No Quit in These Cats as They Rally to Stun Louisville, 38-31

For the fifth straight year, the Governor's Cup is staying in Lexington. (UK Athletics Photo)

It would have been easy for Kentucky to have given up.

The Cats were coming off another disappointing loss at South Carolina that dropped their record to 6-5 after a 5-0 start.

Before the game rumors surfaced that coach Mark Stoops could be a “serious” candidate for the vacant head coaching job at Texas A&M.

Louisville scored on its opening drive in the first half and then started the second half with a nine-minute scoring drive to increase its lead to 17-7. At that point, Kentucky did not even have 100 yards of total offense.

However, Kentucky did something Saturday it has not done this season. It finished a game. UK had chances to beat Missouri, Tennessee and South Carolina in the fourth quarter and lost all three games. This time it had a chance thanks to a 100-yard kickoff return by Barion Brown after Louisville went on top 17-14 and this time UK finished the deal.

Quarterback Devin Leary led a comeback charge that gave UK a 38-31 win over the No. 9 Cardinals. It was Kentucky’s first road win over a top 10 team since 1977 at Penn State. It was also UK’s fifth straight win in this series and continued its in-state domination.

Stoops was happy but rather humble in his postgame press conference when you know he wanted to pound his chest at the many who have questioned/criticized his team the last month.

“Many of you (media)  have been covering us for many years so you know, like any team, we’re going to go through some ups and downs,” said Stoops. “I’m really proud of how this team finished the season.

“I think we’re the only team in the country that has played four straight teams ranked in the top 10. That’s a tough schedule. This team found a way to pick themselves back up after last week and finish strong in a game that’s important for us. Important in terms of where we want to go for a bowl game. It’s important for our fans that we bring the Governor’s Cup home for the fifth straight season against a great Louisville team that I have a lot of respect for.

“I’m proud of the resilience this team showed and the willingness to pick themselves back up. We’ve played a grueling schedule. We found a way to win in a game that started slow.  We played together as a team. Just really proud of this team.”

He should be. I didn’t think UK could win at Louisville and was even more convinced after Louisville dominated the first half even though it was leading only 10-7. The Cardinals scored 21 points in the second half but I never ever imagined UK scoring 31 points in the second half.

Quarterback Devin Leary threw two 20-yard scoring passes to running back Ray Davis and then Davis scored the game-winning touchdown on a 37-yard run with 1:02 to play.

Stoops understands what the win means to his program.

“It means a lot for many different reasons. We have expectations that we understand, and no one cares about the schedule you play. I was just happy for our team to finish like they did, they deserve it and have been grinding all year,” Stoops said.

“We have had some ups and downs and have been far from perfect, but to finish off the regular season against our rivals, a top-10 team is important. I take no gratification in knocking them down but I just wanted to win this game because it is important to our fans and important to our team.”