Just as the Kentucky-Louisville basketball game typically begins the new year, the football game should kick off the season.

The hype wasn’t there this year, and the storylines were sparse.

However, come gameday, the atmosphere was as it should have been.

Even though I didn’t see any fans serving fried cardinal at their tailgate party, the fans are keeping this football rivalry alive.

By game time, Kentucky fans kindly greeted the Cardinals’ players with a chorus of boos.

The Louisville band even got a showering of boos at halftime.

The players also deserve credit for pumping life into this rivalry every year.

Adrenaline pumped Derrick Locke to two long kick returns to start the game—a 34-yard return on an opening scoring drive and a 100-yard return to the house.

Emotions run high and it’s obvious players recognize what name is across that opponent’s jersey.

As far as the actual game, the Wildcats wound up football Kings of the Bluegrass for the third straight time, but the teams are not separated by as much as some thought.

After a 27-2 blowout last year, and the game’s lackluster build-up this season, I was beginning to worry that this rivalry was losing its appeal.

Oh, contraire.

It still may not live up to the basketball game, but this football game means a whole lot to the Commonwealth. I arrived in Lexington three hours prior to kickoff and it was already mayhem.

If either team was looking ahead to its next matchup (Louisville goes to Utah; Kentucky hosts top-ranked Florida) in front of a packed Commonwealth Stadium (70,988), they were quickly shunned against it.

“It was a wild, real exciting football game,” said Kentucky coach Rich Brooks.

After all initial indications pointed to Kentucky running wild on Louisville, it turned into a wild ride for both teams.

Perfect. That’s how it should be.

As much as Kentucky fans won’t admit it, they like to see a close game against Louisville. Obviously they want to win, but a blowout’s no fun. It gives you nothing to look forward to the next season.

That could have been another reason why there was no pre-game hype for this one.

Also, to Kentucky fans, watch out for this Louisville team. This may have been a wake-up call for what’s to come next season.

Most of Louisville’s weapons will return, including junior quarterback Justin Burke.

Speaking of quarterbacks, Mike Hartline had a roller-coaster day. The junior quarterback for the Wildcats began the game as efficient as he has been in his career, tossing 15 of 17 for 123 yards in the first half.

But there were two turning points in this game, I thought, and one involved Hartline.

The last minute of the second quarter was managed poorly by the Kentucky.

Only one play was run between the one-minute mark and the half-minute mark until a timeout was finally taken. Hartline completed a couple of nice passes, but there was a problem with the game clock.

A play was run with 15 seconds to go, but the clock never started. Due to a rule, 15 seconds had to be run off the clock and the half ended.

“That’s on me,” Brooks said. “We gave up three points there. That could have been extremely critical.”

Despite Hartline’s downfall (two third-quarter turnovers), Brooks did back his quarterback after the game.

“He brought us from behind twice in the fourth quarter,” he said. “He had a great drive to win the game and get it back for us.”

The other turning point came with eight minutes left in the second quarter when Louisville elected to go for it on fourth-and-one from the Kentucky 12-yard line. The Cardinals’ Bilal Powell was stopped by Taylor Wyndham. A field goal would have tied the game at 10 apiece.

Brooks was “just happy to get the win.”

AARON SNYDER can be reached at asnyder@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2664.