Kentucky can’t afford to linger over the heartbreak of their 34-17 loss to Georgia Saturday afternoon with the SEC East title on the line. The proving ground of Knoxville has not been historically kind to the Wildcats, and if Kentucky wants to restore its momentum to a potential 10-2 season — one which still could include a New Year’s Six bowl appearance — they’ve got to hold back not only the Vols, but a daunting tradition.

After division play was instituted by the SEC in 1992, the path to Atlanta (and the potential SEC title) ran through Gainesville or Knoxville. It took until the 11th installment of the SEC Championship Game for Georgia to break up the UT/UF monopoly in the East. To this day — even after Lane Kiffin, Derek Dooley, Butch Jones, Ron Zook and Jim McElwain — of the 27 installments of the SEC East race, UF or UT has claimed 17 titles.

During the era of divisional play, Kentucky has now finally beaten Florida once and taken down the Vols twice — in 2011 and 2017. The fact that UK is 3-52 in those games doesn’t tell half the story. What does? How about this: 73-7, 65-0, 44-10, 63-5, 41-7, 38-0 and 45-7? Or 48-0, 52-0, 56-10 and 50-16? Those are all losses Kentucky has suffered to UF (the first group) or UT (the second group) since 1992.

Credit: Randy Sartin-USA TODAY Sports

That 34-17 loss to Georgia was a tough one. But it ignores the fact that UK has spent much of the last two and a half decades not being able to see being within 17 points of UT or UF without a telescope.

Before UK can act on its hopes to move into the East winner’s circle and remain in the upper echelon of college football, it needs to slay the ghosts of seasons past, when the SEC East was UF, UT, sometimes UGA and then everybody else.

The new coaches and difficulties of transition underline the fact that right now, it wouldn’t take much to consign UF and UT (at least temporarily) to the ranks of everybody else. Various preseason prognosticators advanced the causes of South Carolina or Missouri or maybe even Vanderbilt to move into the hole in the SEC power struggle that remained. But none of them have, Missouri’s impressive win Saturday over Florida aside.

Kentucky last won in Knoxville in 1984. The Wildcats last beat UT and UF in the same season in 1977. They last won in Gainesville and Knoxville in the same season … well, actually, never.

This Kentucky team has already surprised the college football establishment, clinching the team’s first winning SEC season since that 1977 team that went 10-1. Their next win will be the most the team has had in a regular season since 1984’s 8-3 squad. If Kentucky wins out — and after the trip to Knoxville, the remaining schedule looks pretty calm (Middle Tennessee and at a humiliating Louisville team) — the Wildcats could equal the 1950 team’s 11-win season with a successful bowl appearance.

After a couple of decades in college football’s cellar, the Wildcats are poised to finish off a season to remember, even if it doesn’t include a division title. But first, they’ve got to take care of business. After a season in which the Wildcats have picked up four SEC wins as underdogs, they’ll find themselves in an unusual spot — an unlikely favorite in Knoxville, looking to take care of business instead of shock the world.