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Prior to Saturday, the most lopsided result in favor of the Kentucky Wildcats against their archrivals from Louisville came on September 5, 1998. On that day, Kentucky roughed up the Louisville Cardinals, 68-34. The 34-point victory held firm as the biggest result in favor of UK for a whole 20 years, and Saturday’s performance demolished that performance.
A 46-point blowout win in favor of UK gives them the most lopsided result in the rivalry’s 25-game history. Kentucky pasted Louisville 56-10 to cap off a 9-3 season that could have UK playing on New Year’s Day. And it assuredly sends UL into pure futility.
Kentucky and Louisville were polar opposites of one another. UK racked up 601 yards while Louisville had just 305. They had 261 passing yards to Louisville’s 79. The Wildcats rushed for 340 yards while UL had 226. Which, okay, that’s a bad look for UK, but 340 certainly looks great. The Cats averaged 8.6 yards per play, 15.4 yards per completion and 7.4 yards per carry. It was a total annihilation.
It pretty much started that way, as UK jumped out to a 14-0 lead in the first quarter. Although Louisville answered on a 75-yard run by Malik Cunningham, Benny Snell, who scored the game’s first touchdown, answered back early in the 2nd quarter with a 24-yard scamper. Although the boot of Blanton Creque made it 21-10, it was off to the races from there for Kentucky.
Lynn Bowden Jr. caught the next two scores from the arm of Terry Wilson. Then in the fourth quarter, it was Josh Ali’s turn, as he caught a touchdown pass from Wilson. Asim Rose put his stamp on the game with a 75-yard dash to the end zone and then Kavosiey Smoke put the exclamation point on it with a 37-yard rumble to paydirt.
Such an exceptional performance should not go unnoticed even if this is one of Louisville’s worst teams in recent memory. Kentucky will almost certainly have a shot at 10 wins for the first time since 1977 when they take the field next.