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Louisville At Kentucky Rivalry has Kentucky Favored by 14
9/19/09
The College Football season is in full swing, and you know what that means;
rivalries. There is nothing quite like college rivalries. One of the best
rivalry games this week will be that between the Kentucky Wildcats and the
Louisville Cardinals. True, this game would be more interesting if it were
basketball, but don’t discount it. Kentucky easily took last year’s meeting by a
score of 27-2. Louisville will seek to return the favor this year, but it won’t
be easy. Kentucky is a whopping 14 favorite at
offshore sportsbooks
with an over/under total of 47.
The Louisville Cardinals opened the season with a fairly easy 30-10 win over
Indiana State at home. QB Justin Burke played poorly, passing for 223 yards and
2 INTs. The running game was very strong. RB Victor Anderson had 93 yards and 2
TDs. Bilal Powell added 73 more yards and another TD. WRs Doug Beaumont and
Scott long were both strong picking up 69 and 68 yards respectively. The defense
made up for Burke’s 2 INTs by coming up with 4 turnovers of their own.
Louisville was able to hold their opponent to just 101 yard of total defense.
They will have to play with the same vigor against the Wildcats.
RB Victor Anderson played very well in the first game of the year and will
probably be the centerpiece of the offense. He is a compact but strong runner
who is among the best in the Big East. Louisville has several good LBs,
including Jon Dempsey. The defense looks to be much improved from 2008 when it
ranked 70th in the country. Problems could arise at the QB positions. Justin
Burke didn’t play very well, and Coach Craglethorpe has several guys gunning for
his starting spot. The Cardinals have several speedy WRs, but none of them have
big game experience. If this team wishes to knock Kentucky off they will have to
move the ball effectively on the ground and keep Kentucky from putting up big
points.
Things couldn’t have gone any more perfectly for Kentucky in their first game of
the year. They got to play at Paul Brown Stadium (Home of the Cincinnati
Bengals) against the Miami RedHawks, and they absolutely dismantled them winning
42-0. Mike Hartline passed for 222 yards and 2 TDs. This is encouraging because
there were questions surrounding his consistency coming into this season. RB
Derrick Locke picked up 61 yards and a TD on 8 carries. Moncell Allen also added
57 rushing yards and a TD. WRs Randall Cobb and Chris Matthews both caught a TD
pass.
Although Kentucky was able to put big points up on Miami, there are concerns
about how they will handle more legit defenses. Particularly those of their SEC
rivals, but even the Louisville defense could cause problems for them. Derrick
Locke and Moncell Allen must do a good job of picking up yardage on the ground.
The Kentucky defense is the strength of the team. They have a deep defensive
line that can make problems for opposing QBs, and stop the running game. Micah
Johnson is a force at LB, and CB Trevard Lindley is All-SEC material. Both will
make huge problems for the Louisville offense. They need to keep the pressure on
QB Justin Burke and force him to throw INTs.
No question Louisville has been down a few notches the last couple of years
after a great run of winning anywhere from 9 to 12 games a year for most of this
decade. They faltered in 2007 and in 2008, winning 6 and 5 games respectively
after coach Bobby Petrino left town. Kentucky on the other hand, after years of
2 and 3 win seasons has strung together 2 8 win seasons and a 7 win season a
year ago. Rich Brooks has the Wildcats competitive.
But we think Kentucky might be getting a little too much respect in this
line. This line opened up at -11 at
bookmaker.com and has been
bet up to -14. We feel the value now lies with Louisville getting two
touchdowns.
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