For fans, this year’s UK-U of L football showdown comes with a rare twist
The Kentucky-Louisville football rivalry has long been quirky. Yet for fans, Saturday’s 26th modern renewal of the battle for the Governor’s Cup comes with a rare twist.
In 2019, the meeting between Kentucky (6-5, 3-5 SEC) and Louisville (7-4, 5-3 ACC) for football superiority in the commonwealth will occur with both fan bases mutually optimistic about their team’s prospects.
Since the modern series between Cats and Cards renewed in 1994, equal fan optimism entering the game has been rare.
“I think it is good that both teams are in good positions,” Kentucky Coach Mark Stoops said Monday at his weekly news conference at Kroger Field. “That hasn’t always been the case with us.”
There has been a see-saw quality to the modern Cats-Cards football series, with clear periods of superiority passing back and forth between the rivals.
Louisville won four in a row from 2003-2006; Kentucky won four straight from 2007-2010; then U of L built a five-game win streak from 2011-2015.
As a result, there have been precious few Cats-Cards games in which fans from both schools shared near-equal anticipation as the game approached.
This year, both the BBN and the L1C4 set have reason to be stoked for Saturday’s high noon showdown at Kroger Field.
In a year when quarterback injuries could have sunk Kentucky, Stoops and his offensive brain trust salvaged their season by shifting star wide receiver Lynn Bowden to QB and morphing UK into a ground-hugging, option offense.
The 6-foot-1, 206-pound Bowden has thrived at QB, running for 860 yards and seven touchdowns while leading UK to four wins in six games.
“It’s been pretty amazing to see, guy’s been at wide receiver and they put him at quarterback and they’ve still been very effective moving the football,” first-year Louisville head man Scott Satterfield said Monday of UK.
Across I-64, Satterfield has picked up the pieces from the 2-10 disaster U of L produced last season under the deposed Bobby Petrino and engineered one of college football’s surprise seasons.
“Coach Satterfield and their staff have done a remarkable job,” Stoops said. “(Louisville) is playing hard, and it is playing good.”
Adding intrigue to Saturday’s game is that it will be the first head-to-head coaching matchup between Stoops and Satterfield. Their current teams seem perfectly representative of each coach’s perceived strength.
Stoops rose through the coaching ranks on his defensive acumen. His family name is practically synonymous with defense.
This year, one season after Kentucky lost pass-rusher deluxe Josh Allen and its entire secondary to graduation, the UK defense nevertheless stands 18th in the nation in points allowed (18.9 a game) and 26th in yards allowed (324.8).
Satterfield built his reputation during his tenure as head man at Appalachian State (2014-18) for being a creative, run-focused, offensive mind.
His first Louisville team stands 26th in the country in points (34.5 a game) and 28th in average yards gained (453.4).
Under Satterfield, Louisville redshirt sophomore quarterback Micale Cunningham (19 touchdown passes vs. four interceptions), redshirt freshman running back Javian Hawkins (1,278 yards rushing) and sophomore flanker Tutu Atwell (57 catches) have emerged as dynamic playmakers.
Even as advantage in the Governor’s Cup rivalry has see-sawed back and forth, the Kentucky-Louisville football series has taken on an idiosyncratic flavor.
Amazingly, home teams are 9-16 in the modern UK-U of L rivalry. Kentucky is 6-5 vs. Louisville in Cardinal Stadium — but only 4-10 against the Cards in Lexington. The Cats have not beaten Louisville in the venue now known as Kroger Field since 2009.
Favorites are a so-so 16-9 straight up in the Governor’s Cup (and, for those with an interest in such things, 11-14 against the betting spread).
Presently, Kentucky is favored by three points.
It seems clear which coach most needs to win Saturday.
Satterfield has already exceeded expectations in his first year at U of L. He is now, to some extent, playing with house money.
In Stoops’ first season (2013), Kentucky finished 2-10 and Louisville 12-1. It has been a slow climb for UK to reach the point where the Wildcats have now won two of the past three vs. U of L.
Not losing that hard-earned in-state superiority — with all it means for recruiting in Jefferson County and elsewhere in the commonwealth — is why Stoops is the coach in Saturday’s game with the more acute need for victory.
Since the battle for the Governor’s Cup moved to the final slot on each team’s schedule in 2014, this year will be the first time both the Cats and the Cards enter the contest off a win in their previous games.
For the winning fans, the spoils of victory from the rare UK-U of L football game in which both sides enter equally galvanized will be unusually sweet.
“I don’t think there’s any denying when you are playing a rivalry, it’s important,” Stoops said. “... I understand the importance (of beating Louisville) to our fan base.”
Saturday
Louisville at Kentucky
When: Noon
TV: SEC Network
Radio: WLAP-AM 630, WBUL-FM 98.1
Records: Louisville 7-4, Kentucky 6-5
Series: Kentucky leads 16-15
Last meeting: Kentucky won 56-10 on Nov. 24, 2018, in Louisville.
