LOUISVILLE, Ky. – For the first time since 2017, the Governor’s Cup resides in the hands of the Louisville football program. The Cardinals thoroughly embarrassed Kentucky this past Saturday, leaving Kroger Field with an emphatic 41-14 win.

Before we close the book on the game and transition to the to-be-announced bowl game, I wanted to provide some closing thoughts and observations from the game against the Wildcats:

You can follow Louisville Cardinals On SI for future coverage by liking us on Facebook, Twitter/X and Instagram:

Facebook – @LouisvilleOnSI
Twitter/X – @LouisvilleOnSI
Instagram – @louisvilleonsi

You can also follow Deputy Editor Matthew McGavic at @Matt_McGavic on Twitter/X

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. — — Lucas Carneiro kicked four field goals and his last one from 50 yards with three seconds left gave Western Kentucky a 19-17 win over Jacksonville State on Saturday.

With the win, the Hilltoppers (8-4, 6-2) secured a trip to the Conference USA title game on Dec. 6 which will feature a rematch between the same two teams.

Jacksonville State (8-4, 7-1) secured the top seed and the right to host the conference championship game last week beating Sam Houston 21-11. Against Western Kentucky, Gamecocks’ starting quarterback Tyler Huff left the contest due to injury and never returned. He plays a critical role in the Gamecocks’ run-based offense and left after rushing for 97 yards on 13 carries.

Carneiro kicked two field goals from 50 yards and from 35 and 21 in the win. Caden Veltkamp threw a 21-yard touchdown pass to Elijah Young to give the Hilltoppers a 7-0 lead.

Jacksonville State got its first lead at 10-7 when Tre Stewart ran it in from the 8 with 3:42 before halftime. The Gamecocks’ last lead came when reserve quarterback Logan Smothers ran it in from the 17 with 9:44 left to play.

Smothers threw for 62 yards and ran for 32 yards in relief of Huff.

——

Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here. AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football

In some ways, the writing has been on the wall for this season for a while. Even though it was only made official with last week’s loss to Texas, it’s been clear for weeks the Cats weren’t going to a bowl. The season has been on a steady decline for over a month, with today’s humiliating 41-14 loss to Louisville serving as the icing on a crap cake.

After today’s loss, Stoops admitted he’s been thinking about how to fix the issues that plagued Kentucky this season for quite some time. The rebuild starts tomorrow with an all-staff meeting ahead of what is known as the wildest week in college football. The Early Signing Period starts on Wednesday and even though the transfer portal doesn’t open until December 9, Stoops said there will be some hard conversations in the coming days as players decide their futures and the staff tries to make room for a rebuild.

“Tumultuous week; that’s an understatement,” Stoops said during his postgame conversation with Tom Leach. “There’s going to be a lot of turnover and there needs to be. And nobody needs to panic because we, I, have to create room. I have to build a roster that can compete in this monster league. And we clearly didn’t meet it this year but it’s not like we’re going to be so far away.”

Stoops compared Kentucky’s current situation to when he took over for Joker Phillips back in 2013. Thanks to the transfer portal and NIL, a roster rebuild can happen much more quickly, especially with the right resources, which he says he believes he has. Stoops wants to build around Kentucky’s young playmakers — Cutter Boley first and foremost — and restock the rest of the roster through the portal.

Player meetings will take place in the next few days; while Stoops and his staff will have a plan of who they want to keep and who will need to go, he knows they’ll likely get some bad news too.

“There are going to be players that we ask to go somewhere else, to go play somewhere else, and there are going to be guys that we ask to come back. There’s going to be incoming freshmen, there’s going to be incoming portal [players], and there’s probably going to be some surprises. Let’s be honest. There’s going to be a surprise and again, we won’t flinch. It’s not like we’re going to like it or anything. If you lose somebody you don’t want to but it’s not the end all be all. There are ways to replace anybody.”

Stoops joked that fans probably want to replace him but he’s not going anywhere. After all, as he said earlier in his conversation with Leach, he’s the winningest coach in Kentucky football history. He’s confident he can turn things around, even as the landscape of the sport continues to shift by the second.

“It’s not like I have no idea what I’ve done. I’ve done things at this school that nobody else has. It’s not like I totally forgot, but I have to do better. I also accept it so I don’t, want anybody to attack me for saying that. I’m admitting and saying I need to do a better job and we will.”

Subscribe to the KSR YouTube Channel for press conferences, interviews, original shows, fan features, and exclusive content.