John Clay: A lot could change for Cats, Cards between now and Governor's Cup

FRANKFORT — According to the actual schedule, Kentucky and Louisville will not meet on the football field until Nov. 28 at the new and improved Commonwealth Stadium.

But, hey, it's summer and there's not much else to do in the way of college sports and the Governor's Cup Luncheon was something of a tradition when the archrivals met in the opening game of the season, and sometimes old habits are hard to break.

So Kentucky and Louisville held a Governor's Cup Luncheon/Golf Outing at the Frankfort Country Club on Wednesday. Louisville Coach Bobby Petrino was there, but exited quickly after taking questions from the media. Kentucky Coach Mark Stoops was there this year after missing the event last year.

And since the start of fall practice is still a couple of months off and the game between the two parties is still nearly six months off, most of the talk was speculation and most of it about one subject.

You got it: Quarterbacks.

Louisville has so many quarterbacks Petrino might think he's untangling Christmas lights.

There's Will Gardner, last year's starter the first half of the U of L season before he underwent his third surgery on the same knee. There's Reggie Bonnafon, who as a true freshman led U of L to a win over Notre Dame at South Bend.

There's also Kyle Bolin, the Lexington Catholic product who subbed for the injured Bonnafon and led the Cards to last year's win over Kentucky. There's Tyler Ferguson, a transfer from Penn State. There's junior-college transfer Pat Thomas.

Then there is the group's most intriguing candidate, true freshman Lamar Jackson, a four-star prospect who snubbed the home-state Florida Gators so that he could be yelled at, er, coached by Petrino.

"Lamar is a very, very talented guy," Petrino said Wednesday. "He's a guy that has a very live arm. We liked his delivery and his ability to get the ball out of his hand quickly and how accurate of a passer he was with also carrying the ability to make plays with his legs."

When the Cards come up I-64 to Lexington, might Jackson actually be Louisville's starting quarterback?

"All he has to show us is how quickly he can learn and adapt and adjust to college football," Petrino said. "It'll be fun to see how that all plays out."

Over at the blue table, Stoops has just two (healthy) quarterbacks. Reese Phillips, a sophomore-to-be, could be the third but the Chattanooga native is coming off Achilles surgery and hasn't yet been given clearance for heavy lifting.

That leaves last year's starter, Patrick Towles, and this year's contender, redshirt freshman Drew Barker, to match spirals as they did in the spring. By all accounts, Towles led at the end of drills.

"He probably has a leg up right now," Stoops said Wednesday, before adding. "But we'll see moving forward. We're certainly going to leave that forward to compete this summer and throughout fall camp."

Not sure why, exactly. Towles started all 12 games a year ago. While Barker did some good things on the field in the spring, Towles did more. Yet, for whatever reason, Stoops isn't ready to crown the junior from Highlands as the guy.

"I think competition helps us at every position," the coach said.

And you get the feeling that the competition will continue through the season. A year ago, it was Towles — sink or swim. This year, it will be Towles and Barker and maybe, by November, not even in that order.

"(Patrick) did some good things in the spring, but Drew is young and playing better and better every time he steps on that field," Stoops said Wednesday.

There's 94 days until both Kentucky and Louisville open the season and 178 days until the teams end the regular season by stepping on the same field. There's a lot to play out.

This story was originally published June 3, 2015 at 5:10 PM with the headline "John Clay: A lot could change for Cats, Cards between now and Governor's Cup."