarterback. Though the No. 6 pro-style quarterback of 2014 according to 247Sports threw a late interception, the future looks very bright for a Kentucky team that continues to struggle to get out from the bottom of the SEC.