Rapid Reaction: Louisville hammers Kentucky in largest Governor’s Cup win ever
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Entering Rivalry Week, Kentucky hadn’t played a competitive game since the start of the month when it ground out a 7-point win over Auburn.
Kentucky still has not played a competitive game.
After back-to-back runaway wins to climb within a single victory of bowl eligibility, Kentucky closed out the 2025 season with consecutive blowout losses. The final nail in the coffin of this season and, perhaps, the Mark Stoops era, was hammered vociferously into place by rival Louisville on Saturday with a 41-0 shutout.
The 41-point margin represents the largest win for Louisville over Kentucky in program history. The shutout is the first in the series since 2004, and Kentucky’s first in any game since the Music City Bowl on Dec. 31, 2022.
Kentucky was outgained 440-147.
Kentucky ran 26 times and gained 40 yards.
Quarterback Cutter Boley was sacked 6 times. He was picked off twice. He completed just 14 of his 27 passes for 107 yards, frequently missing open receivers underneath in favor of incompletions down the field.
Kentucky went 2-for-14 on third down.
It was a brutal day for the offense, but it wasn’t much better on the other side. Louisville had 2 different plays clear the century mark on the ground. Cardinals running back Braxton Jennings ran 20 times for 113 yards. Shaun Boykins Jr. ran 22 times for 101 yards and a touchdown. Louisville was without its top 3 rushers and its top 2 receivers on the season, though that didn’t matter in the slightest.
The Cards produced 10 explosive plays on the ground and another 5 through the air. Kentucky had just 1 play all game that gained more than 15 yards, and it never reached the red zone.
Though the record will show a 1-win improvement over last year’s faceplanting, none in Lexington will feel good about a second consecutive season without a bowl appearance.
Louisville has now won back-to-back games in the series for the first time since winning 5 straight from 2011-15.
Louisville 41, Kentucky 0
Here’s the Kentucky-Louisville box score (use the dropdown menu to select team or player stats), followed by the complete play-by-play:
Derek Peterson does a bit of everything, not unlike Taysom Hill. He has covered Oklahoma, Nebraska, the Pac-12, and now delivers CFB-wide content.
