Some teams will be playing in bowl games without at least one of their best players. Michigan will be without Rashan Gary. West Virginia won’t have Will Grier. Deebo Samuel won’t be suiting up with his South Carolina teammates. That’s not the case for Kentucky. Josh Allen and Benny Snell have both committed to play in the Citrus Bowl against Penn State.

UK coach Mark Stoops shared with reporters Friday that he let both players know the decision was all about what they felt was best for their futures.

“I really felt the need to stay out of that,” Stoops said. “Again, I wanted it to be their decision and come from them. The only thing I said, like I said the last time we met, I told Josh — because I knew he had some preliminary talks and we had a few more but we were running around doing all of the award ceremony and he was getting busy — and said when we get back, let’s sit down and talk about it.

“And like I said before, when we got into those discussions, I said, ‘I want you to know that …’ Again what I said last time, that ‘We respect you. Your legacy is set here. Do what’s right for you.’ I didn’t want him to feel that pressure from me. We did a lot. He accomplished a lot and what he did for us this year coming back, he did good for himself, he did good for our program, and so I just left that up to him.”

Snell is only 107 yards away from passing Sonny Collins as UK’s all-time leader in career rushing yards. But don’t expect the play-calling to be adjusted in Snell’s final game as a wildcat.

“If we were focused on that, we’d have given him a few more carries in the last game and try to get him a few more yards, but that wouldn’t be very wise either,” Stoops said. “That’s where you do feel bad if he goes in there and gets hurt or (does) something silly. If it happens, it happens. It’s important to him.

“It will be a very difficult challenge against who we’re playing, but we’re not going to focus on it now. Would I like to see it happen? Sure. He’s done a lot for us.”