First Scouting Report: Can UK send Scott Satterfield a Governor’s Cup message?

An early look ahead to the Kentucky Wildcats’ next football game:

The opponent

Kentucky (6-5, 3-5 SEC) will face intrastate rival Louisville (7-4, 5-3 ACC) on Saturday (Nov. 30) at Kroger Field in the 26th modern battle for The Governor’s Cup. The game will kick off at noon and be telecast by the SEC Network.

Coach Scott Satterfield’s Cardinals beat Syracuse 56-34 Saturday in their home finale at Cardinal Stadium.

Series history

Kentucky leads 16-15 all-time, but Louisville leads in the modern rivalry (since 1994) 15-10.

Most recent meeting

Kentucky quarterback Terry Wilson threw for 261 yards and three touchdowns and ran for 79 yards and another score as the No. 17 Wildcats pulverized Louisville 56-10 on Nov. 24, 2018, in the regular-season finale for both teams at Cardinal Stadium.

Know your foe

1. First-year Louisville Coach Scott Satterfield has directed one of the feel-good stories of 2019. The former Appalachian State head man inherited a U of L program that collapsed to 2-10 in 2018 under Bobby Petrino and has the Cardinals bowl-eligible with room to spare.

2. Redshirt freshman running back Javian Hawkins and redshirt sophomore quarterback Micale Cunningham have been breakouts for U of L in 2019. Hawkins, a 5-foot-9, 182-pound product of Titusville, Florida, was already over 1,000 yards in rushing (1,045) entering the Syracuse game.

Cunningham had a 75-yard touchdown run vs. UK last season while using the first name “Malik.” This season, the 6-1, 192-pound product of Montgomery, Ala., had run for 314 yards and five touchdowns and thrown for 1,466 yards and 14 TDs with only three interceptions going into the matchup with Syracuse.

3. Louisville’s vulnerability is its defense. Through 10 games, the Cardinals were 87th in the country against the rush (allowing 175.2 yards a game), 108th against the pass (allowing 257 yards a game) and 103rd in points allowed (32.7 a game).

This story was originally published November 23, 2019 at 6:54 PM.

Mark Story

Lexington Herald-Leader

859-444-4731

Mark Story has worked in the Lexington Herald-Leader sports department since Aug. 27, 1990, and has been a Herald-Leader sports columnist since 2001. I have covered every Kentucky-Louisville football game since 1994, every UK-U of L basketball game but three since 1996-97 and every Kentucky Derby since 1994. Support my work with a digital subscription