All Entries Tagged With: "Justin Burke"

No quarterback controversy at U of L

There is no quarterback controversy at the University of Louisville. But there is the question about who will be the starting quarterback when the football team faces off against Kentucky in three weeks.

Justin Burke, Adam Froman or Will Stein?

Incoming freshman Dominique Brown is out of the question.

None of the candidates flourished in the Steve Kragthorpe system last season. Froman won two games, Burke one and Will Stein another.

If Charlie Strong knows, he’s not telling. What he will say is that he’s going to sit down with offensive coordinator Mike Sanford and quarterbacks coach Mike Groh when the time is right and make a decision.

“It’s going to come down to who can go lead this team,” he has said.

“All those guys have started at same point in their career, but it’s critical that we get the leader who the other guys truly respect and just tell them that, I don’t need you to go out and make a bunch of great plays, I just need you to play within the system.”

So no one has distinguished themselves yet. Not during spring drills, nor the first week of fall practice.

That’s not good.

A quarterback controversy would be better. Much better.

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New Beginning For Louisville Football

No problem finding the head coach at the practice field. Charlie Strong’s is the booming voice one encounters upon descending on a University of Louisville football practice.

Strong is not the only coach getting in players’ faces. They all do it, all the time. Make a wrong turn, look lethargic, fail to deflect a pass on defense, miss a catch or block on offense. Make a mistake of walking and not running to the next drill. Look like you’re daydreaming, not paying attention, or somewhere out there:

Catch hell, and lots of it.

The practice field sounds much like a military parade ground, with drill sergeants all around, each focusing on fundamentals on the opening day of spring practice. Reminiscent of the days of Bobby and Paul Petrino, perfectionists with little tolerance for shortcomings.

*    *    *

A couple of surprises with the quarterback situation, with Luke Woodley, a highly-touted recruit from Texas, among the missing. He was said to have enrolled but didn’t stick around for the semester. Whether he returns in the fall is up in the air.

Justin Burke, a questionable returnee, was wearing his familiar No. 13, taking snaps along with Adam Froman and Will Stein.

Adam Castro, a never used backup quarterback, is no longer on the roster.

*     *     *

Among the wide receivers making a super first-day impression was Doug Beaumont, making some impossible catches with defenders blanketing him.

Troy Pascley continues to look like a great receiver except that he wasn’t catching everything. Not always his fault.

*     *    *

Josh Chichester, a 6-foot-8 wide receiver, was the target of a little ribbing by wide receivers coach Rod Dugans proclaiming Chichester to be the tallest receiver in America. One suspects Dugans was sending some sort of message about his expectations.

*     *     *

Good crowd of about 1,100 fans, more or less. The coaching staff has even installed some bleachers to accommodate fans. Nice touch, a first, never occurring to previous football bosses.

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Justin Burke May Take Different Path

by Paul Sykes

Unconfirmed reports within the Cardinal community indicate that Justin Burke may not suit up for the University of Louisville football team next season.

According to a couple of Cardinal sources, the backup Louisville quarterback may be choosing to finish up his undergraduate work at UofL, getting his degree and moving on to the working world or graduate school. No official word on this from Charlie Strong or Burke.

Zach Stoudt, the fouth string quarterback for UofL earlier decided to transfer. Appears he may be headed to Murfreesboro for a go with  Middle Tennessee State.

If Burke is not returning, that leaves quarterbacks Adam Froman, Will Stein and Alan Castro on the roster, in addition to Luke Woodley and Mike Rocco who will arrive this fall, and, possibly, a junior college transfer.

Depth shouldn’t be a problem but are these guys the type of quarterbacks that new offensive coordinator Mike Sanford wants to direct his offense? Time will tell.

More on Burke’s situation as it becomes available.

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Kragthorpe Makes Will Stein The Fall Guy

Will Stein apparently didn’t know he was going to be the University of Louisville’s starting quarterback until Friday. No surprise. Steve Kragthorpe is adept at keeping everyone guessing.

This has to mean that either Adam Froman or Justin Burke must have been taking lots of snaps in the days leading up to the West Virginia game. Or maybe Zach Stoudt, the son of a former pro quarterback, was finally getting some repetitions?

Don’t expect any clarification from Kragthorpe. The great communicator.

So fans are left wondering why a quarterback gets the call who has no ability to spot open receivers, not much of a throwing arm and no scrambling ability. His only offensive skill is handing the ball off to Darius Ashley.

West Virginia was all but begging to go down but Will Stein, bless his heart, just couldn’t deliver.

Somewhere out there a coach is wondering what he could done better.

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Where Oh Where Is Zach Stoudt

By Paul Sykes

Maybe it is time to call in one of the many so-called TV investigators or get out the bloodhounds. Someone get access to the milk cartons and get his photo on there pronto. Zach Stoudt has failed to hit the field in the 2009 football season.

You remember Zach Stoudt, don’t you? A red shirt freshman out of Columbus, Ohio, Stoudt was the talk of spring practice with his rifleman arm and ability to throw towering passes deep down the field. A nice showing in the spring game led observers to believe Stoudt would be in the mix for a starting role as the Cardinal’s quarterback.

