10 Takeaways From Kentucky's 56-10 Win At Louisville

The Governor's Cup trophy is coming back to Lexington after Kentucky annihilated Louisville in Louisville, 56-10, in the regular season finale. Here are 10 takeaways from the bloodbath:   1. Louisville is butt. I don't want to discredit all of the wonderful things Kentucky did in its bludgeoning of its rival, but we'd be remiss to not address the real storyline here: Louisville is trash. I know it's the appropriate nomenclature to always say things like "Louisville sucks" and what have you, but for real: Louisville was horrible this season. How did it get so bad? That Louisville team we just watched has no business being on a football field and it has been that way all year long, not just in the last game of the season when they're checked out and looking ahead to ending it all and going out for watered down LITs at whatever Fourth Street Live bar is hot these days. Louisville was a hot bag of mashed up ass, beginning in the Alabama game and all the way up through the Cats' curb-stomping. They barely beat three-win Western Kentucky in Louisville and the only other win was against Indiana State! You didn't even know Indiana State played football, did you?! 2. It was the perfect ending to a whirlwind season for Kentucky. I know the Tennessee game was a kick to the nether regions and it ultimately cost Kentucky a spot in the New Year's Six bowl games. Then things were closer than they needed to be against Middle Tennessee on Senior Day, which didn't help fans' attitude on the backend of the season. But the win at Louisville saved all that by putting a cherry on top of a nine-win season, the program's first since Jimmy Carter's first year in office. It didn't undo the disappointing loss in Knoxville, but it reignited all the positivity we had from when Kentucky was beating Florida, Mississippi State and South Carolina as part of this historic year under Mark Stoops. I can't think of a better ending to the regular season than beating Louisville 56-10 on its own turf. Well, beating Louisville 106-10 on its own turf would've been better but 56-10 got the job done. 3. Blue got in. Let's take a moment to give a round of applause to all of the Kentucky fans who braved their way through hostile territory to cheer on the Cats in the Stadium Formerly Known As Papa John's Stadium. It's never easy to have a good time when you're surrounded by a fan base that chugs hot beer through a trash bag (remember that?), but blue got in to support the Wildcats in the final game of the regular season. Those fans deserve everything they saw in enemy territory, even the drunk Louisville fans yelling at each other. https://twitter.com/ukruccio/status/1066503931772182533 4. Terry Wilson looked great at QB. Wilson threw for 261 yards on 17-of-23 passing with three touchdowns and only one sack taken and one interception. For a QB that has faced criticism all year, some fair and some not, Wilson answered the bell in the regular season finale and made his case for why everyone should believe in him going forward. He will have a bowl game coming up, but what really matters are the two years ahead. If he can improve on this performance and strengthen his game this coming offseason, Kentucky will like its quarterback of the future. It's easy to forget he was only a sophomore this year with no Division I experience. Imagine what he can be one and two years from now with a steady incline of improvement. 5. That Louisville tight end is a crazy person and I can't believe he went back into the game. Before I question the sanity of Louisville tight end Micky Crum, let me just say I do not know him and I did not know he was a person that existed on this Earth until he stole the spotlight in this game. I lived every minute of my life until Saturday night without knowing there is a Micky Crum, so I cannot speak on his contributions to the world prior to the UK-Louisville game. Maybe he's a wonderful person and had a bad night on national television. I don't know. You could tell me he's in line to be the next Pope and I'd have to go with it because I do not know anything about him to rebuttal whatever you say. That being said, what a real piece of work he was Saturday night. It began with poking the referee in the chest and not getting ejected, then turned to the bizarre sideline scene of him refusing to leave when both his head coach and athletic director tried sending him to the locker room. THEN HE CHECKED BACK INTO THE GAME! To his credit, holding out on the sideline worked. When most players would've been physically removed from the grounds for ignoring a coach (and the athletic director!), Crum did his crybaby Crum thing and was rewarded by being subbed back into the game. He's now the poster boy for what a joke that program is these days. 6. Benny Snell did not break the record... yet. Snell needed 207 yards on the ground to become Kentucky's new all-time leading rusher. It was a lot to ask of a guy in one game, but considering Louisville's grade-school defense, it wasn't out of the realm of possibility. He did, however, hit the 100-yard mark for the 18th time in school history, which ties him with Sonny Collins for the most in school history. He'll need to pick up 107 yards in Kentucky's bowl game to take the crown for most rushing yards in a career. 7. Lynn Bowden had a game. With Kentucky likely losing Snell to the league this spring, Bowden is the playmaker and the face of the offense for 2019. And he's a good one to have. In this game, Bowden caught a game-high six passes on a game-high seven targets for a game-high 86 yards with a game-high two touchdown receptions. He did have one hideous interception we'll pretend didn't happen because Kentucky shouldn't have been pulling out the trickery at that point in the game in the first place, but outside of the passing goof, it was a tremendous night for the sophomore wide receiver. And did anyone else love his touchdown strut or just me? https://twitter.com/MrsTylerKSR/status/1066502894969593856 8. Kentucky set a new season-high in total offense. The Cats totaled 601 yards of offense in the win, the most in any game this season. It was a much-needed performance too, given all of the underachieving over the last month and all of the criticism that came with it. Everyone on that side of the ball, especially offensive coordinator Eddie Gran, can finally be proud after a game, maybe for the first time since the South Carolina game. They opened it up and had some fun at the expense of Louisville's doo-doo defense. They really needed the confidence boost. 9. It's too bad Bobby Petrino was given the easy way out. The only thing that would've made this game better was if Bobby Petrino was on that other sideline taking the beating. Unfortunately, he was removed from his duties two weeks prior to the game, which meant he was given a mercy exit before the inevitable beatdown Mark Stoops had coming his way. It would've been nice to have seen his trademark Bobby Petrino smirk throughout the game, but interim head coach Lorenzo Ward stood in his place to take the whoopin'. I think if Petrino had been there, Stoops would've tried to add one more score in the end. 10. I'm not sure I've had more fun watching a football game. I wanted that game to last forever. Never have I had so much fun watching football. There was so much to love, like Louisville committing so many stupid penalties to ruin the handful of times the Cards actually made a stop. They were the most undisciplined team I've ever seen and it only added to the fun, knowing the rival program is at its lowest. Add in how unstoppable Kentucky looked offensively and all of the L's down from the Kentucky players throughout the game, and I can't think of a time I've had so much fun watching football. It's too bad it had to end. It's not the end of the season, though. Kentucky is going to a big boy bowl game to try to lock down a tenth win this season. Louisville, on the other hand, is going nowhere because Louisville is butt. Now let me drink your Louisville tears.