The legend of Lynn Bowden grows and Mark Stoops sends Scott Satterfield a message
Instant analysis from Kentucky’s 45-13 win over Louisville:
How the game was won
Lynn Bowden sliced and diced an overmatched U of L defense and Mark Stoops led UK to its third win in the Governor’s Cup rivalry in the past four seasons — and first victory over the Cardinals in Lexington since 2009.
Who’s hot
1. Lynn Bowden. Turned in one of the great individual efforts (284 yards rushing, four touchdowns) in the history of the Governor’s Cup rivalry.
2. Christopher Rodriguez. Kentucky’s emerging redshirt freshman running back had his second 100-yards plus game (125 yards and a TD on only nine carries) in the past three games.
3. Kentucky offensive line. Opened gaping holes in the Louisville defensive front.
4. Boogie Watson. The Kentucky edge rusher did a pretty fair Josh Allen imitation with two quarterback sacks to go with six tackles.
5. Kentucky’s sophomore linebackers. Continue to wow — DeAndre Square (seven tackles); Jamin Davis (seven tackles, a crucial QB sack); Jordan Wright (five tackles); Chris Oats (four tackles); Josh Paschal (two tackles for loss, three stops overall).
6. Matt Ruffolo. The walk-on place-kicker gave UK a clean game — 6-of-6 on PATs plus a 45-yard field goal.
7. Mark Stoops. In the UK coach’s first season (2013), Louisville was 12-1 and Kentucky 2-10. The Wildcats’ dominance Saturday along both lines of scrimmage tells the story of the rebuilding job Stoops has done at UK.
Who’s not
1. Scott Satterfield. Inheriting a 2-10 mess from Bobby Petrino, the Louisville coach did a stellar job leading U of L to a 7-5 season. But UK and Mark Stoops delivered an emphatic message about the distance between the Wildcats and Cardinals programs at the moment.
2. Louisville run defense. Every bit as suspect as advertised.
3. The ACC. Based on U of L’s performance in Lexington, the non-Clemson part of the Atlantic Coast Conference is not good.
Key number(s)
Thirty-one. With its victory over U of L, Kentucky has now won 31 football games in the past four seasons (31-20). It is the most wins for UK over a four-year stretch since Bear Bryant’s Wildcats went 33-12-2 from 1949-1952.
Fashion police
For its final home game of 2019, Kentucky wore blue helmets, blue jerseys with white letters and numbers and Anthracite pants. UK is now 4-2 in Anthracite pants since the start of the 2016 season.
The ‘Cat-mosphere’
1. It rained. Hard. Again.
2. Marlana VanHoose rocked the national anthem, as she always does.
3. Former Kentucky defensive tackle Oliver Barnett was the UK honorary game captain. It was also Senior Day for Barnett’s son, Wildcats outside linebacker Elijah Barnett.
4. PGA Tour star J.B. Holmes and other members of Kentucky’s 2004-06 men’s golf teams were recognized during the first quarter.
Fans in the stands
48,336. This was the third time in the past four seasons that Kentucky drew only one home crowd in excess of 60,000 fans. There were 63,076 fans in the stands to see UK’s come-from-ahead, 29-21 loss to Florida on Sept. 14.
This story was originally published November 30, 2019 at 3:15 PM.
