Five things you need to know from Kentucky’s epic 38-31 upset win over No. 10 Louisville

Five things you need to know from Kentucky’s 38-31 win over Louisville:

1. Stoops owns U of L. With the victory, Kentucky coach Mark Stoops has now beaten Louisville five straight and six out of seven.

Under Stoops, UK has now beaten Louisville during Lamar Jackson’s Heisman Trophy season (2016) and in Jeff Brohm’s homecoming season when the Cardinals entered the game 10-1, ranked in the top 10 and bound for the ACC championship game.

Overall, Stoops is now 6-4 in the Governor’s Cup rivalry. Only ex-U of L head man Bobby Petrino (7-1 — 4-0 from 2003 through 2006; 3-1 from 2014 through 2017) has more wins in the modern Wildcats-Cardinals rivalry than Stoops.

Beyond any doubt, there is one fan base that very much hopes that reports that Stoops is in the mix for the Texas A&M head coaching job are true: That is Louisville backers.

2. A Louisvillian shall lead them. After what had been a challenging season for Kentucky senior rush end/outside linebacker J.J. Weaver, the product of Louisville’s Moore High School saved his best for last.

The 6-foot-5, 244-pound Weaver made eight tackles, recovered two fumbles that both led to Kentucky scores and had a sack of Louisville quarterback Jack Plummer.

For his efforts, Weaver was voted by media members covering the game as the winner of the Howard Schnellenberger MVP Award.

3. Davis makes history. In what might have been his final game in a Kentucky uniform (depending on bowl opt outs), running back Ray Davis etched his name into the UK record book.

Davis caught two touchdown passes and ran 37 yards for a third TD, the score that provided Kentucky’s winning margin.

The three touchdowns gave Davis 20 touchdowns on the season (13 rushing, seven receiving) and moved him past Benny Snell (19 TDs in 2019) for the Kentucky single-season touchdown record.

4. Still no “home-field advantage” in the Governor’s Cup. With its victory, Kentucky is now 8-5 at the venue now known as L&N Federal Credit Union Stadium (nee Cardinal Stadium).

Conversely, Louisville is 10-6 against Kentucky in Lexington in the modern day Governor’s Cup rivalry (since 1994).

Overall, UK now leads the all-time series 20-15.

5. Stoops vs. the top 10. The victory over Louisville (No. 9 in the AP poll, No. 10 in the College Football Playoff ratings), is Mark Stoops’ second as Kentucky head man over a team ranked in the top 10 of the Associated Press poll.

UK’s other such victory under Stoops came in 2021, a 20-13 victory over then-No. 10 Florida in Lexington.

Stoops is now 2-18 as Kentucky coach against top-10 foes.

However, the UK head man now has 13 wins over teams ranked in the AP Top 25. That matches the total number of such Kentucky victories from 1977 through 2012.

Fashion police

For its final regular season game of 2023, Kentucky wore silver chrome helmets over white jerseys with blue letters and numbers and white pants.

Since the beginning of the 2015 season, UK is now 16-12 in silver chrome helmets.

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