LEXINGTON – It all starts at Vanderbilt.

Kentucky has five wins with three games remaining. The Wildcats can clinch their sixth win and become bowl eligible for the fourth season in a row next week in Nashville.

“Most definitely in our minds, we still know that we can be successful,” Kentucky defensive lineman Corey Peters said. “It all starts this week with Vanderbilt.”

While appears that Kentucky has moved past the difficult portion of the schedule, the team’s last three games are the most important games of the season. Following a road encounter at Vandy Saturday, Kentucky is at Georgia and closes out the regular season at home against Tennessee.

Winning two of those three games will make it a lot easier in the conference bowl hierarchy. As many as six conference teams, including Kentucky, could end the season with six wins.

That would create a logjam when it comes to handing out bowl bids next month. While depending on other teams to slip up down the stretch, Peters said the Wildcats control their own destiny. Peters said the team’s 37-12 win over Eastern Kentucky Saturday gave the team momentum for the rest of the year.

“This is a game that we had to have and it was the first step to a four-game season,” he said. “Now, it’s a three-game season and we have a chance to go 3-0.”

Peters said the team is still coping with the letdown against Mississippi State, a game that Peters said the Cats let slip away.

“It’s definitely going to take more than a week (to get over the loss) – probably more than a week to get over something like that. It (beating Eastern) is a start to a long process and we’re prepared to take the next step.”

Kentucky coach Rich Brooks isn’t dwelling on his team’s 5-4 record or last week’s setback to the Bulldogs. Instead, he’s looking ahead.

“I’m not going to think about what we didn’t accomplish last week,’” Brooks said. “We just have to think about moving forward. We have to beat a team we have struggled with (Vandy) ever since I’ve been here and it’s been that way in the history of the series (between) Kentucky and Vanderbilt. It’s been a competitive series and it’s obviously going to be a very difficult game. We need to beat Vanderbilt.”

Kentucky’s Micah Johnson said the win over the Colonels helped ease the disappointment of last week’s loss to the Bulldogs.

“We definitely needed to win after last week,” he said. “We are just happy to get another win. We are ready to move forward with the final games of our season and hopefully continue to do well.”