Now that the Governor’s Cup resides in Lexington for the first time since 2002 what can we expect from UK and UofL the rest of the season?

First for the winners.  The Wildcats took full advantage of their opportunities Saturday night in defeating the Cards.  If that continues to happen then they can have a banner year.  But, this week is big.  In their SEC opener the Cats must travel to Fayetteville to take on an Arkansas team that can run, run, run.  The bigger issue here is can UK come down from their euphoric state to actually properly prepare and then play another team in 7 days.  My guess is that they can, but it will be very close.  That will put UK at 4-0 which will easily be 5-0 after defeating Florida Atlantic.  My bet is that UK will also beat Mississippi State and Vanderbilt.  This will give UK 7 wins.  I don’t think the Cats will beat South Carolina, LSU, Florida, or Georgia.  That gives them four losses.  Then all that is left is a season ending game with Tennessee which I said in the pre-season that UK would win.  That puts UK at 8-4 and possibly in the Outback Bowl.

However, this all hinges on the Cats ability to come down to earth and beat Arkansas this week.  Beating UofL put UK on a track to reach a New Year’s Day Bowl.  Losing to Arkansas could very easily put them on the track to go back to the Music City Bowl.  In order to take a major step forward UK needs to continue their winning ways.

Now for UofL.  The Cards should beat Syracuse in their Big East opener this week.  They should, also, beat NC State.  That other roar you heard last Saturday came from Utah who destroyed UCLA.  Utah should also whip the Cards.

Besides Syracuse, UofL will win Big East games with UCONN and Pittsburgh.  Cincinnati will be a tough, close win that will give UofL 4 conference wins and 7 overall.  That will make them Bowl eligible.

The Cards final 3 games are at West Virginia, Rutgers at home, and at South Florida.  I don’t see UofL winning any of those games.  West Virginia could very well be in the BCS title game (and is the team that probably has the most to gain or lose in the outcome of the UofL/Utah game).  South Florida should be ranked in the top 20 (what a joke the polls are this year, by the way).  And, don’t count out Rutgers who has the ability to score many more points this season.

After seeing UofL’s play on Saturday night I can’t see a finish of better than 4th in the Big East (which could be the 3rd best BCS conference this year).  Rafael Little is a very good collegiate back; but a Steve Slaton, Pat White, or Ray Rice he is not.  I see West Virginia and Rutgers lighting up the scoreboard to beat the Cards.  South Florida will beat the Cards with a nasty defense who can limit UofL to less than 20 points (after all, they have done it before, check 2005).

UofL’s success the rest of the way hinges on how quickly their inexperienced players on defense can come around.  If they don’t have any more injuries and play improves dramatically then, maybe, 8 wins is not out of the question.  Either way, this will be the first time since 2004 that the Cards won’t play a bowl game in the New Year.  And, that would have still been the case if UofL would have pulled a win out Saturday night.  The top of the Big East is simply a step ahead of the Cards this year.