Cards Season Preview

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STACKED DECK

QB Stefan LeFors and receiver J.R. Russell  both pre-season all-conference picks  and a talented pool of running backs lead Louisville's potent offense.

By Jerry Tipton

HERALD-LEADER STAFF WRITER

More so than any other team sport, football puts a premium on numbers. Dominance in this game of territorial conquest requires a massing of overwhelming force.

Yet there is a shortcut to competitiveness. Howard Schnellenberger used it when he became coach of Louisville's sad-sack program in 1985.

"The best and quickest way to offset superior talent is to recruit a quarterback," said Schnellenberger, now well on his way to building a football program at Florida Atlantic. "You can win with a quarterback and his big-play guys."

Schnellenberger rebuilt Louisville football just that way. A succession of quarterbacks (Jay Gruden, Browning Nagle, Jeff Brohm) put the Cardinals on the football map. The exclamation point was the 34-7 victory over tradition-rich Alabama in the 1991 Fiesta Bowl.

Besides leading a productive offense, a good quarterback helps the defense. More ball possession means fewer minutes for the defense to be on the field. More points means greater margin of error for the defense.

In 2004, Louisville expects to have a quarterback and his big-play guys ... at least in duplicate, and in the case of running back, in triplicate. These players (most notably receivers J.R. Russell and Montrell Jones; running backs Eric Shelton, Lionel Gates and Michael Bush; plus quarterbacks Stefan LeFors and Brian Brohm) fuel abundant optimism because U of L added talent to a unit ranked fifth nationally last year.

"It can be very, very good," Shelton said of the Cards' offense. "The only thing is I hope we don't get caught up in the hype."

Groundwork laid in 1997

Arguably, Louisville has made itself synonymous with offense. No doubt its second-year coach, Bobby Petrino, enjoys a reputation for crafting highly productive offenses. Four times as an offensive coordinator, he produced teams that led the nation in total yards: Louisville in Division I-A in 1998, Idaho in Division I-AA in 1989 and John Carroll in NAIA in 1985 and 1986.

This marriage of offense-minded coach and program began formulating in 1997. That's when Ron Cooper's three-year run as coach ended with a 1-10 season.

"We had to fix the program with some shock value," said Tom Jurich, who came to U of L as athletic director that fall. "(The new coach) had to come in and wake up the program. There had been so many great seasons with Howard. It had dropped significantly. We can't kid ourselves. They were 1-10. They were the worst team in America. There were 38 Division I-AA teams ranked ahead of them. He had to come in here and really shake this place up. I mean from A to Z."

Jurich hired John L. Smith, who a year later brought in Petrino as his offensive coordinator. Under Petrino's guidance, quarterback Chris Redman "really took off," Jurich said. Redman threw for a career-high 4,042 yards and 29 touchdowns.

Petrino left after one season to join the Jacksonville Jaguars. When Smith went to Michigan State after the 2002 season, Jurich hired Petrino.

"I wanted the continuity," said Jurich, who noted that Smith had continued to run Petrino's offense after the coordinator went to Jacksonville and then Auburn. "We'd begun to recruit a certain athlete. We'd recruited for speed and we'd always looked for that kid who could play different positions. Bobby understood that philosophy."

Offense in Petrino's genes

Petrino is the son of a coach. Bob Petrino, who grew up in Butte, Mont., coached for 40 years and wrote a book on offense: Winning Football With the Option Package.

The elder Petrino said he passed along five basics of coaching to his sons. Paul Petrino, who like big brother Bobby played quarterback for his father at Carroll College in Helena, Mont., is Louisville's offensive coordinator.

Those five basics include the emphasis on fundamentals, conditioning and the exploitation of the opponent's weaknesses.

"I talked to them about that when they were little," the elder Petrino said. "The best way to do that is to have a coach on the field."

Again, the primary player is the quarterback.

