Kentucky picks up win over Louisville

Wildcats return two Cardinals fumbles for touchdowns while dominating in-state rivalry

Rich Brooks knows Kentucky's young and inexperienced offense isn't going to scare anybody.

The way the Wildcats' defense played against Louisville, it might not have to.

Kentucky returned two Louisville fumbles for touchdowns and set up another score with an interception in the visiting Wildcats' 27-2 victory Sunday in the Governor's Cup football game.

"We thought we had a good defense, and we do," Brooks said. "Our defense took it upon themselves to score points. Our defense kept making play after play after play."

Kentucky forced five turnovers and stuffed Louisville's retooled offense, playing with the kind of tenacity Brooks said the Wildcats would need early in the season while the offense found its footing.

Kentucky held Louisville, which averaged 416.5 yards per game a year ago, to just 205 yards, and the Cardinals failed to score a touchdown for the first time since a shutout loss to Florida State in 2000.

"We were able to come out and execute everything we wanted to," Kentucky linebacker Micah Johnson said. "I was expecting us to have a great performance and we did. I just wasn't expecting all of those turnovers."

Neither were the Cardinals.

Louisville coach Steve Kragthorpe was hoping for a fresh start after a disappointing debut last season. Instead, the Cardinals appear to have plenty of work ahead if they want to climb back toward the top of the Big East.

Sunday, the Wildcats emphatically proved the Cardinals weren't even the best team in the state.

Hunter Cantwell, who spent the last three seasons as an understudy to former Louisville star Brian Brohm, turned it over four times in the fourth quarter as the Cardinals tried to rally. His first interception led to Tony Dixon's 7-yard touchdown run that put the Wildcats up 20-2, and Kentucky's Myron Pryor later pounced on Cantwell's fumble and rumbled 72 yards for a score to send the third-largest crowd in Cardinal Stadium history streaking to the exit.

Cantwell finished 20-of-43 for 152 yards with three interceptions.

ALSO SUNDAY

COLORADO 38, COLORADO STATE 17: Josh Smith bounced back from a rocky start with a 93-yard kickoff return for a touchdown and host Colorado beat Colorado State in what might have been their last game at Invesco Field.

Many fans surely tuned in expecting to see Smith's nephew, Darrell Scott, the Buffaloes' highly touted freshman tailback who was considered by several scouting services as the best back in the nation last year.

Scott gained 50 yards on a dozen carries and leaped over the pile for a 1-yard TD to cap the scoring in the closing minutes. But this night belonged to his uncle as the speedy Smith racked up 189 total yards.

LATE SATURDAY

ALBANY STATE 27, SHAW 10: Robert Taylor caught a 30-yard pass from A.J. McKenna with one second left in the first half to give host Albany State the lead for good in the season-opening win over the Bears.

The score gave the Golden Rams a 13-10 lead at halftime.

Shaw had taken a 10-7 lead just seconds before on a touchdown run by Aaron Ellison.

NOTES

GEORGIA TACKLE OUT: Georgia defensive tackle Jeff Owens will have knee surgery and miss the rest of the season, making the senior the second starting lineman lost by the top-ranked Bulldogs in the past month.

BRIEFLY: Texas defensive tackle Lamarr Houston was arrested on a misdemeanor drunken driving charge a few hours after the No. 11 Longhorns' 52-10 season-opening win over Florida Atlantic.

* Auburn freshman receiver Philip Pierre-Louis will miss the season with a torn knee ligament. He was hurt while returning the opening kickoff in Saturday night's win over Louisiana-Monroe.