Impressive numbers and notes from Kentucky's 5th straight Governor's Cup win

Kentucky football pulled off the upset of its season on Saturday against the No. 9 Louisville Cardinals, winning 38-31 at L&N Stadium. It was the fifth consecutive victory for the Wildcats over the Cardinals in the Governor’s Cup, the longest winning streak of the rivalry series for UK, which has been played every season (outside of the COVID-19-impacted 2020 season) since 1994. It also ties the record for most wins in a row by one team in this series (Louisville also won five straight from 2011-15).

The win for Kentucky put an end to Louisville’s Cinderella run, crushing whatever hopes the Cardinals had of making it to the College Football Playoff. UK now leads the all-time series record 20-15 and also leads the series in games played at Louisville, 9-5. But those aren’t the only fun stats from Saturday afternoon’s win.

In fact, there are dozens more that stand out. Thanks to UK Athletics and statistician Corey Price, we’ve got plenty of numbers and notes from the win that will tickle your brain. Let’s dive into some of them.

Kentucky/Mark Stoops stats

• Kentucky has now clinched a winning record for the seventh time in eight seasons, the lone expectation coming during the COVID-19-impacted season (5-6) that saw UK play all 10 regular season games against Southeastern Conference opponents.
• Kentucky now holds the nation’s second-longest active winning streak against non-conference opponents in the regular season (20), trailing only the Georgia Bulldogs (24).
• This win extends Mark Stoops’ school record for the most wins by one coach (73) and wins over opponents ranked among the Associated Press Top 25 (13).
• No. 9 Louisville is the highest-ranked AP opponent that Kentucky has beaten in the Mark Stoops era and the first road win over a top 10 team since beating No. 4 Penn State 24-20 back in 1977. Kentucky has now beaten eight AP Top 10 teams in the school’s history, the first coming in 1947 against No. 9 Georgia.
• Kentucky had zero penalties against Louisville for the first time all season. It was also the first time UK did not record a penalty on the road since 2009 against Auburn.
• This win marked the 13th time that a Mark Stoops-led Kentucky team has overcome at least a 10-point deficit. During the third quarter, the Wildcats trailed 17-7 and then again 24-14 before storming back for the victory.
• Louisville came into this game tied for 13th in the nation in plays from scrimmage going for at least 30 yards (34). The Cardinals did not record a single play of at least 30 yards from scrimmage against Kentucky.
• Louisville has not held Kentucky to under 38 points at home since 2012 (as Corey Price notes, Barion Brown was in the third grade at the time).
• This win marks just the second instance in school history that Kentucky has defeated a current FBS, non-conference opponent on the road four straight times. The other stretch? When Kentucky beat Cincinnati four matchups in a row during a run that spanned 40 years — 1946, 1948, 1952, 1986.
• As for the most random stat: This was the first win for Kentucky on Nov. 25 since beating Miami (FL) all the way back in 1949. UK was previously 0-8 on games played on Nov. 25.
• 31 second-half points for Kentucky is the most after halftime on the road for the program since dropping 34 at Florida during the 2002 season.

Kentucky player stats

• Ray Davis is now the school’s single-season touchdown leader (20) after recording three scores against Louisville. He surpassed the great Benny Snell Jr. who found the endzone 19 times during the 2017 season. Davis’ 120 total points set a new school record as well, also surpassing Snell, who finished with 116 in 2017.
• With 76 rushing yards against Louisville, Davis became the 11th Wildcat to top 1,000 rushing yards in a single season. This is the 15th instance in which a Kentucky player has broken the 1,000-yard rushing mark in one season.
• Davis became the first player in history to run for 1,000 yards in one season at two different SEC schools. He rattled off 1,042 yards for Vanderbilt last season before transferring to Kentucky.
• Davis’ 37-yard go-ahead touchdown run to put Kentucky in front 38-31 with 1:02 left in the game is tied for the third-latest game-winning score in school history. UK also beat Vanderbilt with 1:02 left on the clock back in 1967. Kentucky beat Missouri with no time left in 2018 and defeated Vanderbilt in 1971 as time expired.
• Barion Brown tied a pair of school records with his 100-plus-yard kickoff return against Louisville. He is now tied with Craig Yeast for the most kickoff return touchdowns in a career (three) and is tied with Derek Abney for the most in a single season (two).
• Brown is now up to 1,067 career receiving yards, 30th-most in program history. Fellow sophomore wide receiver Dane Key is right behind him at No. 31 with 1,056 career receiving yards. Key is the first UK player to record touchdowns in consecutive games against Louisville since La’Rod King did the same in 2011-12.
• Devin Leary‘s 55-yard completion to tight end Izayah Cummings near the end of the third quarter (which set up a Kentucky touchdown the next play) is the longest play from scrimmage that Louisville has allowed since the season-opener against Georgia Tech, which also completed a 55-yard pass against the Cardinals.