There is no other team in the SEC like Texas for the Kentucky Wildcats. They are the only team in the conference that they haven't played more than once. Or even, for that matter, since the 1950s. Oklahoma may only have been three total times, and as recently as 1982. Texas A&M, the other recent SEC edition, Kentucky, has also seen three times, most recently in 2018.
Texas, on the other hand, has only ever had a matchup between the Kentucky Wildcats and the Texas Longhorns, and it took place on September 22, 1951. It has been 73 years since these two teams met, and these two fanbases have interacted over football. Though they've only met twice in basketball, there is not much of a history there either.
Head Coach: Bear Bryant
Star Quarterback: Babe Parilli
In 1951, when the Wildcats took on the Longhorns, it was Texas that walked away with the victory after a lackluster scoring effort from both teams. The final was 7-6. It was Bear Bryant's sixth season as the head coach. His Wildcats went 8-4 that season, with a big win over #11 TCU in the Cotton Bowl to cap off the season. The quarterback for Kentucky that season was one of the legends at the position, Babe Parilli. He was drafted after this season by the Green Bay Packers.
This quote that Bear Bryant had after the game came from Yahoo Sports, who had a recap of the game: “I thought it was a good ballgame right down to the wire,” Kentucky coach Paul “Bear” Bryant said afterward. “Somebody had to lose it. I hated that it had to be us, of course.”
For Texas, they had a brand new coach in Ed Price and he was able to put together a 7-3 season for the Longhorns.
Kentucky will look to even the matchup with a win on Saturday, no matter how unlikely that seems. The goal before the Wildcats is to win out to get a bowl game or simply to play spoiler for the SEC and knock off the Longhorns. The game is at 3:30 p.m. EST on ABC.