By Charlie Leffler
LEXINGTON, Ky. — For a while, things looked bleak. It wasn’tuntil halftime that the sun began to shine in Commonwealth Stadium, and itwasn’t until the second half that the Louisville Cardinals began to light upthe field. Though they eventually pulled out a 36-10 win over the Universityof Kentucky, the score was not indicative of the situation at the break.After a hard fought first half, the Cards went into the locker room holding onto a closer than expected 10-7 lead.
Kentucky was still in the game, despite the fact that the Cards had dominatedthe field in total yardage. U of L had 269 yards of offense compared to Kentucky’s72. The defense had played dramatically better than the previous week againstNew Mexico State and had only given up a field goal. UK’s lone touchdowncame on a botched coverage: U of L punter Wade Tydlacka was forced to kick fromhis own endzone, and the Wildcats’ Derek Abney ran the kick back 47 yards eludingmultiple tackles to tie the game.
“At first it was a little rough,” said U of L quarterback Dave Ragone, “butwe settled down. We were just stopping ourselves. The coaches came in. Notmany adjustments, not many needed.”
Taking the field after halftime, the Cards appeared to have swept all of theclouds away on both offense and defense. For the second straight week thedefense held the opponent scoreless in the second half.
Ragone passed for 21 of 34 on 368 yards and three touchdowns without an interception. Hetossed six passes to both Deion Branch and Zek Parker, but Parker came awayfrom the game with 184 receiving yards and one touchdown. Though juniorRonnie Ghent only had four receptions, two of them were for touchdowns.
The surprise on offense was the multiple uses that Smith showed with Branch.Several times throughout the game, he was lined up in the backfield and ranthe ball off a pitch. The plays were designed to make it more difficult forthe defenses to keep him under constant coverage. “If they’re going tobracket any number… if you can put him at any spot then it becomes veryhard for them to do that within their scheme and it opens some things up forus.” Branch finished the game having run for 16 yards on four carries.The running backs displayed a gutsy performance that was mostly dominated byT. J. Patterson. The sophomore running back carried the ball 17 times for 72yards.
But Smith said that the greatest accomplishment was in the coaches’ abilityto develop a game plan with nothing to use as a reference. “I’m proud of thecoaches,” U of L head coach John L. Smith said. “I thought they did a heck ofa job putting together a game plan.” Smith had been worried about the factthat the Wildcats, with new head coach Guy Morriss, had abilities that werecompletely unknown to him. “It is so hard for us to put together a game plandefensively, so we’re practicing against ghosts all week. Cause we’re tryingto imagine things. We practiced against a lot of crap that we never saw.”
It was the combined effort of both the offense and the defense that pulledout the win. “When we play with one another I don’t think there’s many teamsthat can come out and beat us,” Ragone said.
By the end of the game, most of the 70,838 fans disappeared, leaving only a large contingent of Cardinal supporters tocarry on the cheers. The sun burned brightly, and the Cards walked away withthe Governor’s Cup for a third consecutive year, a modern record.
