Being mad at Louisville will not help Cats beat Cards

stoops-nov-24

Mark Stoops knows preparation and execution -- and not emotion -- will be the key to beating Louisville. (Vicky Graff Photo)

Players for both Kentucky and Louisville will all be highly charged when Saturday night’s rivalry game starts in Louisville. The two teams did not play last year because of COVID scheduling and the Cats handily won the games in 2018 and 2019.

“A good dose of our team, the past two classes haven’t played Louisville, so this rivalry needs to be introduced to a few of our players that haven’t been exposed to it and it’s a totally different team than two years ago,” Kentucky coach Mark Stoops said earlier this week.”

Stoops said his players have to understand it is “another game” even if fans do obviously treat the rivalry game differently.

“We have to go out there and execute. As I’ve mentioned many times, everybody wants to win on Saturday. So being all mad at Louisville isn’t going to help us win the game,” the UK coach said.

“Our preparation this week and being very detailed and prepared for the game, and then going out and executing, that’ll help us win the game. So, showing up and ‘rah rah’ is only going to get you so far.”

Stoops said he had “some ways and some things” to show his team to illustrate the significance of the rivalry.

Kentucky has a chance to get its ninth win Saturday which should only add to UK’s motivation to go with playing the Cardinals for the first time in two years.

“Hopefully, there will be (excitement), but again, two classes haven’t played this game yet, so they don’t understand it yet,” Stoops said.

2 Responses

  1. We’re not mad at the Loserville dirty birds. We hate them, but not mad at them. I feel sorry for them because they are who they are.

  2. Well whatever Coach! Seems to me you need both. Nothing wrong in your team being "mad" at Louisville. I would rather have them "mad" than "passive." Come Saturday, that team will be ready to beat UK’s brains out, trust me, they will be very mad! Mad, to me, is not the right term either. UK needs to arrive in a bad mood, prepared, focused, all business, and ready to play football. Louisville wants to ruin UK’s season. I personally like a whole lot of "rah rah" but coupled with a whole lot of blocking and tackling. The term "rah rah" to me is another term for team spirit, or strong desire. That is why the Tennessee Vols usually beat UK on the grid iron more than UK beats them. They generally want it more seems to me. How else can that record be explained, down trough the years, other than maybe a lack of football talent at UK year in year out? You have done a good job of late correcting that problem in Lexington. Go get No. 9 against Louisville. The BBN stays ""mad" at Louisville. Do it for us.

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