Bob Petrino said his son brings two attributes important to a football coach. Bobby Petrino was a math major, so he has an analytical mind. Plus the U of L coach apparently has a keen sense of observation, which helps him make sense of the whirl unfolding on a football field.

"He would have made a great detective," Bob Petrino said. "When he walks into a room, his observation of what's going on is outstanding. To be a good football coach -- and I told him this -- you have to be able to tell what 22 players on the field are doing."

LeFors no secret weapon

With so many weapons at its disposal, Louisville expects to have a prolific offense in 2004. The three returning running backs accounted for 2,110 yards and 27 touchdowns last season. Russell caught 75 passes for a school-record 1,213 yards.

LeFors, once a recruiting afterthought, proved surprisingly effective as the quarterback successor to Redman and Dave Ragone. He threw for 3,145 yards and 17 touchdowns as a fourth-year junior playing meaningful minutes for the first time.

LeFors acknowledged that he benefited from facing unsuspecting defenses.

"Oh, I'm sure I did," he said. "No one knew who I was or what I was about. I'm sure people had questions. That's normal. I wanted to prove people wrong. That fueled my fire."

There will be no sneaking up for LeFors or Louisville's offense this season. Instead, the team has a standard to maintain.

That standard helped entice Brohm, USA Today's National Offensive Player of the Year as a senior at Trinity last season. U of L's offensive reputation and Bobby Petrino's offensive rZsumZ convinced Brohm to play for the Cards.

"It was a big factor," Brohm said. "I obviously want to play at the next level. He's running an offense that's actually run at the next level."

One of nation's best?

First, U of L will try to stamp 2004 as another year of productive offense.

Paul Petrino spoke enthusiastically about Louisville's prospects this season. "It's a real exciting time," he said.

Jones, who started his career at Tennessee, is in a good position to assess Louisville's ability.

"I really think we're one of the best teams in the country," he said before adding, "We'll have to go out and prove that."

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2003 REWIND

9-4 overall, 5-3 in Conference USA (tied for third)

Bowl: lost to No. 14 Miami (Ohio) 49-28 in the GMAC Bowl.  

Photos by Michael Hayman, The Courier-Journal

Cornerback William Gay, above, is a key part of an experienced secondary, while Robert McCune should help stabilize a linebacker corps that includes a couple of converted safeties.

CARDS' MVP - Rarely has this distinction been so wide open before the season. However, for the leadership he displayed all summer and for his positive handling of a heated quarterback competition even after he came off a record-setting offensive year and an All-Conference USA performance, it would be hard to find anyone more valuable than senior quarterback Stefan LeFors.

STAT BOX

5.7; 6,355: Cards' yards per carry last season, best in Division I-A, and total yards of offense, a C-USA record.

103: Division I-A rank of the pass defense (258.3 yards given up per game).

During any big move, one of the toughest parts is the final stage, when you have to gather up the odds and ends left behind after the major stuff is gone.

For the University of Louisville football program, the heavy lifting in its move to the Big East Conference is finished. Now the Cardinals will step into the fast-emptying Conference USA house looking to box up a few things:

A conference championship.

Wins in a couple of old rivalries that might not continue after this season.

Momentum for their switch to a Bowl Championship Series conference.

A bowl victory after postseason losses in five of the past six years.

The confidence of knowing that they cleaned up at the C-USA level before moving on to tougher challenges.

"We want to finish strong in Conference USA," senior quarterback Stefan LeFors said. "All the talk about the Big East is nice, but for the seniors, the goal has always been to win Conference USA. That's the only important thing."

A year ago UofL played offense on a championship level, setting C-USA records for total yardage, yards per play, rushing average, rushing touchdowns and all-purpose yards.

But the Cards didn't win a championship and weren't even in striking distance in the final two weeks. The defense bore the brunt of the blame because it gave up 134 points in the final three games and failed to stop South Florida on a late drive that forced overtime and led to a Bulls victory.

