Governor's Cup

[WestCatFanOne]

The fact is... the most talented team has won the rivalry except maybe 3 times. UL was clearly more talented during the Bridgewater years and so they won... even when we more experienced and coming off 4 in a row.

Petrino Is a good coach but he's not Lombardi. He made some pretty dumb moves last year even ul fans would admit to. We had a good game plan for Bonnafon but didn't change when Bolin came in. Lets quit acting like he wasthe clear 3rd string guy though. They didn't know who was their best qb all year and the 3rd stringer started ahead of the 2nd stringer in the bowl game.

The talent difference isn't just in the ratings. If you look at offers and amount of jucos it looks better for the cats in the next few years. So we will be atleast AS talented as ul this but will likely be more talented for this year as well. ... but we do have to see if stoops can win 50/50 games and road games before we get too crazy.

I understand we have been bringing in lots of talent but lets not get ahead of ourselves thinking we are bringing in USC or tOSU classes. Butch Jones has brought in top ten classes at Tennessee since he's been there and they haven't been nowhere near being considered one of the better teams during that period. Our classes are nowhere any of those Tennessee classes and our recent classes have basically been dead even with UL even tho plenty here refuse to acknowledge that.

 

[UKWinsAgainYep]

All I know is that if we can't start dominating the series against UL, you can forget about climbing the SEC.

We will NEVER get out of the cellar of the SEC until we can beat UL on a routine, annual basis.

Personally, I'm really sick and tired of losing to UL because of Mitch Barnhart being outdone by Tom Jurich.

 

[Ky grandpa]

Why complain about some fans who love our Cats, and are very proud of the direction it's headed. I love all our player's and am very proud to call them life long Cats. What's wrong with being optimistic about our team?
I think we have a puncher's chance of getting 7-9 wins, how about you! So please don't judge fans on being rah rah, we have every right to be that way as true fans.
Go BB

 

[WestCatFanOne]

All I know is that if we can't start dominating the series against UL, you can forget about climbing the SEC.

We will NEVER get out of the cellar of the SEC until we can beat UL on a routine, annual basis.

Personally, I'm really sick and tired of losing to UL because of Mitch Barnhart being outdone by Tom Jurich.

Why complain about some fans who love our Cats, and are very proud of the direction it's headed. I love all our player's and am very proud to call them life long Cats. What's wrong with being optimistic about our team?
I think we have a puncher's chance of getting 7-9 wins, how about you! So please don't judge fans on being rah rah, we have every right to be that way as true fans.
Go BB

Theres nothing wrong with anything you said. Just try not to lose sight of reality, and that reality is we've yet to accomplish anything on the actual playing field. We have been so accustomed to losing that we take any kind of moral victory and hold on to it more than we should. I WANT WINS AND BOWL GAMES NOT COACH SPEAK AND RECRUITING VICTORIES.

 

[tmuck]

BPGhost's new username?

 

[hmt5000]

Theres nothing wrong with anything you said. Just try not to lose sight of reality, and that reality is we've yet to accomplish anything on the actual playing field. We have been so accustomed to losing that we take any kind of moral victory and hold on to it more than we should. I WANT WINS AND BOWL GAMES NOT COACH SPEAK AND RECRUITING VICTORIES.

Our coaches have been cautious with praise since they got here. I agree some of us thought it would turn around quicker than what it's taking. The fact that the coaches seem excited is what has us excited. If you are that adamant that wins preceed optimism then why come to a UK football board?

 

[BengalWACO]

I'm surprised to read that many UK fans here see not only a win for UK but a big win against Louisville. What are you seeing that makes you think this? I know Stoops has recruited well but the difference with Louisville's recruiting is pretty small. What's your reasoning here?

Because your team is an illusion of good.

 

[WestCatFanOne]

BPGhost's new username?

Lets stick to football talk

 

[tmuck]

@WestCatFanOne sounds a little trolley...5-6 posts in a row. I like the true UL fans who post as UL fans much better.

Read all 20 of his posts. There's never been a more obvious UL fan trying to pose as a UK fan, other than dorkmeister and homerblue. I think that's TTCat's new username, if you remember that troll who used to pose as a UK fan. It's the exact same posting style. It could be BPGhost's new username, but he was an admitted UL fan, so I don't think he would do the creepily obsessed posing thing.

