By Russ Brown
Special to NKyTribune
FRANKFORT, Ky. — Under gray skies, the chilly air had the nip of a late fall day. Perfect football weather. So why not get together and talk about the Louisville-Kentucky football rivalry?
Except that it is early June, nearly six months before they will meet in Commonwealth Stadium — 176 days to be exact.
But as former UofL quarterback and coach Jeff Brohm, now the head coach at Western Kentucky, noted: “It just says how important the game is, and how much everyone in the state wants it to be played. It’s never too early to talk about Louisville-Kentucky.”
So here we go. These events seldom generate breaking news. Still, UofL coach Bobby Petrino and UK coach Mark Stoops had some interesting things to say during the annual Governor’s Cup Luncheon at the Frankfort Country Club Tuesday.
One of the first questions directed at Stoops, naturally, concerned whether he had decided on a starting quarterback, and the coach stopped just short of naming junior Patrick Towles.
“We’ve talked about that a lot,” Stoops said, laughing. “Obviously, you guys can read between the lines. Patrick Towles did some very good things a year ago, has the experience. We’re constantly evaluating that. He probably has a leg up right now, but we’ll see moving forward. Again, we’re certainly going to leave that open to compete throughout the summer and throughout fall camp.”
Later, a reporter pressed Stoops on his ‘reading between the lines’ comment, but got only this response: “I think you’re trying to trick me.”
Towles started every game last season, passing for 2,718 yards and 14 touchdowns, with nine interceptions. He also ran for 303 yards and six TDs. His main competitor for the job is redshirt freshman Drew Barker, a former four-star recruit.
“Competition helps us at every position,” Stoops said. “I feel like we’re getting more and more competition at a lot of spots and it’s good to have two guys playing quality football at quarterback.”
UK’s other QB, Reese Phillips, is recovering form an Achilles injury and hasn’t been cleared for workouts. Stoops said Phillips is still limping and moving slow, but should be ready to resume practice by mid-August.
Stoops says he expects Kentucky to be “significantly better” this season and hopes the Wildcats’ improved depth and experience can help them avoid a meltdown like last year when they started 5-1 only to finish with a six-game losing streak that included the final 44-40 loss to UofL that kept them out of a bowl game.
“Guys are anxious,” Stoops says. “The whole group is back now, working extremely hard, getting ready for a big season. It’s so important for us to have a great summer and work extremely hard physically to be able to withstand the SEC schedule.”
And, of course, to be in good shape for the regular-season finale against the Cards on Nov. 29 in Lexington when UK will try to snap its four-game losing streak in the series.
“We need to do our part at Kentucky,” Stoops says. “I think Louisville’s been a top program the past two, three years and we need to bring ourselves up to that level to get it on a national scale. We need to play at a high level to bring it up to national prominence.”
Said Brohm: “Obviously, Louisville has established themselves as the dominant program. Kentucky is catching up, they’ve done a good job getting better. Last year was a tremendous game, Kentucky had a chance to win it. And even though it’s the last game of the year, it’s still a great time to play it, there’s a lot on the line.”
Petrino will also go into fall camp needing to name a quarterback, with the three contenders expected to be sophomores Reggie Bonnafon and Kyle Bolin, and junior Will Gardner. Gardner suffered a serious knee injury in the 10th game of the season, underwent surgery and missed spring practice, but Petrino said Gardner’s recovery is going well.
“He’s had a very good outlook here in the last month, really made tremendous improvement,” Petrino said. “He’s ahead of schedule. We’re pulling the reins back making sure he only does only what the previous schedule had him doing. But he says he actually feels better than ever.
“Again, though, it’s the third straight surgery on the same knee and what happens when he starts torquing the knee as far as running and changing direction? How he responds when he starts (moving) and delivering the football is the concern, but Will’s very confidence. He feels he’ll be in the competition when practice starts in August and be 100 percent and ready to go.”
Petrino called UofL’s offense at this point “a work in progress”, noting that defense should be the Cards’ strong suit. That unit led UofL to a 9-3 regular season record before faltering in a 37-14 loss to Georgia in the Belk Bowl.
“I think we should be a very strong defensive football team, particularly our front seven with most of the guys returning, and they’re big and physical,” Petrino said. “Offensively, we’ve got to figure out what combination we’re going to have on the offensive line, but I think we’ll be real strong at all the skilled positions.”
While Louisville has a solid nucleus returning, its losses were significant. Ten Cards were drafted and seven became free agents.
“We’re very proud of the guys who got drafted, but it does make you nervous because that’s a lot of draft picks,” Petrino said. “We knew last year it was a very heavy senior team, 23, and then three juniors came out early, which was a surprise, and that always hurts how you manage your roster.”
Asked if he likes playing the Kentucky game at the end of the season, Petrino replied to laughter: “I do, because that’s where it’s at now.”
He added: “The best thing about it is, it fits into rivalry weekend, and us playing on national TV, I think it’s great.”
Furthermore, it’s not like the Cards don’t have an attractive opener to look forward to since they’ll face Auburn, a likely top-10 team, in the Kickoff Classic in Atlanta on Sept. 5.
“One of the things I like to do is play an opening game that means a lot, where there’s a lot at stake,” Petrino says. “I think it helps us all winter long, all spring practice, summertime conditioning. They understand that we’re opening up with a game that has a lot at stake, so to be in the Kickoff Classic against Auburn is a tremendous challenge, but one that our players and coaching staff are certainly looking forward to.”
Honorees at this year’s luncheon were Brohm; ex-UK player Mike Cassity, also a former UofL assistant coach and now an assistant at WKU; former Cats Jerry Blanton and Mark Higgs and ex-Cards Tom Andrews and Gary Barnes.
Gov. Steve Beshear spoke briefly, and also on hand were former coaches Lee Corso (UofL) and Fran Curci (UK).
In conjunction with the luncheon, the Governor’s Cup golf scramble was held to raise money for Dare to Care and God’s Pantry food banks. Beshear said Governor’s Cup events have raised over $4 million for various charities.
Russ Brown has covered University of Louisville athletics for 31 years, including 15 for The Courier-Journal in Louisville. He is senior writer/editor for the Louisville SportsReport, which he helped found, and also writes for Cardinalsports.com.