Red Rage Pigskin

I am somewhat in agreement with you there; however, UofL's d-line is also gonna give you guys fits too. Our guys might be a little young but they're fairly battle-tested. With you all having to plugin 3 new guys along the oline, I see 3 question marks. Is anyone with actual starting experience slated to take those spots?

The way I see it is Oline-vs-Dline. You guys have got a solid 4 up front and we've also got a pretty solid 4 up front. You guys have question marks on the oline (at least from my perspective) while we don't. Since the run-game has tended to dictate who takes the Cup (and that oline-vs-dline factors into the run game) I think we're gonna end up better off. I might even be willing to dial the score down a little but I see us taking this one by 10+.

So if we got beat pretty soundly by NCST, does that mean that UK got beat soundly by UL too?

UL's Dline went through Uk's veteran Oline like butter last year and the result was their QB running for his life the entire game. This year their Oline will be starting 3 freshman so it will only be worse for them. That's the game fellas. They will struggle to even get the ball across the 50 and will be lucky to get to the red zone by halftime.

UofL 2 years ago, You were 7-6. You guys don't want to compare quality wins over the last 5 years. It would be embarrassing.

UK lost to quality SEC opponents on the road, that's the SEC. We didn't lose to Marshall. But we lost to UofL, I thank Morgan Newton for that. But I will not have that excuse this year.

We have not proven to play well at home....or early in the year under Strong....

I expect a ball control offense with alot of running it between the tackles.......that alone will probably lead to a low scoring, relatively close game...

Dude all you have to know is that your team is planning on coming out and trying to "Air Raid" the ball all over the field; I got news for you, that aint gonna work!!!Your O-Line is ATROCIOUS!!!As Barkley says, "TERRI-BULLLLL!!!!"
Our D-Line and Blitz packages in the 3rd game of the season last year made your O-Line that was much, much better last year look like a joke and our D-Line was one of the real glaring weaknesses going into that game...Our D-Line is now a staple of the team...I hope your QB's are ready to eat grass all game...
As for, our Offense not being able to score points which is what I guess your assuming is going to keep it close, our WR's are gonna torch your defense....Put a wager on it SON!!!Its gonna be an @$$ Rapin!!!
STAND STRONG!!!!!GO CARDS!!!!!

You ask this question as if UK is "a team with a winning record". UL isn't playing a good team the first game of the season...they're playing UK. Comparative scores and all the other diversions you're throwing out there don't matter. What was UK's record against UL last year in football by the way. Oh yeah...0-1.

UL-28
UK-10

And it will look worse as UK scores late.

I agree with this. I think our front 7 on D will have a field day. Also, with an improved Oline, I wouldn't be surprised if we had 2 RBs with over 100 yards on the ground.

UL - 38
UK - 10

Thanks for being courteous but you are way off base here. There is a huge gap in ability. UK has already lost multiple players before the season even started. You're thin at CB and O-line, while the biggest strengths of this UofL team is it's WR and Dline talent. And even outside the talent gap, there is a HUGE enthusiasm gap. Our coaches and players are focused on accomplishing something special this season, and building on last year, while Joker is pleading with UK fans to support their team and UK players show a false sense of pride and ego on twitter.

The programs are going different directions, this much is obvious, it will be even more so on Sept 2.

Georgia at Georgia, 3 years ago. And man how UofL fans forget UK is 4-1 over the last 5 years against them. Two 7-6 years, 1 quality win and you'd think you guys were preseason top 10, and your not even top 25.

I never said we were better, I'm a realistic UK fan, I think we are a year away from doing great things while I think everyone is overlooking this team, it has some of the best talent from top to bottom that we have ever had at UK, but it's young.

Let's see how it pans out in 3 weeks.

No you are not a realistic Uk fan. If you were then you would be mailing in the season like the rest of your fan base.

Post of the day

I'll play. If we compare quality (i.e. wins against teams who finished the season in the top 25) from 2007-2011 as you suggest, this is what it would look like:

Louisville
2007 - UC (finished #17 in AP)
2008- None
2009 - None
2010 - None
2011 - WVU (finished #17 in AP)

UK wins
2007 - LSU (finished #1)
2008 - None
2009 - None
2010 - South Carolina (finished #22)
2011 - None

So over the last five years, Louisville has exactly two wins against teams that finished the season in the top 25. I'd say that compares favorable to UK which also recorded two wins against top 25 teams. Two things to note:

First, the LSU is easily the best win among the four and UK deserves credit for that win. Now if you are like most UK fans I know, you probably are thinking "That can't be right! Where is the Auburn or UGA wins! What about UT!". If you take the name off the jersey and look at how teams actual did, you'll realize that wins over Tennessee in 2011 (finish 5-7, 1-7 SEC), Georgia (8-5, 4-4 SEC) and Auburn (8-5, 3-5 SEC) in 2008, Arkansas (5-7, 2-6 SEC) or FSU (7-6, 4-4 ACC and missing multiple players for bowl game) in 2007 aren't quality wins. None of those squads finished in the top 25 at the end of the season and all except UGA in 2008 had either a losing conference or losing overall record.

Second, the 2007, 2008, and 2009 UofL squads recorded the worst overall records (and some of the worst statistical records) of any UofL teams between 1999-2011. Conversely, 2007 and 2008 were the two best season for UK during the 2002-2011 time span. In addition, given that UK plays in the SEC, their programs has had significantly more attempts at recording top 25 wins than UofL. Despite that, the programs have the exact same number of Top 25 wins.

And since the modern series started, Louisville is 10-8 against UK. If anything, UK should erect a statue to Kragthorpe as his terrible coaching job is the only reason the record is even close.

Secondly, I'll point out that you aren't a realistic UK fan. Why? A realistic UK would know things like:

- UK football has fewer SEC football championships (2) than either Tulane (3) or Georgia Tech (5), both of which left the SEC in the 1960s.
- UK's last winning season in the SEC was 1977 (season was played under sanctions). If UK finishes this year with a losing conference record, it will be 35 years since UK's last winning SEC season.
- UK hasn't finished in the Top 25 in the AP poll since 1984 (#19)
- UK's conference record from 2001-2011 is 24-64 and their all-time record against SEC opponents is 163-371-22 (74 of those wins or 46% were against the other SEC bottom feeders of Vandy, Ole Miss, and Miss St).
- UK is projected by nearly every major sports publication to finish at or near the bottom of the SEC this year.

My point is UK hasn't done anything in football for the last 30 years and their records show them to be extremely uncompetitive in their conference. UK football is always a year away from doing great things because actually doing great things isn't going to happen at UK. They simply can not compete with the other programs in the SEC. I remember listening to UK fans talk about being "a year away" from really competing for SEC championships under Brooks and all they did was manage to field a mediocre SEC squad. Now if "doing great things" is going .500 in conference, 7-6 overall, and going to a bowl game, then you could be right. If doing great things is finishing in the top 25, making a major bowl, etc, then you will be sorely disappointed.