The Associated Press

LEXINGTON, Ky. - As much as Kentucky's season-ending showdown with Tennessee resembles a bowl game, it's not, and coach Guy Morriss has stopped trying to sell it to his players as such.

"We had said earlier in the season when the sanctions came down and we couldn't go to a bowl game, let's make Tennessee the bowl game and at that particular time it seemed like the way to approach it," Morriss said at his weekly news conference Monday. "But from a mental standpoint, it's better for us just to approach it as a big game. Our kids don't really handle change that well, so I thought let's just make this a normal week."

The NCAA banned the Wildcats from a bowl game this season and forced them to slash scholarships over the next three years as punishment for various recruiting violations.

But bowl game or not, the Wildcats should have all the incentive needed heading into Neyland Stadium on Saturday.

Kentucky is looking for its first win in Knoxville since 1984, and its first eight-win season since 1998.

"It would just put us in the right frame of mind heading into the off-season," Morriss said of a possible win over the Volunteers. "We were only supposed to win 2-3 games so this has been gratifying."

Instead of playing to dash Tennessee's national championship hopes, as Kentucky has done over the years, the Wildcats and Volunteers will meet on more equal footing than they have in the past.

Unranked and sporting the same 7-4 record as Kentucky, Tennessee has seen its season falter as a host of players sat injured during critical games.

Junior quarterback Casey Clausen missed the Georgia game with a sore shoulder and large portions of the Miami and Mississippi State games with other injuries. He returned for the 24-0 shutout of Vanderbilt on Saturday, but coach Phil Fulmer says his star quarterback is still not completely healthy.

"In this day and age, with scholarship limits, so much depends on a few key guys," Fulmer said.

Despite their sub-par record, Morriss doesn't see this Tennessee team as anything less than elite squads they've fielded in the past.

"Tennessee is still the Tennessee of old," Morriss said. "All you have to do is put in a tape or two."

Kentucky's key players, quarterback Jared Lorenzen, running back Artose Pinner and offensive juggernaut Derek Abney, seem to all be peaking simultaneously and will have two weeks' rest after a 41-21 victory at Vanderbilt on Nov. 16.

Pinner throttled the Commodores for 224 yards and four touchdowns, both career highs.

Morriss expects even more from his team on Saturday.

"I really expect us to play our best football game of the year," he said.