This afternoon the Cards sprinted toward the end zone at Commonwealth Stadium like kids at Christmas. Sitting idly on the turf was the coveted Governor’s Cup, awarded annually to the winner of the Louisville/Kentucky football game. For the fifth time in five years, the Cards laid their claws on the prize. Louisville becomes the first team to win five straight in the modern rivalry. The series between these schools now stands at 14-14, and Louisville is 14-7 since the rivalry was renewed in 1994.
The Cardinals tasted a great comeback victory, winning 38-24 on a cold, rainy, windswept afternoon in Lexington. The Governor’s Cup will now be in the Cardinal trophy case for the foreseeable future. With the Louisville football program bringing in the best recruiting class in school history and continuing to trend upward I don’t know when they’ll ever lose in this game again. Let’s just call it the Louisville Cup.
https://youtu.be/U9MUoMCTgZQ
Over the last several months of the Louisville football season we had not seen any of those magical moments that we had been accustomed to. The passing game had been on idle and the offense as a whole lacked consistency. And while today wasn’t a blitzkrieg of scoring it was one that provided many of those big plays that we had all been waiting to see. It was the greatest comeback ever in this rivalry and it was the Cards who dealt the knock-out punch.
After having -1 yard on the ground in their last game the Cardinals running game with Radcliff (62 yards, 2 TD’s) and Jackson (186 yards, 2 TD’s) did its part today and kept enough pressure on Kentucky to keep the passing game open and that is where Louisville had those big play moments. Lamar Jackson was part QB and part escape artist scrambling and breaking tackles. It was Mr. Clutch, who would throw the big touchdown pass to James Quick (94 yards, 1 TD) at the end of third quarter to tie the game heading into the 4th quarter. Once in the 4th quarter Lamar Jackson did in his freshman season what Teddy Bridgewater did as a freshman in 2012 and completely took over this game. Jackson finished 8-21, 130 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT and 17 carries 186 yards 2 TDs. He cemented his name in this rivalry winning the Howard Schnellenberger MVP Award.
Also have to give it up for the Louisville defense that could have just lain down after such a terrible 1st half. They finished the game very strong and dominated the trenches completely locking down the Kentucky offense holding them to three points and 143 yards over the final three quarters, 291 overall. I had looked forward to seeing him in a Cardinal uniform all summer and really wanted to see him have a great comeback story. Devonte Fields hasn’t let me down. Today Fields had 6 tackles, 3 sacks and 6 tackles for loss. Louisville had 15 Tackles for Loss today.
I had a great time at the game today and have had many great memories over the last five years in this rivalry. Today it was great watching an amazing comeback and watching the UK fans suffer through such a demoralizing loss especially after all of the razz they gave Louisville fans in September. I never wavered on this Louisville football team and they met all my expectations during this rebuilding season. I wanted to see just one thing from them that I hadn’t seen this year and that was heart. They left that and more on the field in Lexington today and it was awesome. Thanks guys! Go Cards!