‘We’ll show ‘em some things.’ UK bringing players up to speed on U of L rivalry.
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Governor’s Cup preview: Kentucky at Louisville
The University of Kentucky football team concludes its 2021 regular season Saturday against archrival Louisville in the annual Governor’s Cup game at Cardinal Stadium. Click below to view all the stories previewing the game that have been published on Kentucky.com.
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About two full years will have elapsed between the last time Kentucky faced Louisville on the football field and this season’s meeting, scheduled for a 7:30 p.m. kickoff at Cardinal Stadium on Saturday.
Several players on both rosters have never played in the rivalry game which, save for last year, has been played annually since 1994. Those fitting that description on UK’s roster will be introduced to it throughout this week, Mark Stoops said during his weekly news conference Monday. He was coy when asked about the means of introduction.
“We’ll show ‘em some things,” Stoops said.
They’ll need little introduction to Malik Cunningham, who’s a much more confident, complete player, says Stoops, than the last time Kentucky met him. U of L’s quarterback, then a sophomore, completed just six of 11 pass attempts for 78 yards and a touchdown with an interception in a 45-13 loss in 2019. He was kept in check on the ground, too, rushing for just 27 yards on 11 carries.
He’s coming off a historic effort at Duke. Cunningham threw for 303 yards and five touchdowns and rushed for 224 yards and two additional TDS in a 62-22 win to make U of L bowl eligible. He became the second player in FBS history to finish with 300 passing yards and 200 rushing yards in the same game (Washington’s Marques Tuiasosopo, 1999). Needless to say, he has the attention of Kentucky’s staff.
“He does such a good job of designed runs or running read plays, zone reads and such,” Stoops said. “And buying time to throw the ball down the field and scrambling for yards. You put the three of those things together on him, and you’ve got your hands full.”
Containing quarterbacks with the kind of take-off ability that Cunningham has is difficult for any defense, and Louisville will have to account for some of that in its own game plan. Will Levis doesn’t have the sprinting ability possessed by Cunningham, but he’s proven to be a tough guy to bring down when he tucks and runs.
Levis, who transferred from Penn State in the offseason, is one of the guys this week getting their first taste of the UK-U of L rivalry. He’s quickly adopted the role of antagonist; on Monday, he tweeted a message of excitement about preparing for the Cats’ next game. Innocuous enough, except all the “L’s” in the post were changed to a character resembling an upside down L, as were the L’s in his own name. It was an embrace of a fan-favorite way to mock the Cardinals, and perhaps a dig at U of L Coach Scott Satterfield, who cried foul after the 2019 game, throughout which Kentucky players displayed their own “L’s down” hand signs at Kroger Field.
Said Mark Stoops after the last game: “I don’t know if an L down is going to offend them. There’s going to be a lot worse in this rivalry over time.”
He’s not wrong. One of his players, Denzil Ware, in 2017 threw a trash can during a sideline skirmish. A tussle broke out following the opening kickoff at Cardinal Stadium in 2018. Bobby Petrino, then U of L’s skipper, in 2014 got into a pregame altercation with UK assistant Dan Berezowitz. Bad blood isn’t hard to come by in this one, especially since it became a fixture at the end of each team’s schedule.
For Kentucky, a win would be its ninth in the regular season, a milestone before achieved by only four other UK teams. For the Cardinals, it would assure a winning season for the second time over the last three years. The bowl outlook for both will be impacted by Saturday’s outcome. Rivalry or not, this game carries a lot of significance for each side; that bragging rights are up for grabs for the first time in two years makes it all the more sweet.
“You can’t help but live in Lexington and come across Louisville fans and you can’t help but live in Louisville and come across Kentucky fans,” Stoops said. “We’re very close in proximity and are intertwined, in a lot of ways, in this state.”
Next game
Kentucky at Louisville
When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday
TV: ESPN2
Records: Kentucky 8-3, Louisville 6-5
Radio: WLAP-AM 630, WBUL-FM 98.1
Series: Kentucky leads 17-15
Last meeting: Kentucky won 45-13 on Nov. 30, 2019, in Lexington.
This story was originally published November 22, 2021 at 3:15 PM.
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