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(AP) - Positive streaks in Kentucky football are hard to come by.

Mostly, the streaks associated with the Wildcats aren't ones to put on the resume: the current quarter-century of futility against Tennessee, the two decade-plus slide against Florida.

A win over reeling Vanderbilt on Saturday, however, would make the Wildcats (5-5, 1-5 SEC) bowl-eligible for a school-record fifth straight year.

While this hasn't been the breakthrough season the Wildcats were hoping for, getting a shot at another bowl game would further cement the legacy of a senior class that helped raised the level of expectations at a school that's spent most of the last 60 years struggling to stay out of the SEC basement.

Fifth-year senior defensive tackle Ricky Lumpkin has never missed a bowl game in his career. He's not ready to start now.

"You don't want to be that team that ends this tremendous bowl streak that we have going right now," he said. "Even though we lost our bowl game last year, just going to four in a row is great; especially here at Kentucky. Especially for the redshirt seniors that have been here from the beginning."

Vanderbilt has no such bowl hopes. The Commodores (2-7, 1-5) have lost four straight by an average of 33 points, including a 55-14 beatdown by No. 24 Florida last weekend. Yet they've been a tough out for the Wildcats, winning 31-24 at Commonwealth Stadium two years ago.

"They're trying to get bowl eligible," said Vanderbilt coach Robbie Caldwell. "We're hoping we can make them squirm another week before they do that, and that's our goal."

Though Kentucky has won five of the last six meetings, the Wildcats haven't exactly dominated. The average margin of victory has been a touchdown.

"The last three years the visiting team has won," Phillips said. "It's a huge challenge for us. Those guys, you put the film on against Florida and it doesn't look anything like the score. It does not."

Neither does Kentucky's relatively easy 49-21 triumph over Charleston Southern last week. The Wildcats struggled to put the overmatched Buccaneers away. The game was tied in the second quarter before Kentucky got rolling behind quarterback Mike Hartline.

The return of running back Derrick Locke, however, should take some of the pressure off Hartline. Locke has missed the last four games after suffering a shoulder injury in a loss to No. 2 Auburn a month ago.

The running game hasn't been the same without Locke, who was second in the SEC in rushing at the time of the injury. Locke is one of 15 seniors who will be honored in a pregame ceremony. There was no chance he was going to make the walk to midfield with his family in sweats.

"I got a family so this is my life, this is what I want to do," Locke said. "If I can't play, what do I do? I have my degree but that's not the route I want to go, just to be honest."

The seniors, however, might not be the only ones playing their final game at Commonwealth Stadium. Junior wide receiver Randall Cobb plans to gauge his NFL Draft prospects before deciding whether he will return last fall.

Cobb has been the glue that's held the Wildcats together this year, having a hand in 14 touchdowns this year.

"He might be the best all-around in this league in our opinion because he does everything," Caldwell said.

Hartline hasn't been too bad either. Caldwell called the senior the most improved player in the conference. Hartline leads the SEC with 21 touchdown passes and is second in passing average.

Injuries and inexperience have prevented the Commodores for getting going. They're so thin at running back senior Kennard Reeves is the only healthy option left that has carried the ball this season.

It's made for a bumpy season for Caldwell, who inherited the job in July after coach Bobby Johnson abruptly retired.

"We've got a plan for the future and we're excited about it," Caldwell said. "We want to win. We want to give our Vanderbilt fans something to cheer about in the worst kind of way."

So do the Wildcats, particularly the group that came to a program on the ropes five years ago before former coach Rich Brooks slowly brought the team to respectability.

Part of that process was making sure the team didn't get too far ahead of itself. The Wildcats believe they'll play in late December or January if they do what they have to against the Commodores.

"We have to forget about Charleston Southern, we can't think ahead for Tennessee," Lumpkin said. "We have to worry about Vandy because they are going to come in here and give us all they have."

(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)