Cardinals tasked with Kentucky rushing attack
Louisville football is tasked with stopping the run in its annual rivalry. The Cardinals travel to Lexington to play Kentucky Nov. 30 after allowing 261 rushing yards to Syracuse last week in Louisville’s 56-34 victory.
Kentucky is averaging 262.2 rushing yards per game, but has been even better in recent weeks. The Wildcats rushed for 401 yards against Vanderbilt and 462 yards against UT Martin.
“It’s an outstanding running football team that we’re getting ready to play here with some good backs,” Satterfield said. “It’s produced some good wins and what they did the last couple weeks in particular, not really throwing the football very much at all, but teams know that and still can’t stop it. It’s pretty impressive.”
The emergence of Lynn Bowden at quarterback has aided in Kentucky’s offense becoming more dominant on the ground. The 6-foot-1 receiver took on the starting quarterback role against Arkansas after spending time taking direct snaps in a wildcat formation earlier in the season.
Bowden, who played quarterback in high school, rushed for 196 yards against Arkansas and had his season’s best performance against Missouri, rushing for 204 yards. He completed 8 of 10 throws for 104 yards against Vanderbilt.
With Bowden at quarterback, Kentucky creates gaps that Louisville must fill to slow down the rushing attack.
“They’re utilizing essentially the Q run,” Satterfield said. “What they’re doing is kind of splitting the defense in half. The running back goes one way then the quarterback goes the other and you must have guys on both sides.”
Bowden has rushed for 914 yards. Asim Rose has 619 rushing yards while Kavosiey Smoke has 509 rushing yards.
Satterfield thinks Bowden, who has completed 28 of 59 passes for 326 yards, throws enough to prevent defenses from stacking the box.
“They don’t throw it much, but they do keep you honest with a lot of vertical routes and so you must make sure you have your guys covering their receivers,” Satterfield said. “That’s what presents the problems and they’re such good athletes at those running positions.”
