Kentucky vs. Louisville: How Important Is This Game?

by Truzenzuzex on Sep 17, 2009 6:58 PM EDT in Football Comment 17 comments

I want to see a lot of this on Saturday.

ust how important is Saturday's Governor's Cup matchup between Louisville and Kentucky? In my humble opinion, it is critical. Let me explain.

First, it's critical because Kentucky fans have suffered at the hands of Cardinal fans for years, up until the last couple. Bobby Petrino had Louisville built into national notoriety, and for four straight years, the Cardinals crushed us into a fine powder, rolled us up, and smoked us. I have not forgotten those years.

I have not forgotten those years. Since the renewal of the rivalry game in 1994, Louisville owns streaks of two, three and four games. They have taken nine of the fifteen games that the teams have played since the rivalry was renewed, and have reveled in schadenfreude until we finally broke the four-game streak in 2007 when Stevie got loose.

Let's take a look at the series:

Courtesy of Wikipedia:

Date	Site	Winning team		Losing team		Series
1912-10-28	Lexington	Kentucky	41	Louisville	0	UK 1-0
1913-11-22	Louisville	Kentucky	20	Louisville	0	UK 2-0
1914-11-14	Lexington	Kentucky	42	Louisville	0	UK 3-0
1915-11-06	Louisville	Kentucky	15	Louisville	0	UK 4-0
1922-10-14	Lexington	Kentucky	63	Louisville	0	UK 5-0
1924-10-04	Lexington	Kentucky	29	Louisville	0	UK 6-0
1994-09-03	Lexington	Kentucky	20	Louisville	14	UK 7-0
1995-09-02	Lexington	Louisville	13	Kentucky	10	UK 7-1
1996-08-31	Lexington	Louisville	38	Kentucky	14	UK 7-2
1997-08-30	Lexington	Kentucky	38	Louisville	24	UK 8-2
1998-09-05	Louisville	Kentucky	68	Louisville	34	UK 9-2
1999-09-04	Lexington	Louisville	56	Kentucky	28	UK 9-3
2000-09-02†	Louisville	Louisville	40	Kentucky	34	UK 9-4
2001-09-01	Lexington	Louisville	36	Kentucky	10	UK 9-5
2002-09-01	Louisville	Kentucky	22	Louisville (17)	17	UK 10-5
2003-08-31	Lexington	Louisville	40	Kentucky	24	UK 10-6
2004-09-04	Louisville	Louisville	28	Kentucky	0	UK 10-7
2005-09-04	Lexington	Louisville (12)	31	Kentucky	24	UK 10-8
2006-09-03	Louisville	Louisville (13)	59	Kentucky	28	UK 10-9
2007-09-15	Lexington	Kentucky	40	Louisville (9)	34	UK 11-9
2008-08-31	Louisville	Kentucky	27	Louisville	2	UK 12-9

UK desperately needs to at least equal the 1999-2001 winning streak of Louisville, if for no other reason than to say we did. It is really frustrating to see those long Cardinal streaks and that 12 year period where Louisville took nine of the games away.

Also, consider the schedule this year. The path to a bowl requires at least one major upset if Kentucky loses this game, and even though that is always possible, it is also possible that UK will lose a game in which they are favored, as they have almost every year. If that happens, the path to a bowl becomes much iffier, and even though I think this team can do it, meeting Florida 2-0 is infinitely preferable to meeting them 1-1 with a loss to a bitter rival the game before.

I am really pumped about this contest, and I want to see Kentucky prevail in the worst way. I really want this bowl streak to continue, and even get to bigger, better bowls. But losing to Louisville makes all that much tougher.

I hope I have made my point. Kentucky needs this game, bad. It is a big one.

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Yes UK needs this game......

and a few more to move on to bigger bowls. In order to “just say we did” we need to win this and next year. Overall though, Kentucky leads the series and if it hadn’t been for years 2003-2006, UK would have been ahead in the series substantially . I like to look at the obvious, years 1912-1994…7-zip, Kentucky
We do it ! … And we can say so!

GO CATS !

Blue... there is no other color to Bleed !!!

by a2d2 on Sep 17, 2009 8:30 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Which game on the schedule isn't important?

There is not a game on the schedule the Cats can not consider a ‘must’ win or at least not any of the non conference games. Mississippi State and Vandy are equally as important Those are the ‘sacred six’ each year. This year we can’t depend on an Arkansas or other Western Division school, unless we pull the big upset against Alabama.
Its sad but we are dependent on the buy wins to see another bowl game.
Maybe one day, Maybe this year. We’ll see.

by ParisGuy on Sep 17, 2009 8:42 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

We do have the putrid Mississippi State on the schedule

Of course its difficult, its a shortcut... if it was easy it'd just be "the way."

by chirop1 on Sep 18, 2009 7:27 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Ooops... just noticed you mentioned them with Vandy

Was confused by your “no western division” statement.

My mistake.

Of course its difficult, its a shortcut... if it was easy it'd just be "the way."

by chirop1 on Sep 18, 2009 7:27 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

82 Years?

Louisville waited 82 years before scoring on UK?

WOW!

by LyricSmith on Sep 17, 2009 9:08 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

had to be a very, very, very, very long

wait for a lot of Cards And to top it off, UK won the first one after all that time
:-)

Blue... there is no other color to Bleed !!!

by a2d2 on Sep 18, 2009 10:56 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I wanna win..

Though I want to win every game like any other fan, I’m not sure who I want to beat more.. the bitter/disgusting in-state rival or the #1 team in the nation, Florida. I dislike them both almost equally. I’ll still watch every game, but if we lose both of these I’ll be hanging my basketball schedule up a lot sooner this year. lol

by ky1wildcats7 on Sep 18, 2009 2:55 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

On the long road to Respect

We need to beat Louisville. It will help meet this season’s two goals. A fourth successive bowl game and a climb up from perceptions (sometimes correct, I suppose) that the SEC East cellar is shared by UK and Vanderbilt.

I can’t remember where I read it, recently. A coach said his team was always the homecoming opponent until he started winning. That’s a nice way of putting it. UK’s goal is to garner enough respect this year to make a team think think twice before inviting us to their homecoming.

And with all that said — Let’s just beat those “we’re better than the rest of Kentucky”, 51st state wannabe’s on Saturday. lol

No matter where you're at, there you are

by cincyblue on Sep 18, 2009 3:36 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

sometimes correct, I suppose

Sadly, I think it is a factual statement.

Of course its difficult, its a shortcut... if it was easy it'd just be "the way."

by chirop1 on Sep 18, 2009 7:28 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Sportin' a UK tie today

Getting ready for the big game… which I’ll miss because some dumb blonde co-worker of my fiance’s thought it would be a good idea to get married on the same day Kentucky plays Louisville!!!!!!! (Okay… in all fairness, she’s a big Cat fan and was pretty pissed when she saw the schedule come out, but I’m still blaming her.)

Of course its difficult, its a shortcut... if it was easy it'd just be "the way."

by chirop1 on Sep 18, 2009 7:30 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Meh, I would not give her a pass

This is why you never get married in September (or the whole fall, for that matter) – the risk is just too great. The only acceptable time to get married is late June (after Belmont) through mid-August. I made my wife schedule ours accordingly, so this woman should have, too. Some things (basically, everything Cats related) are just more important than a wedding. :-)

"You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means." -Inigo Montoya

by NYCCats on Sep 18, 2009 8:48 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs