Two weeks ago, I wrote a column in which I explained why Kentucky would defeat Florida and end their 31-game losing streak to the Gators. I took some heat — nothing crazy, but people said the kind of things they say when you predict that a 2-touchdown underdog just might have a shot, particularly in the face of what looked like a football curse. Lo and behold, Kentucky did have a chance.

Well, buckle your seatbelts.

Kentucky could win 9 or 10 regular-season games in 2018.

There, I said it.

Come on, stop laughing — this could be serious.

Yes, anybody who is paying attention knows the futility of history. Kentucky last won 8 regular-season games in 1984. The Wildcats last had a winning SEC season in 1977, when they had a 10-1 team that was a top 10 squad.

If — and this is a big if — Kentucky could win 2 of its next 3 games (and who knows, there’s a long shot they could even go 3-0), there’s no reason the Wildcats couldn’t put together a 9-3 or 10-2 type of season. Don’t believe it? Let’s dive deeper.

Kentucky stands 3-0 heading into Saturday’s matchup with No. 14 Mississippi State. Sure, State is large and talented and has been dominant. They’ve also played some thoroughly subpar competition. They’re favored by roughly a touchdown and a field goal in Lexington. Florida was favored by a couple more points two weeks ago. State’s last visit to Lexington ended in a 40-38 loss.

State is followed on the schedule by South Carolina, again in Lexington. On paper, Carolina looks roughly equal to or perhaps slightly better than UK. But Kentucky has won the past four games in the series, and after last year’s win in Columbia, seemed to be getting into Carolina’s head. Now granted, a 4-game winning streak isn’t exactly the 31 in a row that Florida racked up on UK. But it’s more than a coincidence.

The final leg of the 3-game slate is a tough road game at Texas A&M on Oct. 6. This looks like potentially the toughest game of the three, but A&M is still a program with a first-year coach and a lot of new facets to their program.

If Kentucky can find a way to win two of those games, they’re in the driver’s seat for a historic season in Lexington. After that pivotal run, UK plays Vandy, goes to a Missouri team they’ve beaten in their last three meetings, and after they play sacrificial lamb for Georgia, UK finishes with an ugly trio of at Tennessee, at home against Middle Tennessee, and at Louisville. As things stand, those final three are imminently sweep-able. Count me among those who don’t see UK beating Georgia, but a 6-1 Kentucky team playing at a Mizzou team that will have two or three losses by then could be a winner. (Mizzou faces Georgia, at South Carolina, at Alabama in consecutive games before getting Kentucky.)

Even if Kentucky goes 1-2 in the upcoming critical 3-game stretch, an 8-win season is very much still on the table. But if Kentucky can pull off a couple of mild upsets (if Carolina in Lexington would even be an upset), the Wildcats could take a huge step forward– a 9-3 or 10-2 kind of season.

Now, as with the Florida “prediction,” it’s worth bearing in mind that Kentucky has a razor-thin margin for error. The Wildcats could use a couple more efforts like they got at Florida, when the ground game is churning out 300 yards and the passing game hits a couple of timely plays and the defense tackles like an upper echelon SEC defense.

But for once, as mid-September arrives, Kentucky football isn’t looking at the season’s floor. They’re looking at the ceiling, and it’s looking a lot closer than it did even two weeks ago.