After a five-game losing streak to Kentucky, Jeff Brohm led Louisville back into the win column last season, downing the Wildcats 41-14 in Lexington in the final week of the regular season. Now, in 2025, the Cardinals will close out the regular season at home against their in-state rivals and are expected to be big favorites.
The rivalry between Louisville and Kentucky on the football field ebbs and flows significantly. Kentucky leads it 20-16 all-time, and before last year had won six of the last seven meetings, but that was preceded by a significant Louisville win-streak, spanning five years from 2011-2015.
When the balance of power in Kentucky shifts towards either of these two programs, it tends to stay there for a lengthy period before cyclically shifting back. With Mark Stoops seemingly on his last legs and Kentucky doubling down on its identity as a basketball-first school in the revenue-sharing era, and Jeff Brohm revitalising a stagnant Louisville football program, it appears that Louisville should dominate this matchup for the foreseeable future.
Still, even with an underwhelming Kentucky roster after last season’s 4-8 campaign and a new retread quarterback in Zach Calzada, who stunned Alabama with a huge upset victory while at Texas A&M back in 2021 but has spent his last two seasons at Incarnate Word, Kentucky could present a significant challenge to Louisville.
Week 14 is the perfect time for Kentucky to catch the Cardinals
It’s not just the randomness that rivalries often present that makes this a potential upset spot for Louisville. It’s the randomness of college football scheduling that gives the Wildcats a golden opportunity to steal a win in enemy territory.
Louisville’s ACC slate certainly isn’t as tough as Kentucky’s path through the SEC, but the Cardinals’ tough games are all packed into the end of the season. In Week 12, Louisville hosts Clemson, then in Week 13 the Cardinals head to Dallas to play SMU, both College Football Playoff teams from last season. That could leave Jeff Brohm’s team physically beat up and mentally spent by the time Week 14 comes around.
Conversely, while an SEC season is certainly more difficult to navigate than even the toughest ACC schedule, Kentucky’s schedule ends with a whimper, not a bang. After playing Florida at home in Week 11, the Wildcats host FCS Tennessee Tech in Week 12 before traveling to Vanderbilt in Week 13.
Vanderbilt is not the cupcake that it once was, and the Commodores currently look like the stronger program of the two perennial SEC bottom-feeders, but Tennessee Tech and Vanderbilt is a much easier two-game stretch than Clemson and SMU.
Louisville should make it two in a row against Kentucky this season. The only way that it doesn’t is if the schedule is just too favorable for Kentucky.