Picked in the pre-season to finish seventh or eighth in the conference, the University of Louisville football team is doing about as well as objective analysts had anticipated prior to the season.
Inept offensively. Losses adding up.
Somehow this comes as a surprise to some of the more vocal fans, frustrated even when a young team is competive against better teams. Taking the losing hard, pointing toward the coaches the playcalling, some already calling for heads to roll.
Many of the same people who were so elated about a surprising 7-6 won-lost record last season. A bowl win to boot. Surely Charlie Strong had turned the program around. In one season.
Surely bigger and better things were on their way, despite what the analysts said. Nevermind that he lost 27 seniors from that team. Nevermind that half of the 14 seniors on the current team had seen little or no playing time before this season. Hadn’t he recruited all of these talented high school kids from Florida?
The U of L coach may have even bought into optimism, obviously disappointed with the way things are going. We’re seeing an angry, frustrated coach these days. Taking the extraordinary step of relieving his offensive coordinator after four games. This was a program that had only 37 healthy players during the spring football camp, remember?
The program fell fast and hard under the previous regime, and it’s going to take a while to get back to respectability. There will be no shortcuts, especially with a young, inexperienced and shallow offensive line that provides little flexibility or protection for the quarterback and running backs.
Swallow hard. Appreciate the defense — it’s a very good one — and wait for the offense to come around.
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Condolences go out to the family of Helene Zukof who passed away last week. She and her late husband, Dr. Walter Zukof, were staunch fans. She often sang the National Anthem at U of L basketball games. Their son Alan was a member of the marching band.
No time to panic. Once C. Strong gets some O linemen in we will be fine.
Heard last night that Krag burned a couple of O Linemens year of eligibility in a blow out in his first game, would have given us a couple more senior lineman this year. Mark Wetterer was one of them.
The major disappointments so far this season were the two games that could have provided traction for the program simply by proving that we could at least win the ones we are supposed to win. Seems there just wasn’t enough emphasis put on the importance of winning the ones that you have the talent and ability to win. The lack of intensity is what is so hard to accept.
Personally, I think, with few exceptions, most fans were “drunk” with success. After the Kragthorpe years, Coach Strong’s 1st year was like a breath of fresh air.
More…MOre…More…!
I, for one, have been disappointed and let down by this year. But I am comparing this to last year, not a fair comparison (for all kinda reasons).
I think the future is bright. The talent is still on the way, and CCS is gonna mold a Championship team.
Gooooo! Cards!
I think Coach Strong’s optimism and saying we were not going to take a step back, set himself up for a fall to a lot of fans. I thought when the season started, and only know the coaching staff after one season, we would win 4-8 games with 4 being the more realistic figure. We have a lot of youth and inexperience in the seniors. We are so close to being competitive, it isn’t funny but it seems we shot ourselves in the foot and our youth and inexperience shine throught at critical moments. This will only make the team stronger in the future. Go Cards.
I suppose he could have gone into the season telling the players they stink. That would have been a real confidence builder.
I never said that,but he could have said we are a young team and it will be hard to duplicate last years success. But we will be playing hard to be the best team that we can be.
Hang on Louisville fans, the future looks bright.