Kentucky’s going to Louisville fresh off a convincing win. What’s on the line?
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Game day: Kentucky 56, New Mexico State 16
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Saturday’s Kentucky-New Mexico State football game at Kroger Field in Lexington.
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The University of Kentucky football team closed its home schedule with a 56-16 victory over New Mexico State at Kroger Field on Saturday.
UK improved to 8-3 overall on the year. Let’s take a look at the impact of the win, and what’s on the line next week when the Wildcats travel to Louisville.
Streaks
Northwestern was the last non-Southeastern Conference team to hand a loss to Kentucky, in the 2017 Music City Bowl. The Wildcats’ win over New Mexico State was their 14th straight over a non-conference opponent.
Due to scheduling changes in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, UK played just one team from outside the SEC in 2020 — North Carolina State, in the Gator Bowl. That was the Wildcats’ third straight bowl win after losing its first two postseason appearances under Mark Stoops.
Kentucky’s last non-conference loss in the regular season also came in 2017, at the hands of Louisville, 44-17. UK since has won the last two games in the series, convincingly — 56-10 in 2018 and 45-13 in 2019. The Wildcats set broke their own single-game school record for rushing, set the week before, the last time the teams played.
This year’s game originally was supposed to have been played at Kroger Field but, since U of L lost its home game last season due to the pandemic, the schools agreed to bump the schedule up a year. They are contracted to play through the 2030 season following an extension of their agreement last year.
Other than Louisville, Kentucky under Stoops has only played a second Power Five non-conference opponent in its bowl game each year, so its chances of losing non-conference contests hasn’t been significantly high. UK hasn’t played another major conference opponent in the regular season since 2005 (Indiana).
UK next week will seek its third straight win over the Cardinals, which would be its longest streak in the series since a stretch of four wins from 2007-2010. Louisville has the longest win streak since the two began playing annually in 1994; the Cardinals claimed five straight from 2011-2015. UK won the first seven meetings between the programs.
Consequences
Beating Louisville next week would be significant on several fronts for Kentucky:
▪ UK would have nine regular-season victories for the second time under Stoops, and for just the fifth time in school history. Stoops on Saturday became just the third coach in school history to win eight regular-season games more than once during his tenure. The first was Paul “Bear” Bryant, who also did it twice (1949 and 1950); the second, Fran Curci, technically only did it once in a season but was later awarded an eighth regular-season win by the Southeastern Conference after Mississippi State was forced to forfeit victories from the 1976 season.
▪ Getting to nine wins would keep Kentucky in the conversation for a bid to the Citrus Bowl, the best possibly postseason destination realistically available to it. Beating Louisville might not be a requirement to get invited to the Outback Bowl, which is part of the “Pool of Six” bowls affiliated with the SEC, but it’d have a much better case against other league teams if it did so.
▪ While the effects wouldn’t be felt immediately in 2022, a U of L win over Kentucky could impact the Wildcats’ recruiting efforts in a negative manner down the road. UK’s taken more ownership of the state as of late, but that can change quickly, especially in the city of Louisville.
▪ For Stoops, a win over Louisville would set up the opportunity for another contract extension. UK’s head coach earned an automatic one-year extension with his seventh victory of the season; that extension becomes a two-year addition if he reaches 10 wins.
▪ Kentucky owns the all-time series lead, 17-15, over Louisville, but the Cardinals have a stronger edge — 15-11 — in games played since they started playing regularly in 1994. Before that year’s contest — a 20-14 UK win — the two hadn’t played since 1924. U of L won seven of eight games from 1999-2006 and six of seven from 2011-2017 to take control in the series’ modern era.
Record watch
Josh Ali (164 yards on seven catches) and Wan’Dale Robinson (181 yards on eight catches) both finished within striking distance of becoming the first receivers to record a 200-yard receiving game. Craig Yeast, the only player who has ever done it at Kentucky, did it twice in the 1998 season.
Robinson has 85 receptions on the year, putting him within five of matching James Whalen’s single-season record (90) set in 1999. Robinson as of Saturday’s game has 1,067 receiving yards, good for second all-time for a UK receiver in a single season. Yeast set the record, 1,311 yards, on 85 receptions in the 1998 season.
Next game
Kentucky at Louisville
When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday
TV: ESPN2
This story was originally published November 20, 2021 at 3:27 PM.
