CardHack

No matter what I or any Cardinal fan thought of our own team's performance Saturday, it would be unfair not to point out that South Florida showed up and dictated the terms of the game in every facet--they controlled thoroughly both lines of scrimmage, they controlled every faction of special teams, and illustrated something that is universal in college football...the more physical and aggressive team generally wins the football game, and it's the team that wasn't physical and aggressive that bemoans penalties, officiating, and the intangibles that come with having a loser's mentality. A tip of the cap to your team Saturday and good luck the rest of the way. I've never doubted your athleticism, and have warned other Big East boards that South Florida defensively is a very dangerous team, but you've upgraded the other portions of your program a little to bridge the gap. The offensive line play was pretty good, the overall scheme kept Louisville on their heels which is testimony to imaginative playcalling and preparation (i.e. quality coaching; up until Saturday I've thought your defensive coaching was substantially better than your offensive), and I was impressed by the caliber of your wide receivers. Two years ago your receivers had an odd mishmash with the extremely big (Whitaker) and the extremely small (Fisher) and the QB play was erratic; your receiving corps is now long, lean and very athletic. Those are great building blocks to have.

You had a fairly highly regarded recruiting class in 2004 as I recall. The problem that I've seen with you guys relative to recruiting though is you've recruited a litany of QBs and skill people to a spread offense that hasn't produced relative to your defensive talent. We hear this every year from the Kentucky contingency and heard it for a long time from the Southern Misses...projecting a won/loss record based on recruiting rankings is a slippery slope. If you're Class is rated Top 25 on sheer talent and you need multiple linemen or any position to fill needs and you don't fill those needs...what's the point? UofL has been very fortunate to have a number of very highly coveted skill people come from Kentucky all at once (Brian Brohm, Michael Bush and Eric Shelton were first team USA Today offensive All-Americans; Montrell Jones was a Parade All-American; Mario Urrutia was coveted by Michigan and Nebraska before inking with Louisville). The offensive line development has spurred that talent at the skill positions. In the end where Louisville has beaten it's conference and instate contemporaries is with talent recognition and player development surrounding talent.

Dumervil is a senior; his brother Curry Burns was a three year starter prior to Elvis coming to Louisville.

Corso coached at Louisville for three years. He always maintained that the team that had John Madera at QB, Ernie Green at RB and notables like future Hall-of-Famer Tom Jackson would have whipped the butts of anybody outside the Top Five. I believe they went 10-1 or 9-2 and it seems like he lost to the best Memphis team they ever had. He was a kook even then. When they took the field on a Thanksgiving game he had the team led out by a flock of turkeys.

Unitas is the only player at UofL whose number is retired, and by retired I mean nobody will ever wear the #16 uniform that he wore at UofL (he was #19 of course in the pros). Prior to Johnny U's death, he had a golf tourney in Louisville every year and despite not living in or around Louisville still was an active part of the university and never failed to lend his name to anything associated with it. The Top 25 Cardinals all-time (IMHO; I'm 37 yrs. old): * Johnny U * Lenny Lyles * Doug Buffone * Tom Jackson * Joe Jacoby * Otis Wilson * Frank Minniefield * Dewayne Woodruff * Eddie Johnson * Bruce Armstrong * Mark Clayton * Ernest Givins * Ray Buchanan * Ted Washington * Jeff Brohm * Joe Johnson * Sam Madison * Tyrus McCloud * Roman Oben * Chris Redman * Ibn Green * Arnold Jackson * Dave Ragone * Deion Branch * Dewayne White Stefan Lefors gets special mention given his peerless season with efficiency ratings last year and the fact he's among the most beloved athletes to play at UofL in any sport. There's another player who was the sole member of the first two really good UofL squads who was a magnificent player and that was RB Ralph Dawkins who played on the1991 Fiesta Bowl champions and the 1994 Liberty Bowl champs. Of current UofL players, Michael Bush and Travis Laffew are notable. Ultimately you should see the same adulation for Brian Brohm and potentially Mario Urrutia.

Once the person stated that Bush drops the ball and has no leadership skills I assumed it was George too. Michael Bush's skill set is interesting. I've watched his maturation from the time I first saw him at the varsity level as a 6"2, 180 lb WR who took his first screen pass 80 yards. Ultimately his body transformed into a very big kid, but he still maintains a couple traits from when he was a WR and one of the best basketball players in the state while a prep. He has very, very long arms and big hands, so he still is a very effective pass catcher. He's been asked to throw the ball something like six times while in college, and he's had two of them go for TDs (and two other outright TDs dropped). He's not as overly fast at 250 as people seem to fear, but he's got an uncanny knack for avoiding the straight hit for somebody with such a big frame for a QB and does a good job of cutting back against the grain. Bush is very dangerous on slip screens...he set up UofL's first TD with a 15 yard gainer out of one against Oregon State, and had another called back due to an illegal block in the back that was totally unnecessary as he had already made the move that got him in the clear. His three biggest gainers from scrimmage against Kentucky, Miami and what I believe was Boise were out of slip screens. He's good on those screens because he does a good job of setting up his block and is elusive, plus it's real tough to bring a big man like him down after not only shedding a block, but having to square up and get in front of a load rolling downhill. Your guy Hall's skill set is alot like our Kolby Smith's and similar to the way Lionel Gates was. I can't say whose better, as each has a distinct style. Bush fits Louisville's mode because Petrino likes to have a hammer; Hall fits your mold because your offense requires more touches from him.

