Kentucky Vs. Louisville Pregame Notes
Kentucky will travel down I-64 on Saturday to take on the dirty birds of Louisville for the annual Governor's Cup matchup. The last time Kentucky traveled to Cardinal Stadium was in 2018, and the Cats pulled out a 56-10 demolishing win. You might remember seeing Benny Snell and Josh Allen smoking cigars during the 2018 postgame celebration - yeah lets do that again.
A couple of statistics for you: Kentucky leads the series 17-15 all-time, including an 8-5 record in Louisville. Kentucky has won the last two, and three of the last four, although, there was not a game between the two programs last season. Saturday will mark 1,463 straight days that it has been since Louisville has beat Kentucky in football, losing by a combined score of 101-23 during that period.
2016: UK wins 41-38
2017: UL wins 17-44
2018: UK wins 56-10
2019: UK wins 45-13
A Win Saturday Would
Extend Kentucky's non-conference winning streak to 15 games, which is the second-longest active streak in the country.
Give UK nine wins in the regular season for the second time since 1977 (both under coach Mark Stoops, 2018).
UK is ranked No. 25 in the USA Today Coaches Poll, re-entering the rankings this week, and receiving votes in the Associated Press Poll.
Put Mark Stoops two wins away from tying Paul "Bear" Bryants record (60), and three from breaking it. He is 57-53 entering Louisville.
Boost UK to 20-3 in last 23 non-conference games dating to 2016.
Facts about the Governor's Cup
The modern version of the Governor’s Cup rivalry began in 1994 after a 70-year hiatus and has been played 26 of the past 27 seasons, with only the pandemic-affected 2020 season causing a one-year pause.
Biggest UK win: 73 (73-0, 1922)
Biggest Louisville win: 31 (49-28, 2006)
Games decided by eight points or less: Kentucky leads 6-5
The Governor’s Cup was created in 1994 as the trophy for the winner of the Kentucky- Louisville game. Donated by The Kroger Company at a cost of $23,000, the Governor’s Cup stands 33 inches tall and weighs 110 pounds.
The cup was designed by Kendall Costner and sculpted by James Corcoran of Bruce Fox, Inc. The Kroger Company also is involved in supporting academic pursuits at the schools. Kroger is donating $10,000 to each school for each year the game is played. Including this year, Kroger’s donations now total $540,000 -- $270,000 to each school.
UK/UL Connections
Kentucky has 11 players from Louisville on its roster: twin defensive linemen Alex and Richard Bascom, LB Jared Casey, WR Tae Tae Crumes, TE Izayah Cummings, WR Luke Leeper, LS Jordan Morrow, FB Jack Varga, OLB J.J. Weaver, RB La’Vell Wright and OL John Young.
Louisville has two players from Lexington: LB Jack Fagot and WR Thomas Jordan.
Kentucky defensive backs coach Chris Collins served as a defensive graduate assistant under Louisville head coach Scott Satterfield in 2015 while Satterfield was the coach at Appalachian State.
This rivalry runs deep across this state and the outcome of the game each year becomes bragging rights for the next 12 months. The Govenor's Cup trophy travels with the winning team to their campus, social media keeps receipts of the final score, and it fuels a lot of the shit-talking until the next round of it. You can't root for both teams, you have to be wearing your colors of either blue or red, and no matter what, you CANNOT lose this game. You can lose every single game of the season if you have to, but you cannot lose to Louisville. That's just how it is here.
I better be seeing all of your alls L's Down hand signals, tweets, and signs this week on social media and during the game. Lets go to The Ville and come out with this win.
As always, be sure to tweet at us your thoughts on this weeks game, and if you go to the game, tag us in your pictures! @CatsCoverage_ on Twitter.