The Underdog Effect in Rivalries

Sixty miles apart on I-64 exist two universities that share one of the biggest basketball rivalries in the country. But this story isn’t about basketball, it’s about college football. Now there are plenty of massive football rivalries, some with even their own “bowl” names, but none of them were as exciting as yesterday’s matchup between the Kentucky Wildcats and the Louisville Cardinals (sidenote: I’ve got homer bias here, I’m pretending OSU vs Michigan didn’t happen yesterday).

This game was one shaping up to be a blow out. Louisville came into the game 9-2 on the season, the 11th ranked team in the country, with the likely Heisman Trophy winner behind center, a 24-point favorite, and not to mention a five year winning streak. Louisville received the kickoff, and on the opening drive of the game in the matter of minutes they looked to be putting the nail in the coffin of Kentucky immediately with a quick touchdown. I thought to myself that this was it, it’s Kentucky football we’re talking about, and they are out matched versus a Louisville team that had been in the playoff picture all season until an unexpected loss to Houston last week.

I was wrong. Immediately after Kentucky received the kickoff and started their drive on the 25, Kentucky’s offensive coordinator Eddie Gran made potentially the ballsiest play call to give Kentucky all the momentum they needed to win the game. Now when you’re the underdog you don’t really have nothing to lose. When no one expects you to win, when you try your hardest and fail, then it’s no big deal. You get to keep your pride and say you tried your hardest, but you have to try. Eddie Gran proved that with this call, he drew up a deep pass which had Garrett Johnson walking into the end zone with a 75-yard touchdown after only one snap.

Now this wasn’t the end of the game for Louisville, through four quarters the game went back and forth. With about five minutes remaining, the game was tied up 38-38, Kentucky had the ball. While trying to milk the clock and still score to put the pressure on Louisville, the last of hope seemed to have disappeared. Benny Snell Jr., the phenomenal freshman running back, ended up fumbling the ball around midfield giving Louisville the ball back at the worst possible moment. This wasn’t a play that you could fault Snell, but at this point no matter what happened Kentucky had given this game their all and could walk out of the stadium with their heads held high.

Little did we expect, there was one last sliver of hope. I truly believe that the underdogs have a cosmic advantage when it comes to sports. Things can transcend skill and athleticism to change the course of a game, and this is why sports themselves are always better than sports movies. Lamar Jackson drove his Cardinals into field goal range, and with time on the clock still kept moving forward. After picking up a first down on 3rd-and-12, Kentucky looked for sure dead in the water, but magic happened on the next play. On a designed quarterback run, Lamar Jackson’s specialty, Kentucky’s defense clogged up the hole forcing Jackson to change direction on the play, he stumbled, and the ball popped out of his hand with Courtney Love (no relation to the musician) recovering it for Kentucky. The destiny shifted and Kentucky had just under two minutes to get at least into field goal range and score to win the game, and that’s just what they did.

There is such a beauty in the underdog, especially in rivalries. Rivalries are a battle for pride, nothing more, and the underdog possess an extra will to win, they have nothing to lose, and they seem to take their mantra from words spoken by the great Stuart Scott. Sure most of the time the better team comes out on top, but sometimes their are underdog stories that end up defining a whole team, community, or even generation.

So if you ever find yourself as the underdog with the deck stacked against you just listen to Stuart Scott, “Don’t give up. Don’t ever give up.”