By Joshua Huff

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As refreshing as a bye week is for a team floundering in the midst of a five-game losing streak, UK turns its attention to a decisive Saturday matchup against Louisville.

UK will have to throw all of the cards on the table on Saturday when it faces a Cardinals team coming off a 31-28 win over Notre Dame. On the line is UK’s season-long crutch — bowl eligibility.

Compounding factors will make the task of winning a sixth game that much more difficult. Wide receiver Dorian Baker is out for the season with a knee injury and quarterback Patrick Towels is still nursing a sprained ankle. These injuries potentially limit an offense that has struggled and will be going up against one of the best defenses in the country.

“They play extremely hard,” UK head coach Mark Stoops said about Louisville’s defense on Monday. “I think if you look at (defensive coordinator Todd) Grantham and what they’ve done defensively … their guys are playing very hard.”

UK’s defense will need to hark back to October when the team was riding high at 5-1, because it will be squaring off against another quarterback capable of spreading the field and a running back duo that has rushed for over 500 yards this season.

Stoops has been impressed with Cardinals freshman quarterback Reggie Bonnafon, predominately with his decision making. His ability to keep teams off balance will cause fits for a UK team that has struggled against mobile quarterbacks this season.

“They do a nice job of mixing it up, keeping you off balance,” Stoops said. “You’ve heard me talk about that all year. That’s why you need balance. They have very good balance. They’re physical, can hurt you in the run game and they have the play-actions off of it.”

The Cats will look to add a bit of consistency on defense as Stoops put his players in situations throughout the bye week that built up their confidence.

“I think you look at those games and we weren’t making our fair share of competitive plays,” Stoops said. “It gets down to making plays and being a good football player at times. Fundamentally, getting guys in the right spots. So we worked on everything.”

The Cats will have to compete at a higher level against the Cardinals if they want to pull out their first victory on the road this season.

“I think we’ve got to compete certainly better than we’ve been in the past couple weeks,” Stoops said.

The stage doesn’t get any bigger for UK — the Cats’ chance of winning a sixth game for the first time since 2010, in front of a hostile crowd, becoming bowl-eligible and halting the Cardinals’ chances of winning ten games this season is more than enough motivation for UK.

“I think the whole staff and everybody’s excited about it,” Stoops said. “We’ve talked about that right after last game. It’s a beautiful thing, as we have this opportunity in front of us to get the sixth victory against a big rival.”