 

[Rhavicc]

Lets stick to football talk

LOL that sounds like a definitive "Yes, I'm BPGhost"

 

[homerblue]

Read all 20 of his posts. There's never been a more obvious UL fan trying to pose as a UK fan, other than dorkmeister and homerblue. I think that's TTCat's new username, if you remember that troll who used to pose as a UK fan. It's the exact same posting style. It could be BPGhost's new username, but he was an admitted UL fan, so I don't think he would do the creepily obsessed posing thing.

Dude.. Im sick of you calling me a ul fan and a troll. I have been ignoring it but you continue to bring my name up. Just stop.

 

[jauk11]

UL dropped a wide open interception also and one of the qb's just happen to be a third stringer who torched us for +300 in less than three quarters.

Anything else you UL fans would like to remind us of?

 

[Larry00]

I think I'll worry about the UL with the extra L right now. Louisiana-Lafayette is the only game I care about right now...and I can't wait!!

 

[JPFisher]

Make no mistake, Cats fans... UL will not be a pushover this year. MO is in Louisville's corner and the home atmosphere hasn't helped UK out that much as has been pointed out previously. Louisville loses a lot of talent and experience with the loss of Parker, a damn good TE, and the better part of their secondary. Louisville also needs to find an offensive line. However, all the offensive shortcomings may not matter if we are plagued with injuries. Our D-line is deep, but our linebackers and even our secondary is top heavy with talent with a huge drop-off after that. If we are playing Pat the Practice Doll at the Jack, we're screwed. Now, UK's offense is going to be mostly shored up, IMO. That's where we will have to succeed if our defense is battered. We are 4 deep at RB, 3 deep at QB, we have a solid 7-9 for our OLine, we are 3 deep at every WR position if you count interchangeable players, and we are 2 deep at TE. I think we have solid depth, but the key will be if we can out score UL if it comes down to it. With all the inexperience, I don't know if that will be possible. I'm hopeful for a UK win, but I'm by no means guaranteeing it.

 

[johnnyrockets]

We shouldn't hang our hats on our recent recruiting. Thats only a fraction of what its gonna take for us to be a consistent success in the coming years. UL has never had any great recruiting classes and no class they ever had would rank anything better than last in the sec.

Please refrain from using "we" and "us." Thanks.

 

[WestCatFanOne]

Anything else you UL fans would like to remind us of?

Not a UL fan at all my man. Just stating that alot of fans constantly mention the dropped pick 6 as if its the reason we gave up the game. Sorry to break the bad news to you but UL dropped a pick 6 also. Until we learn to close out games, we will be a bunch of angry fans due to the many missed opportunities.

 

[ajgcardman]

You post this pretty much every time the game being at CWS comes up, but I'm not sure what it proves. The sample size is small enough that I'm not sure 8-4 vs 5-4 means anything real. I suspect is has more to do with the teams on the field in those games. Correlation vs causation, you know?

I think if you asked 100 UofL fans if they'd rather play UK at CWS or PJCS, at least 99 would say PJCS. I don't think the fact that UofL has a better record at CWS would matter one iota.

Johnny, I agree with your post.

But when you consider that the only UofL teams UK has beaten at CWS over the last 20 years were coached by Ron Cooper or Steve Kragthorpe, it does give pause for thought. There were a lot of games played in that time that have nothing to do with probation. And the average margin of victory in those UofL wins at CWS is 15, while two of the 3 UK wins during that span literally weren't decided until the game's final possession.

But I will say that anyone on either side that sees this game today as anything other than at least a near tossup, is a bit perplexing to me. As a Louisville fan, there are "way" too many question marks for me to be comfortable with predicting a "W" over the Cats in CWS this season. I wouldn't be "shocked" if Louisville wins 10 games this year, and UK once again fails to make a bowl after losing its 5th straight to the Cards. I also wouldn't be "shocked" if UK beats Louisville & wins 8 or 9 games, while Louisville limps toward .500 because their offensive line becomes an unmitigated disaster.

