Kentucky Football: Five Reasons Kentucky Needs To Beat Louisville On Saturday

We know the time has come to take on our hated detested rival, the Louisville Cardinals. That fact alone is enough reason to want to beat them, absent any other. But I'm going to give you five reasons other than the fact that they are who they are that we need to pull the upset, as unlikely as it seems.

A Loss To Kentucky Would Consume Louisville's Season

Generally, this game is pretty meaningless from the 50,000 foot view. Kentucky and Louisville have historically vied mostly for minor bowls and winning records as markers for an acceptable football season. Louisville has, mostly (but to be fair, not exclusively) by virtue of a weak conference affiliation, managed to get to a couple of BCS bowls in their history. The game means a lot to each fan base, but normally, not much more than any other game to their respective bowl aspirations.

This year, however, is different. With the Heisman Trophy current front-runner on their team in Teddy Bridgewater, and a very realistic chance to go undefeated due to a weak schedule (which, to be fair, isn't their fault), they have an outside chance, if everything breaks their way, of being invited to play in the BCS Championship game. At least, that's how their dreams go, and even if they look unlikely, we have to acknowledge that it is possible.

A loss to Kentucky would not only end that dream, but also damage the Heisman hopes of Bridgewater at least a little. It would certainly send Cardinal fans into at least a month of despair, and make them feel like the season is lost, which from a BCS Championship standpoint, it certainly would be. They'd have to throw those dreams onto the trash heap and re-tool for a second straight BCS appearance, which would still be well within their grasp.

A Loss To Kentucky Could Cost Them More Than One Game

Getting upset by your most bitter rival in the year when you have arguably the best team you've ever fielded could cause Louisville to swoon. Bridgewater would be fine, but his teammates may not be, and it's not hard to see a bitter loss like this costing them more than one game. Then, their BCS bowl hopes would go into grave jeopardy.

Kentucky Would Be 3-0 Against Cardinal Teams This Year

After the great year that Louisville had last year, their fans don't want to take a major step back and wind up being dominated by the Wildcats immediately after their triumphant 2012-13.  After losses in volleyball and soccer recently, a loss in football would put them in rough shape heading into the rest of the fall. Kentucky's basketball team looks like a very difficult place for the Cardinals to get their first win, and the UK women's basketball team is also looking very strong.

Wearing Blue And White In The River City Would Be Priceless

I love seeing Cardinals fans throw daggers at me when I walk around in Kentucky colors here in Louisville, where I have lived for over 20 years. I love it. If UK upsets the Cardinals, the hatred would radiate from every Cardinal fan in this city like high-energy gamma rays from a kilogram of pure Cobalt-60. I'd have to deck out in Blue and White every single day for a month just to bask in the warmth of their hate. It makes me smile just to imagine it.

The Weird Symmetry

There is something so incredibly droll about a former ACC defensive coordinator, who now coaches an SEC team, beating a former SEC defensive coordinator who will be coaching an ACC team next year, and both of them from each other's most bitter rival, Florida/Florida St., and now coaching at similarly bitter rivals. You just can't make this stuff up.

Okay, yes, it's rather unlikely that UK can pull the upset, and I'm not counting on it. But it would be way cool for a lot of reasons, and this is five of them. Why don't you try adding some more in the comments?