Louisville football could win the year with Kentucky victory

The season didn’t go the way Louisville football wanted, but it will always be considered a success with a victory over Kentucky in the Governor’s Cup.

All four of the Cardinals’ losses this season have come by a touchdown or less. Their last-second loss to a last-place Stanford team effectively wiped out any statistical chance of making the ACC championship game.

It also took away their national shine, as they were left out of the College Football Playoff rankings and the Associated Press and US LBM Coaches polls.

These facts sting.

Those things also pale in comparison to last year’s pain from last season’s 38-31 loss to the Wildcats. Mistakes still roll off University of Los Angeles coach Jeff Brohm’s tongue as if he’s still giving his postgame remarks from last season.

Louisville had arguably its best drive of the 2023 season – 75 yards in nine plays, consuming more than nine minutes to start the second half – erased in the 12 seconds it took Britain’s Barion Brown to run for 100 yards for a kickoff return touchdown.

All three turnovers also stayed with Brohm.

“If you don’t win it, man, it gives you a sour taste in your mouth, and we had that feeling last year,” Brohm said. “Man, it’s in bad taste, and it stays there for a long time. So you have to work hard this week to try not to see that taste come back.

Louisville knows how much disappointment there is this season. A few plays here and there and it could have been a very different story heading into the final game. The Cards’ flaws that led to losses were all self-inflicted:

Tyler Shough’s fumble and muffed punt that helped Notre Dame take a 21-7 lead in the first quarter.

The continued failure to convert on short yardage plays, including a fourth-and-1 with a chance to take a fourth-quarter lead over SMU.

Isaac Brown’s fumble recovered in the end zone for a Miami touchdown, as if the Hurricanes needed scoring help in their 52-45 win.

The back-to-back defensive penalties that allowed Stanford to score the game-winning field goal as time expired.

Yet these games will be largely forgotten by the masses if the Cards end their five-game losing streak against the Wildcats on Saturday.

“If you ask anyone in this town, I think this game would mean more than anything else in the world,” said U of L senior defensive lineman Ramon Puryear, who attended ‘Eastern High School. “Honestly, it’s the biggest game. So we know what it means to us, we know what it means to this city. We know what this means for this university. So we must do it.

No one on Louisville’s current roster knows what it feels like to beat UK. U of L, which also won five straight in the series between 2011 and 2015, hasn’t won since quarterback Lamar Jackson led them to victory in 2017.

But two of the Cards’ coaches, offensive coordinator Brian Brohm and offensive line coach Richard Owens, each hold a 3-1 record as players against the Cats.

“A little different dynamic, whereas back then it was a build-up all offseason and all summer,” Brian Brohm said, referring to when the game was played to open the season. season. “Now it’s kind of the culmination, the end of the season, to compete against each other, but it’s a super important game. Super important for our program, for this state.

Neither school has won six straight games since the series restarted in 1994. Louisville is trying to make sure UK doesn’t become the first to accomplish that feat.

The Cards’ season depends on it.

Contact sports columnist CL Brown at [email protected], follow him on @CLBrownHoops and subscribe to his newsletter at profile.courier-journal.com/newsletters/cl-browns-latest to be sure not to miss any of his columnss.