Author Archive for Tom Stosberg

Agony and withdrawal

By Tom Stosberg

Three years without college football in this town has been a long, agonizing time. So, University of Louisville fans need to be forgiven if we’re anxious, excited and very hungry to win.  Those three years without a competitive team only seemed like eight or nine years.

Football withdrawal is pure torture.

Three years with not enough fire on the sidelines to roast a single marshmallow and a cotton candy coaching staff may have done some serious damage to the fan base psyche. To say the least, we’re a little jumpy.  After three years of feeling screwed over, we’re making every effort to put our full faith and trust in a genuinely dedicated football coach with an exceptional track record as an assistant.

The hardest part is trying not to over-anticipate; to curb our exuberance.  But it’s not easy to shovel out after a three year snow job. From the mountain top to the bottom of a deep pit makes for a somewhat fragile fan base.

We know it’s sure not your fault Coach Charlie Strong, that  we’ve taken three years of abuse from some obnoxious rivals. But you could be a real hero by shutting them up for us.  In short, we very badly need you to win the opener. Please.

If you could do that, we would be eternally grateful.

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Taking the offense for a spin

By Tom Stosberg

No doubt you’ve not heard the University of Louisville’s new passing offense referred to as the “frisbee offense.”  But that might be an excellent way to describe the scheme, and it’s going to be fun to watch.

You’ve seen the routine at a neighborhood park. Some guy throws the frisbee out a long way. His dog runs like the wind, jumps unbelievably high, snatches it in mid air and pulls it down.

Quarterbacks rarely ever throw to a receiver’s hands any more, or try to hit them on the numbers. Now they throw the football to a given spot, at a pre-determined height, at a preconceived speed. That’s kinda how it works in the new Louisville scheme.  Quarterback drops back, heaves the ball into a designated area, wide receiver runs to that area, pulls it out of the air and runs like hell.

It’s exciting football, requiring timing and leaping ability. One would hope Louisville has the receivers to pull this off. Equally important would be quarterbacks with the arms and accuracy to put the ball in the exact spot.

I’ll bet offensive coordinator Mike Sanford is lickin’ his chops to get this group on the field.

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Speed may be a potent ingredient in Louisville’s recovery

By Tom Stosberg

Sportswriters and opposing coaches think the University of Louisville football team will finish no better than eighth in the Big East this season.  Oh, the doom and gloom of it all.

But there is hope. I’ll tell you what it is as long as you promise to keep it a secret from anyone who roots against U of L.  You see,  the hope is based on one asset the Cards have that I have yet to hear a single soul mention.

Speed.

An interesting concept, and here’s how it could work.  First, Louisville’s new offense is designed to work mostly on speed. The passing game requires that the linemen hold the rush for no more than a couple of seconds because it’s a “speed” offense in which the ball is out extremely fast.  This could be lethal IF the Cards can master the execution before the first game.  And two speed backs, Victor Anderson and Bilal Powell, need only a few inches of daylight.

Now comes the critical part of the concept  – defense.  Success this season rests on the shoulders of four  rotating defensive tackles: Tim High, Randy Salmon, Greg Scruggs and one more yet-to-be-decided fourth D-Tackle.  If ( and that is a huge “if”) this group is successful at holding down the middle of the defensive line, then wonderful things can happen because of the aforementioned speed.

U of L has excellent speed at every defensive position but not a whole lot of depth. They could be dangerous from the edges. Rodney Gnat, Malcolm Tatum and William Savoy are three defensive ends with excellent speed. Moving Darius Ashley to cornerback was a great move.  Besides his raw speed, Ashley is both intelligent and teachable.

If the other CB, Johnny Patrick gets his head back on straight, the Cards would really be able to “bring it from the edge” for the first time in over three years.Linebackers Brandon Heath, Dexter Heyman and C.J. Peake all have experience and guess what else – speed.  At safety, Terrence Simien is the real deal and he can fly.

Defensive Coordinator, Vance Bedford, is well aware of how speed can cover a multitude of sins.  Bedford’s very young and inexperienced defensive backfield at Florida last year performed extremely well last year, proving that Bedford knows how to teach.

Go to practice at 5:30 p.m. Friday and watch these kids. It’s the last open practice. Strong and Bedford have them flying to the ball. They might not be as skilled, knowledgeable or experienced as they are going to be, but they are incredibly focused on doing whatever it takes to please the coaches because the players like, respect and believe in them.

For now, that attitude and just plain speed might enough to do surprising things for our Cardinals.

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From Day Dreaming To Reality

Fan Recalls Fantasy Of Real Football Stadium

By Tom Stosberg

Have you seen the bumper sticker that says, “I wasn’t born in Louisville, but I got here as quick as I could.”? That pretty well sums it up for me. I love this town.

Although I have no childhood memories of University of Louisville athletics, my earliest ones date back to the early ’70′s when Lee Corso was coaching the football team playing against the likes of Wichita State, Drake, West Texas State, Tulsa  and New Mexico State.