I think the QB position probably illustrates Louisville's emergence vs. South Florida's perceived stagnation. Louisville had pretty good QB play from the early 80's to the early 90's and elevated it a little progressively. Nobody thought we could replace Chris Redman and then Dave Ragone comes in and sets a new standard with three years as a starter, then Lefors comes along and has an almost perfect passing percentage season last year (only exceeded I believe by Daunte Culpepper). Now they have the most ballyhooed QB recruit they've ever had at Louisville. I said this last year and I wasn't saying it to mean but making an honest observation...Pat Julmiste's 3-20 performance against Louisville last season is probably the worst college passing performance I ever witnessed in person. He's reputed to have talent, but I'll take simple accuracy and getting you in the right plays over arm strength in college football every time.

Louisville is an unusual emergence. The program had moderate success in the early 50's to the mid 60's under Frank Camp, but it was playing at a level of competition far beneath the standards of the Big Ten and SEC schools that surrounded Louisville. The City of Louisville has long been noted for fairly outstanding prep football back into the 40's with Parochial high school power Flaget (produced Paul Hornung and Howard Schnellenberger most notably) leading the way. Currently you have four schools that traditionally produce collegiate talent, two parochial and two public--the parochial St. X (Bernard Jackson of UT being the most notable) vs. Trinity (the Brohms most notably) rivalry is one of the most well-attended in the nation, garnering what will be anywhere between 30-40,000 this coming Friday night. The two public schools, Male (producing people like Darrell Griffith in basketball, currently Montrell Jones and Michael Bush in football to UofL and Maurice Green to Ohio State) and Manual (Sherman Lewis of the NFL's Green Bay Packers was a graduate; UK standout Keenan Burton was an alum) have one of the nation's longest standing perennial rivalries stretching well over 120 games. The point is that until Howard Schnellenberger came to Louisville in 1984 the City of Louisville produced quite a bit of athletic talent, but it was dispersed among the parochial schools to Notre Dame, Michigan, Ohio State, et al. and among the public schools to the various schools throughout the southeast and midwest. Schnellenberger used his litany of contacts throughout Dade/Broward Counties in addition to the contacts from previous coaching regimes at Louisville (including native Floridian Lee Corso in the early 70's) to establish a consistent influx of talent from the Sunshine State. A big part of Schnellenberger's legacy to Louisville was also the vision to begin groundwork for the stadium construction. When Louisville joined CUSA, Schnellenberger left stating that their status in that league would compromise the football program's growth. A common theme going back 25 years--from Bob Webber, to Howard Schnellenberger, to Ron Cooper, to John L. Smith and finally to Bobby Petrino--has been cultivating relationships in Florida and a network of contacts that brings talent to Louisville to play football. There are actually now a number of former UofL players that coach at the prep level in Florida, and you can imagine the number of players that those former players might scout whether it be their own players or the opposition. Louisville seems under Petrino to really hit the Tallahassee and Jacksonville (where he coached with the Jaguars for three years) areas hardest. Aside from Cooper's mediocre three year stint, Louisville has had quality coaching staffs at the helm for over twenty years. Where Louisville has emerged recently is that we are in something of a renaissance period with regard to prep football. The state of Kentucky didn't adopt Spring Practice until the mid 90's and that has been further augmented by the advent of 7 on 7 passing camps in May and June that don't conflict with track and field or the beginning of basketball camps and basketball AAU. Statewide the best athletes are playing football now, and it shows in the number of Division I caliber of football players the state is now producing. There have been something like six USA Today All-Americans on the first team in the last few years on offense alone (Shaun Alexander, Tim Couch, Eric Shelton, Michael Bush and most recently Brian Brohm). But rather than stocking Louisville's roster with local talent, the local talent still augments by-and-large the Deep Southern talent from Alabama, Georgia and most notably Florida. Louisville now has tried to establish a presence in NJ/PA to take advantage of the Big East visibility. Louisville now gets the vast majority of their targets in Louisville, but Kentucky's strength outside of Jefferson Co. will always be there. Unfortunately for the UK's of the world it's becoming increasingly difficult for them to get quality talent out of Louisville; essentially the Greater Louisville area accounts for over 35% of the state's population, and I'd venture to say over half of the highest caliber football talent comes from the Greater Louisville area. UofL has started to keep it home.

I would say that the running game (or threat of it) is what charges the offensive batteries for Louisville. The offensive line returned intact (save a center), and the running back combo of Michael Bush and Kolby Smith with George Stripling in reserve is versatile. Oregon State made a concerted effort, and some would say to their detriment in the air, to overload the box. It worked somewhat in forcing Louisville to the air, but if Louisville has had consistent motiff under Petrino it's been high pass efficiency numbers. That's currently the case with Brian Brohm under center as well. Where Louisville is different than the previous two encounters you guys would have had with us is that they attack a little further downfield than they did under Stefan Lefors, but Brohm won't hurt teams as much tucking the ball as Lefors did. The emergence of 6"6, 220 r-Fr. WR Mario Urrutia was also a boost to the big play ability overall of the offense; in the two previous meetings JR Russell was undoubtedly the number one target for Louisville's aerial attack. They spread the ball around a little more with this squad and get the ball to the backs more as well.