I honestly have no clue what to expect right now, but fan bases on both sides seemed to have ratcheted up their confidence level lately. And that's a good thing, for threads like this one.

 

[C1180]

Statistically, UofL dominated that game last year. Louisville almost beat Louisville with those two lost fumbles. Louisville was a heavy favorite, and already bowl eligible. UK had all the incentive in this being their bowl game so to speak.

No one is taking into consideration that Petrinos "Year 2" teams always improves tremendously from the previous season. Especially on offense. It's a rivalry. So yes we "Louisville" can definitely lose. But it's more likely Louisville gets a blowout win than a loss.

Whew where do I start. The last time I checked turnovers were a big part of football. Your QB was throwing up the ball for grabs and some of them go picked off. Your OL and Ball security was terrible in the game. 80% of the receiving yardage off that team is gone and you still have the same QB by committee approach that you were using last year. Heck maybe it is good that you lost 3 starters off that OL because they were not very good.

There could be a blow out in this game but it is more likely that UK blows out UofL than that UofL blows out UK. I really do not see a blow out by either team. IMO the likely outcome is that UK get a solid win at home. Say about a 10 to 14 point win.

 

[CatsFanGG24]

Johnny, I agree with your post.

But when you consider that the only UofL teams UK has beaten at CWS over the last 20 years were coached by Ron Cooper or Steve Kragthorpe, it does give pause for thought.

UKs probation was intended to hurt and did so...about a 4 year penalty...Joker Phillips was also like a self imposed penalty...

If you want to talk about Cooper and Kragthorpe, you have to talk about probation and Joker Phillips.

 

[redleg27]

If Louisville really had a good offense they would not be playing quarterback by committee.

 

[hmt5000]

year 2 at arky he had a 5* transfer in mallet come in. year 2 at ul he had shelton, bush, and smith at rb and a pretty good lefors at qb. year 2 at atlanta... well we dont know because he left midway through the season. year 2 at wku he... well we dont know cause he bailed at the first offer. lots of teams are putting up big points now and being creative in the passing and running game. it's not like 2004 when only a handful of teams were putting up 40+.

i expect ul's offense to be better but i still dont think they are gonna be putting up the kind of points that ul fans are thinking. i think their D regresses just a bit with a little less depth behind the starters. i expect UK's offense to be much better then last year. LT may be the only spot we dont improve on from last year. i expect the D to be a little better. we are thin at lb'er but if we stay healthy i think we improve 20 to 30 spots in defense rankings with a ranking in the 30's or 40's possible.

 

[BigBoyBlueMMA]

Fair enough. I think Louisville's recruiting has been similar to UK's and the advantage you perceive is small or nonexistent. Also, Louisville has taken similar recruiting rankings and turned it into ranked teams and many NFL draft choices -- UK has not. I have no reason to believe that pattern will change. I believe the U of L coaching staff is better. I think Louisville has the psychological edge as well, going for a fifth straight win and consistently having winning seasons and bowl games.

MANIACLE!!!!!!

 

[johnnyrockets]

Johnny, I agree with your post.

But when you consider that the only UofL teams UK has beaten at CWS over the last 20 years were coached by Ron Cooper or Steve Kragthorpe, it does give pause for thought. There were a lot of games played in that time that have nothing to do with probation. And the average margin of victory in those UofL wins at CWS is 15, while two of the 3 UK wins during that span literally weren't decided until the game's final possession.

But I will say that anyone on either side that sees this game today as anything other than at least a near tossup, is a bit perplexing to me. As a Louisville fan, there are "way" too many question marks for me to be comfortable with predicting a "W" over the Cats in CWS this season. I wouldn't be "shocked" if Louisville wins 10 games this year, and UK once again fails to make a bowl after losing its 5th straight to the Cards. I also wouldn't be "shocked" if UK beats Louisville & wins 8 or 9 games, while Louisville limps toward .500 because their offensive line becomes an unmitigated disaster.

I honestly have no clue what to expect right now, but fan bases on both sides seemed to have ratcheted up their confidence level lately. And that's a good thing, for threads like this one.

