‘Sounds like someone has a case of the Mondays’
By jeb
A lot is being made about UK’s refusal to move the UK – UofL football game to Monday right now.
I never thought I would be saying this, and I hate the fact that it’s come to this, but we should drop the series. It’s obvious that this is what Kentucky wants, and if it’s going to be like this every year - and at this point why should any of us believe that it isn’t - then the game is going to become far more trouble than it’s worth. (Link)
I honestly think that Barnhart is just trying to stick it to the Cardinals any way he can these days. (Link)
Truth be told, UK’s reluctance to acquiesce to U of L’s wish — the Cards want the Monday night affair — has more to do with the prickly relationship between the cross-state rivals than anything else. (Link)
While most people think UK’s doing this just to stick it to Louisville I’m not so sure. After all UK did acquiesce to moving the basketball game pretty quickly. I actually think it comes down to two things.
The first being UK truly doesn’t want a four day turnaround for Norfolk State. Brooks knows that no matter what the circumstances UK should win this game. But it’s only been the last couple of years that UK being favored has translated to on the field success. A loss against Louisville, while crushing to the fans, would not derail the season; however losing at home to Norfolk State would. To this point Eric Crawford writes:
That’s a bit shaky. It’s no different from playing a Thursday night game after a Saturday game. The turnaround is the same. What is different is the night of the week. (Link)
But UK doesn’t typically play Thursday night games. When they did last year they were embarrassed by a team they should have been able to play with.
The second thing that is being overlooked is that unlike UofL, UK under Rich Brooks typically doesn’t factor TV exposure into their decision making. As John Clay notes:
Louisville has already shown it would play a football game at 3 a.m. in the Freedom Hall parking lot if ESPN asked. Kentucky has already shown it could care less (a) what Louisville wants or (b) if there are any TV cameras at all on hand for the annual rivalry game. (Link)
While this position goes against the grain the on the field results back up Brooks. After all Louisville has been willing to play anytime just to be on TV but that exposure hasn’t translated to better recruiting classes.
Finally in regards to Rick Bozich’s comment:
Schedule the game for Labor Day Night. If Kentucky doesn’t show up, mark it down as a forfeit. (Link)
Maybe if Louisville wanted to play on a Monday so bad they should have put that in the contract. After all it looks a bit odd that the so-called best AD in the world — Tom Jurich — keeps getting out maneuvered by Mitch in regards to football scheduling.