Questions to ponder after Kentucky beatdown of Louisville

Wan'Dale Robinson set a single-season reception record Saturday night but will have a decision to make about whether to return to UK or try to play in the NFL. (UK Athletics Photo)

Now that Kentucky has finished 9-3 after annihilating Louisville 52-21 Saturday night, there are three major questions that come to mind for me.

— Will Mark Stoops be back coaching Kentucky next year?

Stoops is 57-53 overall as a head coach and won 10 games in 2018 — something that had not been done at Kentucky since 1977. After a 2-10 season in his first year, Stoops has won at least five games every season and since 2016 has had just one season below .500.

Those numbers are why Stoops has had his name mentioned prominently with openings at Florida and LSU. However, I don’t see him leaving. He’s built his own program here. He’s paid well here and can count on another raise and likely facility upgrades.

More importantly, he has put together his best recruiting class and just a few days ago Nashville five-star receiver Barion Brown committed to UK. He’s the highest ranked skilled player ever to commit to Kentucky and I have to believe if he thought there was any chance Stoops was leaving, he would have held off on committing to UK.

Parents of other recruits have also told me Stoops has made it clear to them he is not leaving.

— Will Wan’Dale Robinson be back at Kentucky next season?

The former Western Hills star broke the UK single-season receiving record and now has 94 catches — five more than the previous record set by James Whalen. He had nine catches for 98 yards in the Louisville win and has 94 catches for 1,164 yards (the single-season record is 1,311 yards in 1998 by Craig Yeast).

Hard to believe that in two seasons at Nebraska he had 91 catches. Now he has more than that in 12 games at Kentucky.

“The record means a lot. This is my first year playing receiver full-time (Nebraska also used him at running back),” Robinson said on the UK Radio Network. “It (the record) means a lot and shows what the coaching staff can do. Whatever they asked me to do, I tried to do it.”

Now he’ll face a major decision about putting his name into the NFL draft. My guess is that if he gets feedback where he would go in the second or early in the third round of the draft, he’ll leave UK. If not, I think he will be back because apparently he’s making over $100,000 in name, image and likeness money this year and that likely would increase next season for him.

And if he is back, the UK offense could be even better because quarterback Will Levis should have more big-time targets other than just Robinson next year.

— What bowl game will Kentucky be in?

The answer comes Dec. 5 but let me cast my vote for the Outback Bowl in Tampa on Jan. 1. Kentucky has not played in the Outback Bowl since the 1998 season when it lost to Penn State with Tim Couch at quarterback.

Georgia is 12-0 and will be in the national playoffs. Alabama is 11-1 and Ole Miss 10-2. At worst, both should be in a New Year’s Six bowl game.

Kentucky has the next best overall record at 9-3 while Arkansas and Texas A&M are both 8-4. Kentucky was 5-3 in SEC play while both Arkansas and Texas A&M were 4-4.

From what I am told, the Outback Bowl is “all in” with Kentucky knowing how Big Blue fans will travel. The Citrus Bowl actually has that first pick but I am sticking with the Outback Bowl as my choice from what I have been told and that should suit the Cats just fine.

The TaxSlayer Gator Bowl in Jacksonville could be an option but a Clemson-Auburn matchup could be on the wish list there knowing the Outback wants UK.