An old saying goes, revenge is best served cold.
In the case of the Louisville Cardinals and defending Heisman winner Lamar Jackson (pictured), they serve it white hot.
Behind Jackson’s 216 yards passing and 160 yards rushing, the Governor’s Cup will reside in Louisville until next year as the Cards throttled the Kentucky Wildcats 44-17 Saturday afternoon, Nov. 25 in Kroger Field.
Jackson’s dominant performance was matched by a dominant performance from UK running back Benny Snell Jr. Snell continued his season of excellence by rushing 29 times for 211 yards and 2 TDs. With those TDs, Snell set the single-season season mark previously established by Moe Williams in 1995.
The accolades continue for Snell.
He has accounted for 110 points this season, breaking the mark set by Austin MacGinnis in 2014 (104 points) Snell is the first UK player to reach 30 career rushing TDs. His 211 yards are the most ever against Louisville by a Wildcat (151 by Rafael Little in 2007.) The last 200-yard rushing game was Artose Pinner in 2002 (224 yards.)
Despite Snell’s heroics, it wasn’t enough for the Cats. The Cards started hot and stayed hot. Jackson had his way with the Cats' defense, torching UK for 562 yards on 64 plays (an 8.8 average per play.)
The Cards defense held the Cats to 338 yards of total offense on 62 plays (5.5 average.) Senior QB Stephen Johnson was 8-19 passing for a pedestrian 110 yards.
Both teams now turn their attention to bowl season. The Cards (8-4) and the Cats (7-5) await their team’s selection to postseason. As for Kentucky, possible destinations could be Nashville (Music City Bowl) or Memphis (Liberty Bowl.)
Shane Shackleford is a writer and retired teacher/coach residing in Speedwell, Tenn. You can reach him via e-mail at coachshack50@gmail.com, Facebook at Shane Shackleford, or Twitter @shack_daddy_1.