Points of Emphasis: Louisville vs. Kentucky

The Cardinals head to Lexington to take on the Wildcats.

Kentucky Wildcats linebacker D'Eryk Jackson (54) tries to stop Louisville Cardinals running back Isaac Guerendo (23) in the first half of the 2023 Governor's Cup game in Louisville. Nov. 24, 2023 / Matt Stone/The Courier Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - It all comes down to this. The Louisville football program is wrapping up the regular season with their biggest game of the season: the annual Battle for the Governor's Cup at Kentucky.

Here are some of the more notable storylines heading into Saturday's game:

Injury Report:

Contrary to how injuries typically pile up as the season goes on, surprisingly, the Louisville football program is in a great spot health-wise.

Not only did running back Isaac Brown and linebacker Stanquan Clark play vs. Pitt after getting banged up against Stanford, running back Maurice Turner made his return to action for the first time in two months. The only noteworthy injury left to monitor is defensive tackle Jared Dawson, who did not play against the Panthers.

As for the Wildcats, they have had a lot of injuries pile up over the course of the season.

Standout linebacker D'Eryk Jackson is out for the season, and starting right tackle Gerald Mincey did not play vs. Texas. Additionally, reserve cornerbacks D.J. Waller, Tehryon Nichols and Jantzen Dunn all did not play vs. the Longhorns.

Kentucky did get some good news on the injury front. After missing the Murray State game, wide receiver Barion Brown, defensive lineman Deone Walker, linebacker Jamon Dumas-Johnson and outside linebacker J.J. Weaver all played vs. Texas this past weekend.

The Streak

When it comes to the Battle for the Governor's Cup, as Louisville fans know, the series has not exactly gone in the Cardinals' direction over the last several years.

Louisville is currently on a five-game losing streak to Kentucky, which is their longest skid against the Wildcats since dropping the first seven showdowns in the all-time series. The last time Louisville beat Kentucky was on Nov. 25, 2017, when Lamar Jackson guided the Cardinals to a 44-17 victory in Lexington.

"It's an important game on your schedule, and you circle it, and you make sure that you come prepared and ready to play and you hope to play your best," Louisville head coach Jeff Brohm said. "Without question we haven’t been able to win the game the last so many years, so it’s time for us to step up and find a way to play better.” 

While Louisville's season hasn't gone exactly how they would have liked, capping off the regular season by ending the losing streak to Kentucky would be a great way to salvage the season. And fans have let the players know that at every step of the way.

"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.

Brock Vandagriff Down, Cutter Boley Up

Ahead of the rivalry matchup, Kentucky head coach Mark Stoops is making a significant change at the quarterback spot. Instead of going with Brock Vandagriff, who has started all 11 of the Wildcats' prior games, he's going with true freshman Cutter Boley, who head coach Mark Stoops inserted to start the second half against Texas last weekend.

“I thought he just handled himself very well once again. (I) thought he had a lot of poise in the pocket. I thought he distributed the football, had the vision to hit open receivers, the arm strength to get the ball down the field on a second play," Stoops said.

The only thing surprising about Stoops benching Vandagriff is how late in the season it came. The former five-star prospect and Georgia transfer has been underwhelming this season, completing 57.3 percent of his throws for just 1,593 yards and 10 touchdowns to eight interceptions. In the first half against Texas, he went just 3-of-7 for 51 yards and touchdown plus an interception.

Stoops made the move to go with Boley in the second half vs. the Longhorns, and while the offense as a whole didn't improve much, Boley himself was much better than Vandagriff. He completed 10 of his 18 pass attempts for 160 yards, although he did throw an interception.

So far this season, Boley is 20-of-38 for 290 yards, two touchdowns and two picks. He's in line to become the first true freshman Kentucky QB to play vs. Louisville since Tim Couch, and the first ever to start the rivalry game.

"They possibly found their quarterback of the future this past week," Brohm said.

Louisville Aiming to Find Consistency

Regardless of the outcome of the rivalry game, Louisville's season could best be described as "what could have been." This is mainly due to the fact that the Cardinals have been wildly inconsistent.

Louisville got off to an undefeated 3-0 start to their season, but then proceeded to lose three of their next four games. The one solace to be found here is that all three losses were by a touchdown against teams that are currently ranked in the top-15.

Then after mounting a comeback at Boston College and taking down Clemson in Death Valley for their first ever win over the Tigers, Louisville seemed to be trending upwards. Then, unceremoniously, the Cardinals immediately suffered one of their worst losses in school history at Stanford.

Heading into the Kentucky game, Louisville is coming off of a bounce back win where they dominated Pitt from start to finish - a stark contrast to what happened against Stanford the week before. If the Cardinals are to take down the Wildcats for the first time since 2017, they'll have to find a way to become more consistant and not as chaotic.

"In the end, its talented people playing against talented people, so you’re not always going to win every rep, you have to just win more of them than the other team and you have to score more points than the other team," Brohm said. "There’s a small margin for error and we want to try to be as clean as we can and continue to play hard and improve on that and play with great energy and have fun doing it and we hope to play well this week.”

Kentucky's Defense

While Kentucky has been an absolute mess on the offensive side of the ball, across the line of scrimmage, the Wildcats have a fantastic defense.

UK allows just 332.7 yards and 20.4 points per game, which ranks 37th and 26th in the FBS, respectively. They held Georgia to 13 points and Ole Miss to 17, while only giving up more than 30 points three times.

As you can imagine, several players on that side of the ball are having standout seasons. Defensive back Alex Afari Jr. has a team-best 10 tackles for loss, linebacker Jamon Dumas-Johnson leads the team in tackles with 62, linebacker J.J. Weaver has a team-best five sacks, and defensive lineman Deone Walker will likely be a first-round pick in the upcoming 2025 NFL Draft.

“Well, they’re very talented and the defensive line is the exact same as last year," Brohm said of Kentucky's defense. "They’re big, they’re athletic, and they produce. This defense has produced all year long. They shut Georgia down, they shut Ole Miss down and they know how to play football.

"They just haven’t scored as many points as they’ve wanted to this year and sometimes that happens, but the defense is well coached with really good players, and they have a lot of experience. We will have to really be sound in our attack and try to create some points and try to get a lead cause that will be important, but yes, this is a really talented defense.”

(Photo via Matt Stone - The Courier Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK)

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