You can't even conceive of the complexities and politics going into this. The mayor has poured millions upon millions of dollars into a downtown renovation called Fourth Street that's intent is to be something of a collection area and entertainment district like Beale Street, and it's exceeded expectations in the year and a half it's been open. Those that are on the City Council and the mayor are killing themselves trying to get the arena built downtown two blocks from that entertainment district. By contrast, Louisville currently plays in Freedom Hall as it has for fifty years, which is a state-owned and managed facility that's part of the State Fairgrounds...subsequently the interests of the "state"--those represented by the Governor and the State House of Representatives--have something of a vested interest in seeing it there. Traditionally in the state of Kentucky there has been a fairly tense relationship between the City of Louisville and the state--like most urban areas, Louisville sends considerably more tax revenue to the state than it gets back in capital projects. Lastly, you have mondo-influential entities like Churchill Downs, which is the Southwestern border of UofL's campus, who have a vested interest in seeing it at the Fairgrounds site, as the Fairgrounds serves as the Eastern-most point of Central Avenue which runs three miles by UofL's football stadium and into the historic site of horse racing for four months a year...and Churchill Downs just finished a $140 million massive renovation in part to be the frontrunner for a casino location attached to the 150 year old facility. Despite the fact Kentucky's horse racing tracks at Keeneland and Churchill Downs are thriving, they both are losing gambling revenue to the riverboats which border the state in Indiana, with one major boat being Caesar's of Indiana no less than twenty-five minutes from Churchill Downs/UofL's campus. The University of Louisville's major trepidation with the facility is they first and foremost have to have priority on the facility...in part because the City has backed three exploratory and negotiating committees for attracting the NBA when Houston, Vancouver and lastly Charlotte pimped Louisville out to get a more attractive arena or expansion. Should a professional sports franchise be attracted to Louisville--which I think to this point has been a scare tactic more than reality--the incredible corporate support that Louisville enjoys in Jefferson Co. would be glutted. People use the term "Memphis" here alot when talking about the dangers of professional support to a college sports fanbase. Ultimately my money's on the downtown interests winning out; either way, it will be a dynamite facility. I think the poster who said a big part of that support was "Louisville" had it pretty accurate...there is no true competing interest for the sports entertainment dollar during basketball and football season aside from the University of Kentucky to the East seventy miles, Indianapolis 120 miles north and Cincinnati 100 miles to the Northeast. Louisville started construction two weeks ago on an indoor practice facility for football that had a $2 million private donation. The football stadium won't be expanded for another three years likely.

For the sake of clarification regarding the Miami game, Brian Brohm entered the game with 12:00 to go in the game when Lefors had sustained a concussion prior to fumbling a snap on 3rd and 1 at the Louisville 22 yard line. Upon entering, Louisville's drive stalled due to consecutive holding penalties (one of which was on a 3rd and 7 conversion by Brohm). Louisville punted away with the lead, and by the time Devin Hester blistered the punter Miami was up. Brohm then lead Louisville on an 80 yard drive that gave Louisville the lead back with four minutes left. Generally at the Spring Game at UofL, the first teamers go against the second teamers. During UofL's Spring Game this season that happened again. Defensively, Louisville returns three of it's four DL starters...DE Elvis Dumervil (6"1, 255 Sr), Montavious Stanley (6"3, 320 Sr.) and Amobi Okoye (6"1, 317 Jr.) as DTs. By season's end, Dumervil might well have been Louisville's most productive lineman, but I attribute alot of that to Stanley's commanding alot of double teams from the tackle. Last season Louisville was relatively thin at not only DE and DT, playing only one reserve at each position virtually all season, but also was that way at LB. They do lose all-conference middle linebacker Hammer McCune to the NFL, but do return Brandon Johnson (6"5, 225 Sr) and Abe Brown (6"4, 230 Jr.). Louisville is probably going to be deeper than in '04 in the front seven and had the benefit of not only a good redshirt freshman class to draw from at linebacker (with Floridians Johnnie Burns of Jacksonville, Lamar Myles of Lakeland and Mozell Axson of Miami) and DL, but two notable JUCOs DE Zach Anderson (6"4, 265) and former Miami signee LB Nate Harris (6"1, 210) are being looked at to press for first team reps as well as Army All-American Bowl participant DE Earl Heyman (6"3, 260). Louisville's one noticeable gap from 2004 is at the safeties, where Kerry Rhodes takes his wares to the Jets as a fourth rounder, and Brent Johnson and JT Haskins graduated. The Sharp brothers from Jacksonville Bolles, Antoine who was a part-time starter at corner and Brandon, are the lead candidates from the Spring. Safety is the one position where it's likely you'll see true freshman in the two deep.