Enough with holiday gratitude. Let’s get you riled up for Cats vs. Cards.
Across the United States, Thanksgiving is a time for gratitude and good will.
OK, enough of that.
In Kentucky, it’s time for some good ’ol “rivalry college football.”
As we count down to the 26th renewal of the modern Kentucky Wildcats-Louisville Cardinals football series Saturday at noon at Kroger Field, we are here to help you throw off holiday serenity and get riled up.
It is the fighting words, the plain old fighting and the dramatic back-and-forth that have galvanized our state’s annual pigskin battle between the blue and the red.
Fighting words
1.) In 1999, Louisville Coach John L. Smith decried what he saw as the disdain historically directed toward U of L by UK backers. Smith said Kentucky treated Louisville like “red-headed step-children.”
2.) With six seconds left in the 2003 Cats-Cards game, Louisville tacked on an unneeded touchdown in what became a 40-24 win. Some UK backers accused then-U of L head man Bobby Petrino of running up the score.
The following year, Louisville led 28-0 as it threatened to score again in the game’s final seconds.
This time, U of L took a knee. “I just thought I’d give Kentucky what it wanted,” Petrino jibed.
3.) The run-up to the 2006 UK-U of L game was punctuated by some provocative bulletin-board material from an unlikely source.
Then-University of Kentucky President Lee T. Todd Jr. publicly declared that the Louisville football program — which had gone 29-8 over the previous three seasons — was “over-marketed and under-performing.”
Fighting
1.) The pregame warm-ups before the 2014 Cats-Cards battle at Cardinal Stadium broke out into open hostilities. Multiple players from both teams were involved in at least three different skirmishes.
2.) In a moment captured by then-Kentucky Kernel photographer Michael Reaves, one of those 2014 pregame battles was between then-Louisville Coach Bobby Petrino and UK football administrative aide Dan Berezowitz.
According to the Kernel, Berezowitz and Petrino each started out trying to break up player fights. In doing so, Petrino shoved a UK player, Berezowitz saw it and pushed Petrino from behind in response.
That led to the photograph that went viral of Petrino and Berezowitz in a face-to-face confrontation, each man with a fistful of the other’s jacket.
3.) In the first quarter of the 2017 Kentucky-Louisville game, UK linebacker Jordan Jones and U of L star Lamar Jackson got into a pushing fracas that nearly devolved into an all-out brawl.
In the ensuing melee, Kentucky’s Denzil Ware heaved a trash can in the direction of a Louisville player.
“There’s no excuse for the way some of that game played out,” UK Coach Mark Stoops said afterward. “I’m not very proud of it.”
Three games UK fans savor
1.) 2002. Louisville was coming off an 11-2 year and ranked No. 17 in the country. In the season opener, a stout UK defensive front led by Dewayne Robertson brought the lumber on U of L quarterback Dave Ragone and led the Cats to a 22-17 upset.
2.) 2007. In the most-hyped Governor’s Cup game to date, Kentucky quarterback Andre Woodson hit Steve Johnson with a 57-yard scoring pass with 28 seconds left to upset No. 9 U of L 40-34.
3.) 2016. Unheralded Kentucky quarterback Stephen Johnson (no relation to the above Steve Johnson) threw for 338 yards and three touchdowns and out-dueled a turnover-prone Lamar Jackson (three interceptions, a devastating lost fumble) during his Heisman Trophy season.
Austin MacGinnis booted a 47-yard field goal with 12 seconds left to give Kentucky — a 27-point underdog — a stunning 41-38 win.
Three games U of L fans savor
1.) 1999. In the game that followed John L. Smith’s “red-headed step-children” remarks, Louisville quarterback Chris Redman threw for five touchdowns and the Cardinals won the first game played in the newly expanded Commonwealth Stadium in a 56-28 pasting.
2.) 2006. In the game that followed Lee Todd’s “over-marketed and under-performing” remarks, U of L star running back Michael Bush ran for 128 yards and three touchdowns — before breaking a leg on the second play of the third quarter — and the Cards crushed the Cats 59-28.
3.) 2017. U of L star Lamar Jackson threw for 216 yards and two touchdowns and ran for 156 yards as Louisville emphatically avenged the prior season’s Kentucky upset with a 44-17 rout in Lexington.
This year’s marching orders
Kentucky’s Mark Stoops: “I don’t think there’s any denying when you are playing a rivalry, it’s important. ... I understand the importance (of beating Louisville) to our fan base.”
Louisville’s Scott Satterfield: “Since being here, I think that it was pretty early-on indicated that we needed to win the game against Kentucky.”
Let’s get it on.
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.
