On the campus of the perennial hoops powerhouse in Lexington where John Calipari and Wildcats basketball generally dominate the buzz for all 12 months of the year the start of college hoops season is marked annually by Big Blue Madness, a pep rally nearly a month before the first-game tip-off that regularly features NBA stars and visits from celebrities such as Drake.

In most years, basketball season at the University of Kentucky would have begun two and a half weeks ago.

But things are different in the fall of 2018. Fans of the basketball school, for the time being at least, are putting hoops on hold. Thats because for the first time in over a decade, Kentucky finally has a stout football team to follow deep into the fall.

This is usually the time of year when people start worrying about basketball, but thats not the case this year, said Charlie Hodge, a recent UK alum who made the trip to Columbia from Cincinnati this weekend. Thats never happened in my life.

A blazing 6-1 start to its season this fall has catapulted Kentucky all the way to No. 12 in the Associated Press poll, its highest ranking since 2007. Entering play in Week 9, Kentucky is tied at the very top of the SEC East standings with Georgia and Florida; and with a win over Missouri on Saturday, the Wildcats will clinch their first winning record in the Southeastern Conference in 41 years.

This weekend, fans in blue from all over have descended upon Columbia to see their Wildcats play in what might be their biggest game yet. Excitement is brewing and will continue to brim all the way through Thanksgiving, so long as the Wildcats keep racking up victories.

The last time fans in Lexington recall feeling like this about their football team was that last time it was ranked as high as it is now 2007. That year, a high-powered offensive attack led under center by Kentucky legend Andre Woodson opened the season 5-1, and delivered the Wildcats a massive triple-overtime victory over No. 1 LSU in Week 8. They were ranked as high as No. 8 that fall.

Kentucky hasn’t reached eight wins since that 2007 season; the years since have been lean. Kentuckys staunch play in 2018, this time on the strength of an elite defense and a powerful running game, is bringing back memories of 2007, and giving the success-starved football fanbase a lot about which to be excited.

Its been rough being a Kentucky football fan, said Brooks Holton, a former Missourian editor and lifelong Kentucky fan, said. Its been awesome to finally see them put together a good season and get some national notice of the team.

Things have changed on Kentuckys campus, too. Running back Benny Snell has become a bonafide star. With NBA stars such as Anthony Davis, DeMarcus Cousins and John Wall as products of Kentucky’s basketball program, there have been plenty of high-profile figures around Lexington. Football players, though, have seldom enjoyed that kind of celebrity status.

But Snell, Kentuckys Heisman contender, is different. The nations fourth-leading rusher entering Saturday, he is the key to Kentuckys offense and has become the face of a brash and confident Wildcats squad that is still proving it deserves the recognition it is getting.

For the Kentucky faithful, having such a prolific star who demands national attention, is new. The 5-foot-11 running back has given fans in Lexington the sort of season they havent had in years, and theyre returning the favor with a whole lot of adoration.

Benny Snell is treated like a basketball player on campus, Hodge said. Ive never seen anything like that before, either.

Nonetheless, the Wildcats could run the table and Snell could emerge as the second coming of Jim Brown, and Kentucky still would not flip to being a true football school. When the Wildcats tip off their season on the hardwood in early November, the basketball team will attract most of the attention in Lexington, no matter what the football teams record is.

But for a program and a fanbase that has seen so much mediocrity in the past decade, the positive turn this fall has been huge. Fans are picking up and traveling in greater numbers to road games. The talk in Lexington is focused on defensive end Josh Allen, not the latest with the basketball team. Kentucky fans finally have a potent football team to cheer.

And for those who have followed the Wildcats through the thick, the thin and often the ugly over the past 11 seasons or so, this one has felt pretty sweet.

Its different for me, Holton said. I grew up going to these games with my dad, so it really means a lot to me.

Supervising editor is Michael Knisley.