In reality, the offense and special teams had just as much to do with the close losses. Two missed field-goal attempts, including one as time expired, cost the Cards at Texas Christian, and an ill-advised pass was intercepted to set up South Florida's winning possession.

Even in a lopsided loss to Miami of Ohio in the GMAC Bowl, the Cardinals were within a touchdown in the third quarter after giving up 35 first-half points, and Miami scored only one offensive touchdown in the second half.

Still, second-year head coach Bobby Petrino has addressed the need for defensive improvement by working more individually with those players and hiring a new coordinator, former Illinois defensive coordinator Mike Cassity. While the scheme won't change a great deal, Petrino hopes that attitudes will.

Players say they already have. In practices and scrimmages, the defense has been the most spirited unit on the field.

"We're closer to having a solid defense than people think," senior tackle Bobby Leffew said. "I think this defense is a really motivated, athletic group. We know how good our offense is going to be. If we can get them the ball back and get off the field, it's going to be a really good year."

Leffew, Montavious Stanley and sophomore Amobi Okoye will rotate at the two interior line spots. Undersized ends Marcus Jones and Elvis Dumervil will try to apply pressure through speed.

The biggest key may be how well the Cards stop the run. At linebacker, converted safeties Abe Brown and Malik Jackson join returning starters Brandon Johnson and Robert McCune in what coaches hope will be a swarming group that is equally effective in run support and pass coverage.

The secondary is more experienced, with William Gay and Florida transfer Antoine Sharp expected to start at cornerback and J.T. Haskins and Kerry Rhodes the front-runners at safety.

Cassity said he watched the meltdown late last season and spotted some things.

"One of the glaring things was fundamentals," he said. "Tackling, getting off blocks, everything. That was my starting point. ... And I like the attitude we've developed. We've got guys playing together, supporting each other, working hard."

Though the players aren't discussing it, the mood around the UofL football complex is one of opportunity. The Cards will open with five games in which they should be favored. Victories in those would set up a huge matchup at national power Miami.

The pieces are in place for an overpowering offense, and the defense has a chance to be improved, especially with sophomore Michael Bush inserted in some situations to improve the unit's big-play ability. The return game should be strong, and the Cards have been among the top kick-blocking teams in NCAA Division I-A for three years.

Petrino has said he wants to get the program to the place where it is perennially in the preseason Top 25.

"This is an important year for our program," he said. "We want to compete for a Conference USA championship. We've set the goal of winning all our games at home. We don't just want to get to a bowl game but to win one. ...

"I'm very impressed with the way our guys have been working. We have put up a sign in our locker room that says, `One play. One game. One team. One championship.' I truly believe that's how we will go about our business and get it done."

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It stands to reason that the University of Louisville offense will be explosive. It has been built with the secrecy of the Manhattan Project.

A spy, if there were such a thing in college football, would have left the public portion of UofL's opening two weeks of practice with this scouting report on the offense: sweep right, sweep left, off tackle, crossing route, post pattern, screen pass.

The mastermind of the offense, head coach Bobby Petrino, has discussed it with all the animation of a Mission Control technician. When approached with the idea of posing his offensive stars with a high-performance race car for the cover of this section, he had no interest.

Clearly, the Cardinals' offense is a project he wants to keep under wraps until next Sunday's opener against Kentucky. But just as clear from a glance at the roster is this: The countdown is on.

But the truth is out there.

"They are going to be darn good offensively; you can write that down," South Florida coach Jim Leavitt said. "He (Petrino) knows what he's doing, and they have a lot of weapons. A lot."

But how will it all come together? Petrino has five of his top six receivers back. He has the top five ball carriers back from a team that ranked 10th in NCAA Division I-A in rushing. He has the first-team All-Conference USA quarterback in Stefan LeFors and last year's USA Today high school Offensive Player of the Year in Brian Brohm.

In all, eight starters are back from a unit that ranked fifth in I-A in total offense. For a coach whose stated philosophy is "Feed the Studs," what do you feed a group like this? Two footballs?

