Cards Close Regular Season at Kentucky

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - University of Louisville head coach Scott Satterfield understands the importance of Louisville's intra-state rivalry game with Kentucky.

The fourth-year head coach knows what this game means to the fan base and Card Nation.

"They're fans and they're going to be fanatics about particularly this game - it's a rivalry game," Satterfield said. "It doesn't matter about records, whether we're both undefeated or we haven't won a game, your fan base wants to win this one for bragging rights. We hear about it throughout the whole year. No matter where we go, if there's some fan from either side, they will a lot of the times make a comment about it. It's obviously a huge game and one you want to try to go get so we don't have to hear some of that stuff again all season."

The game takes on special importance this year for the Cardinals, who are looking for their sixth win in seven games and hoping to stop a three-game losing streak to UK. This rivalry contest is always played with tremendous emotion and Satterfield knows his team must keep that in check to not give away important yards.

"We'll certainly address it," Satterfield said. "I think anytime you get overly emotional in a situation like this, it takes away from the play. We have to worry about us, we have to worry about our guys and play for the ones beside you. That's who we're playing for. Focus on your job and not anything else. Let's let the fans and everybody else do all that stuff. Let's focus on what we have to do, which is our job each and every play, and play focused. So, we're talking about that this week, but I know guys are going to be emotional. We have to channel it in the right direction. I thought we got sideways on that one last year and kind of got us out of our game."

Kentucky leads the all-time series with Louisville 18-15. The Cats have won the last three games between the rivals, all three in convincing fashion.In 2018, Kentucky went to the Derby City and won 56-10. A year later, at Kroger Field, Kentucky again won big, 45-13. After taking 2020 off due to COVID-19, the rivalry resumed last season with Wildcats winning 52-21 win at Cardinal Stadium.

Last year, going back and looking at it, particularly on defense, we didn't really slow them down much at all. Loose coverages, the quarterback runs really hurt, nothing went right," Satterfield said. "It was just one of those days nothing went right. Even early in the game, it's 14-7, we're driving, and we get in a little bit of a scuffle on the sideline. We kind of lost our composure, and from that point forward it was straight downhill. Then the first year down there (2019), it was one of the nastiest weather days I've been a part of – it rained and was cold.

At halftime, I think it was maybe a four-point game at halftime, but it was close. Then in the second half, we just didn't slow them down. We certainly got to play really good football. We have to, we have to play good in all three aspects. We're not good enough just to go show up, we got to go play. We got to play great football, complimentary football in all three phases to have an opportunity to win this game. We recognize that, and again, we need to have a great week of prep."

The Cardinals enter the regular-season finale leading the country in sacks and ranking second in the nation in turnovers. Defensive coordinator Bryan Brown has invoked an attacking defense that has been predicated on pressuring the quarterback. Yasir Abdullah is second in the league in sacks with eight and Yaya Diaby has added 6.5

"I think defensively, we've been really good," Satterfield said. "The negatives from some of those early losses was just the big plays. We were still playing good defense, what we call havoc defense: tackles for loss, sacks, turnovers. It's been really, really good this year. We're number one in the country in sacks. We're number two in takeaways. It's hard to get any better than that. We've played a lot of people; we've rotated some guys in and out of there. We've played really, really good team defense. We've talked about that.
It's not just one person. Yasir (Abdullah) has had an incredible season. He, to me, should be the leader for ACC Defensive Player of the Year and certainly, a first team all-conference type of player. YaYa (Diaby) has had an incredible year. I think more than anything it's just been a great team defense and being able to put pressure on offenses, play some tighter coverage, and tackle better. I think we've done all those things."

University of Louisville Athletics

Related News

Players Mentioned

Yasir Abdullah

Related Videos