All Entries Tagged With: "Scott Long"

Reasons To Get Out There

Ten reasons to attend the University of Louisville-Rutgers football game at 11 a.m. the day after Thanksgiving Day:

• Football weather, cold, damp, miserable.




• You already have tickets, or you can get them cheap.




• Check on progress of stadium expansion.




• University of Louisville, not Kragthorpe U.




• Game on national television, need fans in stands. Go ahead, wave to the cameras.




• New coach mulling over job, fan support a factor.




• Win a T-shirt at the Budweiser booth.




• Rutgers still in a daze, still puzzled about Syracuse loss, playing at 11 a.m.




• Final game for Trent Guy, Scott Long, Jon Dempsey, Chris Campa, Joe Tronzo.




• Save money avoiding Black Friday sales.

Bonus

• End of the Steve Kragthorpe era.

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Louisville Has Yet To Touch Bottom

The valley is bottomless.

One would think playing the nation’s fifth ranked team would get the adrenaline going, but the University of Louisville football team was listless.

Steve Kragthorpe’s team can and will play worse than it did against Cincinnati. Only a matter of time until it does.

This U of L team plays with effort but without a sense of purpose. Talented players struggle, stumble, fumble, get pushed around, come up short, even on good plays.

Cincinnati may have ripped any remnant of heart or fight, any hope of any improvement, possibly any illusions of self-respect.

South Florida will not tap the brakes with a 31-point lead in the second half. Neither will West Virginia and Rutgers.

Barren and bottomless.

• If one has an offensive threat like Darius Ashley, a running back that Victor Anderson says is light speed ahead of him, why wait until the game is nearly out of reach to begin using him?

• Bilal Powell, bless his heart, gets the call as starting running back.

• Offensive tackle Byron Stingily keeps his string in tact, averaging one illegal movement per game.

• Scott Long is receiving fewer passes now than when he was injured.

• Opposing defenses have solved Trent Guy as a kickoff return threat.

• Defense against the pass, any pass. Non-existent.

• Quarterback controversy when third stringer Will Stein looks better than the people in front of him. Of course, he was competing against Cincinnati’s third stringers.

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Louisville Football Halfway There?

Thoughts going into the Louisville vs. Kentucky football game:

• Now we know exactly what Tom Jurich meant when he declared a little over a year ago that U of L football was in a rebuild mode, adding “I just hope we can get through it.” The negative talk directed at Louisville coach Steve Kragthorpe is off the charts in some quarters (i.e., messsage boards).
• Would anything be sweeter than force feeding the garbage talk down the throats of the haters? Some sound a lot like Alabama fans going after Mike Shula a couple of years ago. But Shula had one 10-2 season and Alabama had five decades of tradition.
• Louisville’s opening game was the longest, most boring game the observer has seen in all of his years of watching U of L football. Maybe there was a reason for that, as in showing absolutely nothing to a hated arch rival. One can always hope. Make that one must hope.
• There’s a lot of talk about Louisville’s explosive backs. Victor Anderson is, for sure. But Bilal Powell didn’t show anything last season. And Darius Ashley has yet to set foot in a college football game.
• If U of L’s wide receivers are a strong point, we have yet to see that either. Scott Long and Trent Guy have spent almost as much time nursing injuries as playing games. Josh Chichester is far from being a proven receiver. Doug Beaumont has yet to find the end zone. Troy Pascley shows only flashes.
• How will Justin Burke respond to the UK wall of noise. There has been at least one estimate that 80,000 people will show up a Commonwealth Stadium. That would be standing room only in a 67,600-seat stadium. If Burke was nervous against Indiana State, he could be a basket case in Lexington.
• Ryan Tydlacka, brother of former U of L kicker Wade Tydlacka, kicking for Kentucky when Louisville’s kicking game is among the needy.
• U of L has 21 players from the Ville. Kentucky has 15. How long will it take them to overtake U of L at the current pace?
• Tom Jurich said two years for the rebuild. We’re just a little over the halfway point.

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Redman Makes His Case

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Louisville Football Practice Kicks Off

Candidates for offensive line go through their paces under the watchful eye of new assistant Brent Myers, who coaches the unit and serves as running game coordinator, responsibilities he held for three years at Arizona State.

A Few Impressions

• If today is any indication, practices will be more intense and tightly controlled with emphasis on efficiency, some of which was missing in previous seasons. The current configuration of coaches is more vocal and demanding, not mincing words, less forgiving of mistakes and shortcomings.
• Heavyweight fisticuffs broke out between offensive lineman Mark Wetterer and William Savoy on defense. Pounding punches. One heard the sounds of fists and groans before noticing the skirmish. Twenty yards away was too close for the observer. Laps followed for the combatants.
  

  Adam Froman gets advice from quarterbacks coach Matt Wells.

• Zach Stoudt easily has the stronger arm among the quarterbacks but Adam Froman appears to a natural leader and showed promise when asked to throw long, which was not often. Justin Burke doesn’t inspire confidence, at least not today.
• Wide receiver Scott Long appears to have recovered from the knee surgery and the complications that sidelined him most of last season.  His expression tells you that Long is highly focused and intends to do well in his senior season. He has no problem catching passes.
• Darius Ashley is the real thing, with speed and toughness one would expect from a player who was the No. 1 running back on the No. 1 high school team in Ohio two seasons ago.  Imagining Ashley lining up beside Victor Anderson is irresistible but some sort of rotation is more likely.
• Fullback Joe Tronzo has bulked up even more, if that’s possible, and he’s catching passes this time round, making him a greater offensive threat.
  

  Darius Ashley will nicely complement Victor Anderson.

• After getting a chewing out from Steve Kragthorpe after missing the first pass thrown his way, Josh Chichester made good on the rest of his opportunities. Hint to quarterbacks: he likes them high, not around the ankles.
• Kickers Ryan Payne and Cory Goettsche were getting impressive distance on their punts. If anyone was practicing field goals, the observer missed it.

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Couple of hundred fans on hand for the opening session, most of the noise coming from Shannon over at Cardinal Dominance and Chris Burke. Shannon’s enthusiasm is contagious and he is well liked by the players. Burke did an impressive job of leading small crowd in the C-A-R-D-S cheer. Tim Bryant added some insightful comments. Fun day. Friday’s Fan Fest will be even better.

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