By Derek DeBurger

Louisville will play hated rival the Kentucky Wildcats in the 30th Governor’s Cup, and the 36th overall installment in the rivalry.

Kentucky is currently on a five-game winning streak in the rivalry, the longest ever by either side.

Reborn?

Kentucky has been really bad this season in huge part because their offense has been atrocious. The Wildcats have scored more than 20 points only three times this season, with none of those games coming against power-conference opponents.

There are two culprits for the woeful offense for the Cats this season: their offensive line and quarterback play.

The normally good to great O-line for Kentucky has been bad for several years now. They have given up 33 sacks this season for a loss of 279 yards. They have also caused the running game to be slightly below average, with the rushing yards per game only ranking 86th in the country.

Louisville has the ability to get pressure by blitzing or rushing four, that’s how bad the Kentucky O-line is, it will just depend on what the coaching staff goes with.

The quarterback play has been consistently terrible with Brock Vandagriff looking inept and Gavin Wimsatt not being trusted to throw. However, freshman quarterback Cutter Boley will be getting the start after showing promise against Texas.

Boley threw for 160 yards on 55.6% with an interception, but the more important factor was how hard the players around him played. Once Boley checked into the game it appeared as if every skill player wearing blue kicked their effort into another gear.

Boley is more of a pocket passer than Vandagriff, but he has the ability to take off when he needs to and is likely the fastest quarterback on Kentucky’s roster as a former high school track star. Boley was still sacked five times in the lone half he played against Texas, so Louisville will still probably have the ability to get to him the backfield.

Ashton Gillotte will need to play better than he has most of the season to draw attention and give others opportunities.

We’ve come to expect

It’s come to the point where Kentucky is simply expected to have a good defense, and this year is no exception. The Cats give up 20.4 points and 332.7 yards per game which ranks 26th and 37th, respectively, but they have played phenomenally on the biggest stages. Louisville is definitely the biggest of stages for this Kentucky team.

Deone Walker headlines the Kentucky defense at 6’6″ and 345 lbs., and is a sure-fire first-round draft pick for the Cats. Louisville’s O-line has taken major steps forward throughout the season, but will face their toughest task in Walker as it is nearly impossible for one person to block him on their own.

J.J. Weaver leads the linebackers and has a team-high five sacks on the season. Octavious Oxendine is second with four sacks, and together the two of them make up almost 40% of the team’s total sacks.

The Kentucky secondary is a bit banged up, including top-cornerback Maxwell Hairston. Hairston played against Texas and played well, so there’s probably no concern for him having come back too early. The corners outside of Hairston have been average, so there will likely be a chess match between Jeff Brohm and Brad White to see who can control the air and how.

Louisville’s biggest key to success will be with Isaac Brown: how well will he be able to run? If he can run on Walker and company, Kentucky will be forced to bring a safety into the box and Tyler Shough will have a better chance at picking apart a thinned out secondary for the Cats.

Bugaboo in the Lou

On paper, Louisville is the better team, but that was true about last year. If you watched the game a year ago you would also say Louisville was the better team for the vast majority of the game, but Kentucky still won. Mark Stoops knows how to get his players up for big games, and they have had the Cards’ number in recent years as a result of this.

Louisville can win, Louisville should win and, most of all, Louisville needs to win.

If the Cards can get a win in the Governor’s Cup, it would mean much more than their eighth win of the season. A lot more.

Photo by Vinny Porco