REMINDER: Kentucky Completely Owns the Governor's Cup Rivalry with Louisville

It’s the last week of July. It’s been a good long while since you were in Kroger Field watching the Wildcats win a fourth straight Governor’s Cup over the Louisville Cardinals. It’s easy to forget. After all, a Kentucky football victory over Louisville has become an annual tradition. Like the State Fair in August or the Kentucky Derby on the first Saturday in May, Thanksgiving Saturday is a day in which the Commonwealth celebrates a victory over the Cardinal birds.

The more you dig into the Wildcats’ domination of the Governor’s Cup, the more you realize just how embarrassing it might be to cheer for the team that plays in that stadium that has had three different names in five years.

One needs a calculator to determine Kentucky’s astronomical margin of victory over the Cards over the last five years. In four games Kentucky has outscored UofL 179-57, winning by an average of 30.5 points. That’s almost as many points the Cards were favored by when Lamar Jackson did the Heisman pose, fumbled, then lost to Kentucky.

Louisville is Tired of Losing to Kentucky

Frankly, the folks on Floyd Street are embarrassed. That’s why new head coach Jeff Brohm is putting an extra emphasis on the Governor’s Cup rivalry this offseason.

“There’s a lot of emphasis,” Brohm said at ACC Football Kickoff 2023. “I’m not gonna lie. I mean, rivalry games are great for a lot of reasons. But you know, even your fanbase and the excitement that that builds, the momentum you get can be drastic. Kentucky’s had our number and it’s important that, you know, we find a way to be competitive and find a way to win the football game.

“We have it at home. And at that time of the year, this season could be going the way you want it or you could hit a couple of roadblocks. You got to be able to adapt.”

Even though the Governor’s Cup rivalry was not renewed until after Brohm’s playing days in Louisville, he understands the significance of the game. He also is leaving a place where he won quite a few of those rivalry games.

“We played Indiana the last game every year and we found a way to win most of those games,” Brohm said. “And it’s just always important to do that. It just gives you a great feeling that you’ve accomplished something that’s a goal that everybody has in the preseason and beat your rival football team. And definitely since they’ve had the upper hand recently, this is going to be a great challenge and yes, we put in preparation already.”

Thanks to Kentucky’s overwhelming success, the Governor’s Cup rivalry has had little to no juice over the last five years. Louisville is actively attempting to swing the pendulum back in the Cardinals’ favor, but unless Jeff Brohm is in the business of making miracles, prepare for another celebratory Thanksgiving Saturday across the Big Blue Nation.