As I recall those Missouri Valley Conference games were lots of fun even for a college football junkie who grew up just a few miles from Ohio Stadium in Columbus where Ohio State football was then, and still is, a perennial sell out.

In desperate need of a football “fix ” one crisp Fall afternoon in the early Seventies,  I convinced my not-nearly-as-thrilled wife, Linda, that we should invest in a couple of tickets to see what Louisville had to offer in the line of pigskin competition.

While hardly the caliber of the Big Ten major college show I was used to,  the U of L Cardinals offered some of the Southern style razzle-dazzle I had seen on TV games of the old Southwest Conference.

We were smitten. Our love affair with U of L football began that very first Saturday.

“What a kick!” I thought sitting  in the old Louisville baseball stadium at a time when there were not even bleachers on the visitors’ side of the field.

I just flat out loved being in “the South” watching football that was far different from OSU’s boring  “three yards and a cloud of dust”.  The action was good.  Very good. But there was something else I recognized that first game oh so many years ago: This could someday be bigger. A whole lot bigger. But it might take a little time.

So, I let myself daydream a little that first Saturday. I envisioned stands being added on the other side of the field. Wondered what it might look like if they filled in with bleachers behind the North end zone. Then I felt a tinge of something special that I couldn’t quite identify back then. It wasn’t just from what I saw on the field. It was in the stands. It was in the spirit of the die hards.

Even back that long ago there seemed to a hint that there might be a small group of fans who were hungry for good college football.  People who appreciated what I had often referred to growing up as “hot weather football” – a more wide open style played throughout the Southern states.  And, who knows, they just might want to see it played at the highest level right here in their own hometown.

Those early years were memorable ones. It’s been great fun watching it all develop into what was once only a pipe dream…major college football right here at home. Man oh man.

Before you go, let me ask you just one question that takes me back to that day dreaming day almost 40 years ago … Have you seen the new stadium?

Can’t wait to tee it up again.

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Louisville Baseball Deserves Better Radio Signal

By Tom Stosberg

Foolish us. We dialed up a University of Louisville baseball game in the Big East Tournament on the radio thinking that we would actually be able to hear it.

What a disgrace. U of L fans have one of the best college baseball teams in America and almost no way whatsoever of hearing their games, much less seeing them.

Louisville baseball, you see, is broadcast on a radio station with a signal not quite as powerful as that of a $19.95 walkie-talkie. Maybe if you stand on your roof holding a metal garden rake, wearing tin foil on your head while clasping a long wire that’s plugged into your radio, you might hear something  from the pathetic signal of KOOL 1570.

Unless, of course, it’s after dark. Then the sound you mostly will hear is sort of like listening to a combination of someone whistling off key, an old electric razor and a washing machine running with the lid open.

It’s true that you can subscribe to an Internet streaming version of the game but why should you have to do that? Aren’t the Cardinals’ sponsors paying enough so that fans don’t have to?  Isn’t that how commercial radio is supposed to work?

So why can’t Clear Channel Radio, the company that makes a bundle from U of L football and basketball, provide U of L baseball one of their EIGHT stations for baseball broadcasts?

Sean Moth delivers first class play-by-play game after game.  So the on-air product is outstanding and worthy of a decent radio station with a good signal. And it is absolutely ridiculous that U of L fans can’t listen to the games on a real radio station.

Our Big East baseball champs deserve better than rinky-dink.

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WKRD Management Loses Focus

By Tom Stosberg

Radio station WKRD started out as University of Louisville outlet. Now WKRD appears to be turning Blue. Could be destined to stay that way.

First, a quick history lesson: A few years ago the WAKY call letters were changed to WKRD, and the station was re-branded as “The U of L Cardinals Radio Station” by Clear Channel Radio. The action was taken in order to placate Louisville fans when Clear Channel decided to give Kentucky preference over U of L on Clear Channel’s WHAS Radio when there were game conflicts between U of L and UK.

In these cases, WHAS would broadcast the Kentucky game and the Louisville game would move to WKRD. In addition, regular daytime broadcasts on WKRD would carry programs promoting and discussing U of L sports programs, including interviews with Louisville coaches and staff.

In recent months, however, WKRD management has allowed many of the call-in shows to be hijacked by UK fans who consistently badmouth U of L coaches, players and fans. Guest announcers who are both self-avowed and closet Blue fans, are taking over the talk shows. So, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to expect the call letters to be changed soon to WCAT. I’d say it’s a pretty sure bet by summer’s end. Not sure Mr. Jurich is going to be too happy about it either.

What was once a  good idea that would benefit the U of L athletic program is a broken promise. Perhaps another local radio station with a decent signal will seize the opportunity to create a format for U of L fans — a huge market segment that is vastly under served.

(Note: The programming director at WKRD is Jim Fenn, telephone number 479-2222. His e-mail address is jimfenn@clearchannel.com)

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Fear Not Louisville Fans

By Tom Stosberg

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