Mark Stoops doubles down on importance of Louisville rivalry

The 2024 season has been a difficult season for the Kentucky Wildcats and head coach Mark Stoops. Still, he knows that if the Wildcats can find a way to beat the Louisville Cardinals to finish the season it would go a long way toward building momentum in the offseason.

Ahead of the game, Stoops doubled down on the importance of the rivalry game with Louisville, which he has been excited to compete in since he first got to Lexington.

“It’s been important,” Mark Stoops said. “You heard me say that the first time we played them and we hadn’t done very much and they were a Top-5, Top-10 team at the time and I never shied away from the importance of this game. Told you that game one, day one and I’ll say it again this year.”

Mark Stoops’ first season at Kentucky was back in 2013. At the time, he had inherited a struggling program that he would need to rebuild. Louisville, at the time, was in his final season in the AAC under head coach Charlie Strong. They’d go 12-1 that season, including beating Kentucky by a score of 27-13 in Lexington.

“It doesn’t really matter what the records are or anything like that,” Stoops said. “I have a lot of respect for Jeff [Brohm] and the way he coaches and their program. It’s important. It is important to our fan base, it’s important for our players, it’s important to me that we go play well.”

This will be the 11th time that Mark Stoops takes on Louisville during his time at Kentucky with the 2020 season being the only time he hasn’t played the Cardinals. Stoops has a 6-4 over Louisville, including winning five straight games in the series. Only one of those games, last season’s was closer than a one-score game.

The Governor’s Cup has been played 35 times previously. Kentucky holds a record of 20-15 in the series, which dates back to 1912 when they first played. However, following the 1924 game there was a long hiatus and the two wouldn’t play again until 1994. At the time of that revival, the Governor’s Cup Trophy was added to the series.

This season’s game between Kentucky and Louisville is scheduled to kickoff at 12:00 p.m. EST on Saturday, November 30th. Ahead of the game, Mark Stoops made the decision to name Cutter Boley as Kentucky’s starting quarterback. He’s a true freshman who will replace Brock Vandagriff.