In fact, Petrino spent all summer with his assistants, picking and choosing. The building blocks of what they hope will be UofL's most potent offense ever are basic personnel groups.

"We'll sit in the office some nights and just look at it every different way we can," said offensive coordinator Paul Petrino, Bobby's brother. "We have a lot of different ways we can do things. We'll call out a personnel group, and maybe it'll be Michael Bush and Kolby Smith as the backs and three receivers, and then look at the different ways we can get guys the ball.

"Because of the talent that a lot of our guys have in our different personnel groupings, it will give defenses some trouble because they won't always know by our personnel how we're going to line up."

Bobby Petrino has devised more complicated offenses than the one the Cards will run this year, particularly as a National Football League coordinator. But he says that, at the college level, he's never been able to put together this many combinations capable of big things.

And the offense features groups within groups. When he saw that he had four backs all capable of being the featured runner, he paired them up, then had each player work out at both tailback to fullback.

Fearsome foursome

The result is a rotation that could be even better than last year, when UofL's average of 5.7 yards per carry led Division I-A.

Lionel Gates, now a senior, was the team's leading rusher last season and is the best receiver out of the backfield.

Eric Shelton, a transfer from Florida State, probably would have run for 1,000 yards had he not suffered a neck injury in November. He also made blocks that set Gates free for long touchdown runs three times.

Michael Bush averaged 6.2 yards per carry as a freshman, and in the final two regular-season games he carried 26 times for 262 yards and three TDs.

Sophomore Kolby Smith might be the team's toughest runner.

For an offense expected to be high-flying, those four will be the booster rockets. That's one thing Petrino hasn't kept secret.

"We'll design the offense around running the football," he said. "There will be a lot more that goes into it, but that's what we will work around."

The offensive line, the biggest in school history at just a cheeseburger over 315 pounds per man, is built for a power game. LeFors, who set a school quarterback record with 405 yards rushing, said that the running game is the key.

"People have to respect that," he said. "When those guys are doing the kind of job that they do, a defense can't just come after you. They have to respect the run."

But the Cardinals' passing game figures to be just as respectable. LeFors completed 61.3percent of his passes for 3,145 yards and 17 touchdowns last year, yet he continues to be pushed by an increasingly impressive Brohm.

At wideout is one of the nation's top returning receivers in senior J.R. Russell, plus a hard-nosed slot receiver in Joshua Tinch. And Petrino has been able to sit back and smile as he waits to see whether speedster Broderick Clark or former Kentucky Mr. Football Montrell Jones wins the third starting spot.

Behind them are two others  Harry Douglas and Tiger Jones  who could start for most C-USA schools.

The only two significant personnel concerns on offense are at tight end, where the Cards are relying on former walk-on Adam McCauley and two true freshman, and the depth on the line.

After just one season as a head coach, Petrino is recognized as one of the top offensive tacticians in the college game. But even he will say that personnel is the key.

Pros paying attention

So how good are the Cards' offensive players? For the opener against Kentucky, the UofL sports information office has received requests for seats from scouts of 29 of the 32 NFL teams. Among the players who have drawn interest are LeFors, Gates, Russell, Shelton, Bush, Clark, Tinch and linemen Jason Spitz and Travis Leffew  nine offensive players, and that isn't counting underclassmen Renardo Foster, Montrell Jones and Brohm, all of them likely pro prospects.

"We have a chance to be real good," Paul Petrino said.

Yes, and Michael Jackson has a chance to be really weird.

"We hope we're better than last year; that's what you try to do," Bobby Petrino said. "But the biggest thing about offense is that you've got to score one more point than your opponent. You've got to be able to put the ball in the end zone in the fourth quarter. Some of those statistics are misleading if you can't do that. But I thought that was a strength of our team last year. We scored when we had to, and everyone believed we would go score. ...

"But you don't take it for granted. The big thing you have to do is work for it, and that's what we've been doing. Hopefully, we'll see some good results."