Jeff Brohm, Louisville 'Looking Forward' to Rivalry Matchup vs. Kentucky

The Cardinals hope to snap a five-game losing streak to the Wildcats.

Nov 25, 2023; Louisville, Kentucky, USA; Louisville Cardinals tight end Nate Kurisky (85) runs the ball against Kentucky Wildcats defensive back Maxwell Hairston (31) during the second half at L&N Federal Credit Union Stadium. Kentucky defeated Louisville 38-31. / Jamie Rhodes-Imagn Images

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The final week of college football's 2024 regular season has arrived. While there are certainly plenty of storylines surrounding conference championship races and the College Football Playoff floating around, the last week of the regular season also means the return of rivalry week.

This weekend, a bevy of rivalry matchups are set to be played. Ohio State-Michigan, Alabama-Auburn, Notre Dame-USC and Clemson-South Carolina are just a few of the games that will pit hated rivals against each other and put a bow on the regular season.

Louisville-Kentucky might not be one of the most well-known rivalries (at least on the football side of things), but as fans of both programs will tell you, the Battle for the Governor's Cup carries a lot of cache on year-in and year-out basis.

"I've had fans and people come up just when we're at getting food, just whoever we're playing that week, fans will tell us: 'I don't even really care about this game, as long as you beat Kentucky.' It's like, 'What do you mean? We're playing Miami, or we're playing Virginia this week.' This is a big game," transfer quarterback Tyler Shough said.

Heading into the latest chapter of the Louisville-Kentucky rivalry, both sides have left a little to be desired. But one team has certainly accomplished more this season than the other.

While the Cardinals aren't in the ACC Championship Game race, they are still 7-4 and coming off of a blowout win over Pitt, with all four of their losses having been by one score. As for the Wildcats? Well, they're 4-7 and won't be going bowling for the first time since 2015, and have just one win over a power conference team.

That being said, Louisville head coach Jeff Brohm echoed the long-standing cliche that every head coach reiterates when rivalries face off: throw the records for each team out the window, because you never know what could happen.

"We're definitely looking forward to this week," he said. "Our guys understand it's a rivalry game. It's a game we haven't in quite some time, and we're going to have to play well to win. You can throw out any records for this game, you got to show up ready to play. Kentucky is a very talented team with a lot of the same guys on defense they had last year. They can hold people to a small amount of points, and they got very capable athletes on offense as well."

Louisville is certainly a testament to the "throw the records out the window" rivalry cliche. As Brohm alluded to, the Cardinals are riding a five-game losing streak against the Wildcats, having not beaten their rival since Lamar Jackson's final season in 2017. During the losing streak, Louisville has entered with the better record three times.

Brohm's first foray into the rivalry as the head coach at Louisville last year didn't exactly go as planned. 10-1 Louisville entered their matchup against 6-5 Kentucky as 7.5-point favorite, but wound up falling at home 38-31 to kick off a three-game skid to end his first season back with his alma mater.

Louisville heads into this year's matchup as 2.5-point favorites, despite being on the road at Kroger Field. Being a local product, Brohm knows just how important it would be for both the fans and his program to be able to snap their skid against the Cats.

"Growing up here, and understanding the rivalry in basketball and in football, and what it means to the fans, is what makes it kind of a little extra fun and a little more rewarding ... You got to finish the season strong," he said. "If you don't win it, man, it puts a sour taste in your mouth.

"We had that feeling last year, and man, it's a bad taste. It stays there for a long time. You got to work your butt off this week to try not to have that taste come back again. But we've got to really play well in order to do that."

Additionally, while Louisville has certainly played much more high profile teams this season, such as Notre Dame and Miami, this game means a lot more to Brohm than any other game on the calendar. Not only is it evident by Brohm's words, it's clear behind the scenes as well.

"Coach Brohm has definitely emphasized how important this game is for us, for him, and for the city," defensive end Ramon Puryear said. "We're just emphasizing being detailed this week. Obviously, it's a big game, so everything matters. It's going to come down to who's the most disciplined, and who's most detailed team."

As is the case with most other rivalry games across the sporting landscape, the Louisville-Kentucky matchup has seen its fair share of heightened emotions over the years. From former Louisville head coach Bobby Petrino fighting a Kentucky assistant pregame, to Wildcats linebacker Denzil Ware throwing a trash can during an in-game scuffle, both sides have made it very clear that they don't like each other.

When you add in Louisville and Brohm's aggressive in-game mindset, that has the potential to boil over into additional "extracurricular activities" - especially considering how penalty prone the Cardinals have been at time this season.

While Brohm has emphasized how big this game is to his team, he also has made sure to preach the message that cooler heads prevail.

"We've had some penalties, so we got to talk about it, and we got to make sure our players are playing between the whistles and not allowing that to happen," he said. "For the most part, we've been pretty good on that, but we've had some things pop up every now and then. When they do, they've been costly."

"We've got to make sure we play between the whistles. It's clean, it's talked about, and we're communicating, 'hey, we're not going to beat ourselves on this,' and we're going to play with class, and play in between the whistles and play to win, but make sure that we're respecting the game and respecting our opponents. We want to make sure we do the best job we can with that."

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