Ten takeaways from a UK football win Cats fans will long cherish

Now on to the best part of the Kentucky-Louisville rivalry: the rehash.

1. Among those who preferred the Kentucky-Louisville football game as the season opener, I was a strong advocate. However, since the SEC and ACC made Cats-Cards the season finale in 2014, all three games have been memorable:

2014: In a wild affair that started with pregame scuffles between the teams, the lead changed hands four times in the fourth quarter before Lexington Catholic product Kyle Bolin quarterbacked Louisville to a 44-40 victory over his hometown team.

2015: Kentucky built a 24-7 halftime lead only to see a dazzling performance from U of L freshman quarterback Lamar Jackson carry the Cardinals to a 38-24 come-from-behind victory.

2016: Relatively unheralded Kentucky quarterback Stephen Johnson (338 yards passing and three touchdowns; 83 yards rushing; only one turnover) got the better of Heisman Trophy favorite Jackson (281 yards passing and two TDs; 171 yards rushing and two scores; four turnovers) and Austin MacGinnis’ 47-yard field goal with 12 seconds left made the Wildcats 41-38 victors.

2. After Stephen Johnson connected with Garrett Johnson on touchdown bombs of 75 and 63 yards against Louisville, the Kentucky quarterback now has seven TD passes of 40 yards or more in 2016.

What makes Johnson so good at throwing the long ball?

“He has really mastered to get the angle of the receiver and then be able to throw it to a spot and understand where the intersection point is,” Kentucky quarterbacks coach Darin Hinshaw said. “That is the key to throwing the ball deep. A lot of quarterbacks can’t figure that out.”

3. Even with Louisville (9-3) dropping its final two games, Lamar Jackson should win the Heisman Trophy. He’s been the most dynamic player in college football in 2016. Jackson has accounted for 51 touchdowns himself (21 rushing, 30 passing). That’s more TDs than 86 of the 128 FBS teams have produced.

4. If Jackson does win the Heisman, then Saturday will have been the ninth time Kentucky played against the winner of college football’s most prestigious individual award in the year they won the trophy. It will be the first time UK beat a Heisman winner.

5. Kentucky’s victory over Louisville on Saturday as a 27-point underdog (source: Glantz-Culver Line) is the biggest upset in the modern history of the Governor’s Cup. Before 2016, UK’s 22-17 win over U of L as a 12-point underdog in 2002 held that distinction.

Overall, Governor’s Cup favorites are a mediocre 14-9 straight up since 1994.

6. With Bobby Petrino’s loss Saturday, all 13 men who have coached in the modern UK-U of L rivalry have suffered a defeat. Petrino is now 6-1 vs. UK in Governor’s Cup games, 7-2 against the Cats overall.

7. With Mark Stoops’ win Saturday, 11 of the 13 men who have coached in the modern UK-U of L rivalry have at least one win. Stoops is now 1-3 vs. the Cardinals. Ex-U of L head men Howard Schnellenberger (lost in 1994) and Steve Kragthorpe (0-3 from 2007-09) never won.

8. Since Kentucky and Louisville started playing football again in 1994, the same school has won both the football and men’s basketball game between the two rivals in the same school year only four times — U of L in 2003-04 and 2012-13; UK in 2009-10 and 2010-11.

9. As was reaffirmed Saturday, there is no home-field advantage in UK-U of L football. Kentucky has beaten Louisville more times in Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium (5-5) than in Commonwealth Stadium (4-9).

10. UK radio play-by-play announcer Tom Leach said on air Saturday that Kentucky has now twice memorably upset ranked Louisville teams thanks to a junior-college transfer named some variation of “Steven/Stephen Johnson.”

In 2007, junior-college transfer wide receiver Steve Johnson caught a 57-yard TD pass from Andre Woodson with 28 seconds left to give UK a 40-34 win over No. 9 U of L.

Last Saturday, junior-college transfer QB Stephen Johnson played the best game of his UK career as the Cats stunned the No. 11 Cardinals.

Joked UK Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart: “We’ve got to get more ‘Steve Johnsons’ in here.”

This story was originally published November 28, 2016 at 5:20 PM with the headline "Ten takeaways from a UK football win Cats fans will long cherish."