As Malik Cunningham looms, one UK coach knows ‘not a lot of sleep for me this week’

As Louisville Cardinals quarterback Malik Cunningham bedeviled and bedazzled Duke on ESPN on Thursday night last week, there was at least one keenly-engaged viewer in Lexington, Ky.

Through the air, Cunningham completed 18 of 25 passes for 303 yards and five touchdowns. With his legs, the 6-foot-1, 200-pound redshirt junior ran for 224 yards and two scores as Louisville obliterated Duke 62-22 to gain bowl-eligibility.

While Cunningham did a pretty fair Lamar Jackson imitation on his TV, Kentucky Wildcats defensive coordinator Brad White viewed with interest.

“You watch and take mental notes,” White said. “The problem is, you start getting ahead of the game you are about to play (which was then New Mexico State), you are going to get yourself confused.”

The next time Cunningham takes the field, of course, it will be the job of White’s defense to slow him.

After a year hiatus created by the coronavirus and the Southeastern Conference, the commonwealth’s marquee football rivalry will resume Saturday when UK (8-3, 5-3 SEC) visits Cardinal Stadium to battle U of L (6-5, 4-4 ACC) for the Governor’s Cup.

Following Kentucky’s 56-16 Senior Day destruction of struggling New Mexico State (1-10) Saturday at Kroger Field, most of the questions asked by reporters to White in the postgame were about Cunningham.

The UK DC saw enough on Thursday night to understand the level of challenge Kentucky will face going up against a quarterback riding the kind of hot streak Cunningham is on.

“Probably not a lot of sleep for me this week,” White said.

What had appeared a likely Kentucky victory over Louisville for much of this season is looking far more competitive now that game week is here.

Whether UK can retain the Governor’s Cup for a third straight time and fourth time in five games may well depend on whether White’s “D” can at least contain Cunningham.

The U of L QB’s explosion at Duke was not a one-game breakout. The prior week, in a 41-3 blowout of Syracuse, the Montgomery, Ala., product completed 13 of 18 passes for 209 yards and four touchdowns.

It has been an unusual season for the Kentucky defense — and its coordinator.

As UK started 6-0, it felt as if the defense was carrying the team.

In a taut 16-10 win at South Carolina, the Wildcats offense kept turning the ball over and the UK defense kept taking the field and keeping the Gamecocks out of the end zone.

The following week, the UK “D” stopped Florida on seven straight plays in the red zone to preserve a streak-busting 20-13 Wildcats win.

Yet even amid the early-season success, a toll was being taken on the Cats. Injuries sidelined starting nose guard Marquan McCall, defensive tackle Octavious Oxendine and, eventually, outside linebacker/edge rusher Jordan Wright.

Those personnel losses in the front seven are at least part of the reason why the Kentucky defense has not been close to its early-season form in the second half of the year.

On the back half of its schedule, UK has been especially vulnerable to high-level quarterback play.

Mississippi State QB Will Rogers completed 36 of 39 throws vs. UK for 344 yards and a touchdown.

The following week, Tennessee’s Hendon Hooker connected on 15 of 20 passes for 316 yards and four scores. He also hurt UK with his legs, running for 41 yards on 11 carries.

Kentucky lost both those games.

On an emotional level, it has to be challenging for a coordinator to see the performance level of your defense oscillate so wildly.

“We tell our players not to ride the roller coaster, not to get too high and too low,” White said. “We as coaches have to do the same thing.”

Now, Cunningham will be the next quarterback playing at a star-level to test the Cats.

The U of L QB’s history vs. Kentucky — he is 0-2 against the Cats as a starter — will likely be a motivator for him.

As a freshman in 2018, Cunningham was the source of Louisville’s only touchdown in a 56-10 Kentucky rout on a 75-yard run. He threw for only 64 yards on 5-for-8 passing.

The following season, on a rain-drenched Saturday in Lexington, Cunningham completed six of 11 passes for 78 yards with one touchdown and one interception vs. the Cats. He was held to 27 yards rushing on 11 carries as UK again obliterated U of L, 45-13.

Now, two years later, Cunningham is a vastly improved player.

Conversely, it is not clear that the current Kentucky defensive front is anywhere close to the 2019 version that pierced the Louisville offensive line to create 13 tackles for loss and six quarterback sacks.

The good news for UK is that nose guard McCall has returned to the starting lineup. Tackle Oxendine is out for the season, but White said a possible return this week by edge rusher Wright is “going to be a day-to-day thing.”

If you are looking for a rivalry trend to watch, a quarterback has claimed the Howard Schnellenberger MVP Award in the past five battles for the Governor’s Cup.

It is the job of Brad White’s Kentucky defense to ensure that, if a quarterback makes it six straight, that QB is not Louisville’s Cunningham.

“We’ve got our work cut out for us,” White said.

This story was originally published November 20, 2021 at 7:32 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