Zach Stoudt

Fall practice gave Stoudt the chance to contend for that role and from what fans saw in the limited chances they had to watch him, that arm was still golden and accurate.

But he slid down the depth chart. Even with Adam Froman sidelined for the start of the season, Zach slipped to third string and walk-on Will Stein assumed the backup role. With injuries to Adam Froman and Justin Burke during the Cincinnati game, one would have thought that Steve Kragthorpe might have used the situation to see how Stoudt performed in a game. It did not happen.

Stoudt spent his high school years quarterbacking for perennial Ohio power Dublin-Coffman. He finished his career there with 3,547 yards passing, 34 touchdown and was rated as the 19th best quarterback in he nation by Rivals when he graduated. Former offensive coordinator Jeff Brohm worked closely with Zach during his red shirt year and at 6’4″ and 215 lbs., Stoudt has the size and strength that the diminutive Stein does not. He’s burned his red shirt. He’s healthy.

But, he still sits. Cincinnati coach Brian Kelly has a knack of using multiple quarterback throughout the football season and they all mesh into the UC offensive format. Is the Kragthorpe offensive scheme that difficult where Stoudt can’t comprehend it?

(You’ve witnessed it, it isn’t…and a trained chimp could probably hand to Powell, Anderson and Ashley.)

With five games remaining in this season, and the Cardinals plagued by multiple injuries to their top two depth chart hurlers, isn’t it time to see what the kid can do? Face it, this season isn’t going to send us bowling, we very well may lose four out of the last five.

Give the kid a shot.

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Louisville Football Halfway To Where?

By Paul Sykes

Louisville football is about where most fans thought it would be at this time of the season, despite all the chatter about not meeting expectations. Whether the team has shown improvement or not may strongly hinge on one’s perspective, whether one looks at things objectively or subjectively.

• At the halfway point, Louisville is 2-4 overall and 0-2 in Big East play. My preseason picks and had Steve Kragthorpe’s team at 3-3, the Kentucky loss the only miss.

• Louisville has actually gained more first downs than the opposition, 119-111. Of these, 62 have come by air and 49 on the ground. I would have lost the bet on that stat.

• As for the highly-debated lack of third down conversions, Louisville has converted 35 of 91 times while limiting the opposition to 35 of 90 third down successes.

• Three linebackers lead  the tackling. Jon Dempsey with 33 solo, 31 assisted, Chris Campa with 21 solo and 20 assisted and Antwon Canady in fourth place with 17 solo and 12 assisted. Telling fact: both Dempsey and Campa are juco transfers.

• Justin Burke, despite his sidelining, still leads in passing attempts, passing touchdowns and interceptions. Louisville is averaging 237 yards through the air, the opposition 201 yards.

• Louisville has coughed up the ball seven times this year while recovering only one. U of L has lost at least one fumble in nine of the last 10 games.
  

• The longer the better? Ryan Payne is a perfect one of one attempt from 40- yards out on field goals. He’s three of four from 30-39 yds. and three of five from 20-29 yds.

My nominee for missing in action is Troy Pascley who had 12 catches and four touchdowns last season. Nowhere to be found in 2009. The pleasant surprise has to be Cameron Graham,  a junior who has overcome the injuries that plagued him last year with 12 catches and two touchdowns.

How do you see the U of L finishing the season? Who has been a pleasant surprise thus far? Who are the underachievers?

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Louisville Football Exceeds Expectations

The empty feeling for days leading up to the game, the restless night before, the interminable wait the day of, the rapid heart beat at kickoff: Symptoms of a fan fearful that his team would not be competitive, would not show significant improvement since game one, and would be humiliated by the hated.

All gone. Even though the University of Louisville football team wound up on the short end of a 31-27 score.

Although they would never admit it, even the most hardened pessimists among the fan base were reassessing their expectations. Louisville with a chance to win with the clock running down to zero.

Wasn’t supposed to be like that. The smug look on the Kentucky faithful transitioning to fear, doubt, misgivings. Sorry, neighbors, but Louisville is not going away any time soon. Put the blue flags back in the car trunks, where they belong, beneath the spare tire.

Not a moral victory, not falling prey to that one. But while the game ended with a flurry of profanities, the overall experience was encouraging. If this team plays like it did today, the season may not be so long after all.

• If you’re grading on measurable improvement, give coach Steve Kragthorpe a few points in the plus column. Nice to be able to do that for a change.
• Give Victor Anderson the ball on critical third-and-one downs. Bilal Powell is still running sideways too often.
• Darius Ashley, repeating for the 15th time, was the leading running back in the state of Ohio . They play serious football.<
• Unbelievable  improvement from kickers Corey Goettsche and Chris Philpott, especially Philpott. Maybe those high school stats were not misleading after all.
• Justin Burke running left, throwing right, is not natural, nor effective most of the time. Nice to see a quarterback with some inclination to run when necessary.
• Johnny Patrick was overdue in picking off an interception. More to come<
• Cameron Graham returns respect to the tight end with a couple of the best hands available. After Scott Long, of course.




• No injuries, not that we know of anyway. Fans are always the last to know.

There were, of course, a few costly mistakes but there were plenty by both teams (including UK’s clock keeper). Overall, however, it’s a good starting point. Continued improvement is the objective, overriding inspired play against an arch rival.

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