All I'm saying is that being at home is an advantage, period. The previous records of the two teams at the two stadiums, the margin of victory in those games, whatever. There's a reason it's called "home field advantage." Exploiting the advantage is different than having it, and we haven't done a good enough job exploiting it in the past, but it's still an advantage.

It seems like you guys will argue and make caveats for absolutely anything positive Kentucky fans cite. We're to the point now where the existence of a home field advantage is up for "debate." Crazy.

I agree with your assessment of the game as a tossup at this point, and obviously we'll know a lot more about UofL's offense and UK's defense a few weeks into the season.

 

[FtWorthCat]

If you go by Phil Steele's Plus/Minus Power Rankings and add a home field advantage of 3.5 points to UK (Phil Steele's magazine has had the most accurate predictions of the preview mags over the last 17 years), then UofL would be favored by 0.22 points. So call it even. Maybe if our crowd gets really fired up, we can get a 3.75 point advantage, and that would mean the difference in winning and losing.

 

[Comebakatz3]

I understand we have been bringing in lots of talent but lets not get ahead of ourselves thinking we are bringing in USC or tOSU classes. Butch Jones has brought in top ten classes at Tennessee since he's been there and they haven't been nowhere near being considered one of the better teams during that period. Our classes are nowhere any of those Tennessee classes and our recent classes have basically been dead even with UL even tho plenty here refuse to acknowledge that.

First off, no one is out there saying that UK is going to be in the college football playoffs. We're simply stating that we should have improved success due to improved recruiting. Tennessee and Kentucky were pretty far behind most teams in terms of talent. They are both improving that. UT got a bowl berth last year while UK was a game or a couple plays away. We should see improvement upon that this year, which will be a successful year for us.

Our rivals rankings the past 3 years do not indicate that we are dead even with UL in recruiting. We have 3 top 35 classes in a row (and a top 20 class) compared them having just one, a low of 32. If they don't take the highly controversial transfer Devante Fields then they are ranked 39th instead of 32nd. Now, granted, when you add in 2012, which is essentially the senior class this year, then the talent gap does get closer. 2011 was Louisville's best class since 2002 (as far as I can go back on Rivals), which ranked at 29. Most of those guys are now gone. As I stated earlier, almost all of their draft picks the past two years have come from 2011. Again, Louisville has remained largely the same in recruiting over the years. UK has stepped up their game quite a bit in the past three years. We were in the 60s before Joker left and now we have an average class ranking of 27th. That is a 3 year average better than the lowest class UL has ever had (at least since 2002). Louisville's average during that same span has been 41. So... have we really been "basically dead even"?


Also, the "where does that class rank in the SEC" argument is old and tiring. Sure, we aren't in the top 5 in the SEC in recruiting. That doesn't mean that we cannot continue to have success in the SEC. Last year Miss. State finished the season ranked 11th in the nation and at one time they were ranked #1 in the country and finished 2nd in the SEC West. They did that with an average class ranking of 35th over the 5 years from 2010 to 2014 (I did all 5 because I made the assumption there were some redshirts). Their lowest class during that period was 26th. During that time they never finished better than 11th in the conference in recruiting and yet they were still able to have that much success. UK has to consistently recruit good classes in the top 35 range and they will be fine and will be able to compete day in and day out with anyone in the SEC. It might not lead to SEC and NCAA championships, but the more competitive we become on the field the lower that recruiting ranking can go. Again, I point to Miss. State who had such an outstanding year on the field last year that it also paid off on the recruiting trail when they pulled in a top 16 class, the highest they've had since 2003.

 

[Poetax]

Lets stick to football talk

Does the truth hurt you Ghost?

 

[screwduke]

I understand we have been bringing in lots of talent but lets not get ahead of ourselves thinking we are bringing in USC or tOSU classes. Butch Jones has brought in top ten classes at Tennessee since he's been there and they haven't been nowhere near being considered one of the better teams during that period. Our classes are nowhere any of those Tennessee classes and our recent classes have basically been dead even with UL even tho plenty here refuse to acknowledge that.

Can you show where anybody said we are bringing in USC or OSU type classes in? Nobody has said that. We are saying recruitment has improved and it has improved big time. No need to make stuff up.