LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Nobody saw this coming. Except maybe the Louisville defense, which saw everything coming.
What was supposed to be a hospital ward of a football game — the battered vs. the bruised, the limping vs. the listing — turned into something closer to a field clinic for the Cardinals in front of a crowd of 50,634 in L&N Stadium.
They called it the Governor’s Cup. It looked more like a Medicare Advantage Bowl, with both teams missing large chunks of their rosters and most of their optimism. Louisville showed up in a walking boot. But Kentucky arrived with a white flag.
Final score: Louisville 41, Kentucky 0. Diagnosis: One-sided.
The Cardinals entered without their top three running backs, their top receiver, and a quarterback whose playing status was marked "questionable" until warmups. The Wildcats countered with a depleted secondary, a sputtering offense, and a coaching situation best described as “tenuous.”
Then Miller Moss took the field, and the outlook changed. The Southern Cal transfer gave the Cardinals a jolt, completing 12 of 20 passes for 182 yards and three touchdowns. But the story of the game wasn’t Moss — it was the freshman walk-on running back who looked like he’d spent the week reading about the injury report and said, “Fine. I’ll do it myself.”
Braxton Jennings, 18 years old and a year removed from Ashland Blazer High, ran for 113 yards on 20 carries and a full share of the Governor’s Cup glory. That’s twice as many yards, by the way, as he ran for a year ago in his high school finale against Corbin.
The capper was a 17-play, 99-yard drive by Louisville that ate up 10:27.
Louisville closed the season with an 8-4 record, including three wins over teams likely to finish in the Top 25. The late-season swoon was real. So were the injuries. But for 60 minutes on Saturday, all that faded — along with Kentucky’s bowl hopes.
The Wildcats arrived as slight favorites. They left in familiar fashion — with boos behind them and questions ahead. A second straight blowout loss to Louisville and a second straight season without bowl eligibility will only turn up the heat on Mark Stoops, whose recently stabilized seat may soon return to griddle status.
As for Louisville, it will await its bowl assignment a week from Sunday — and whatever comes, it likely won’t taste as sweet as this.
FIRST HALF:
The Cardinals struck early and often. Quarterback Miller Moss led a balanced attack, going 9-for-15 for 161 yards and a touchdown, and added a short-yardage rushing score. He opened with a 23-yard completion on Louisville’s first play and capped a red-zone series with a 1-yard QB dive TD late in the first quarter to give Louisville a 7-0 lead.
In the second quarter, Louisville tacked on 13 more points:
A 34-yard Cooper Ranvier field goal extended the lead to 10-0.
On 4th-and-1 near midfield, Moss hit Jacob Stewart on a seam route for a 43-yard touchdown pass, capitalizing on Kentucky’s gamble to crowd the line.
Another efficient drive — 10 plays, 48 yards — resulted in a 24-yard field goal with 1:45 left in the half.
Overall, the Cardinals gained 265 yards of offense on just 36 plays, averaging 7.4 yards per play, and went a perfect 3-for-3 in the red zone
But if there was a standout group, it was Louisville’s defense. The Cardinals made life miserable for Kentucky quarterback Cutter Boley, sacking him five times for a loss of 39 yards. Louisville’s defensive front, led by Clev Lubin (2 sacks) and T.J. Quinn (1 sack, 1 pass breakup), regularly broke through a struggling Kentucky offensive line.
The Cardinals also recorded six tackles for loss and forced three straight three-and-outs in the second quarter. Louisville’s coughed up a couple of fumbles, but recovered and continued the drives.
Kentucky managed just 71 total yards on 31 plays in the half, averaging 2.3 yards per snap. Boley completed 10 of 16 passes for just 64 yards and was often under siege. He was penalized for intentional grounding on one sack and lost 13 yards on another late-half takedown by Lubin.
The run game was no help — Kentucky netted only 7 rushing yards on 15 carries. Nearly all their offensive success came on their third possession, which reached the Louisville 33 but ended in a missed 52-yard field goal attempt.
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