All Entries Tagged With: "Will Stein"

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.

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 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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Will Stein A Long Shot For Louisville QB

The fact that Will Stein isn’t given much of a chance to quarterback the University of Louisville football team may say more about the ups and downs of Kentucky high school football than it does about Will Stein.

He’s a product of Trinity, the same school that sent Brian Brohm and Jeff Brohm to Louisville, two of the Cardinals’ best-ever quarterbacks. The Brohms led Trinity to multiple state championships.

Will Stein also led Trinity to a state title, the Class 6-A state championship in 2007, in his only season as a starter. Along the way he completed 255 of 360 passes for 3,697 yards and 54 touchdowns while throwing just seven interceptions.

Most notably, he broke former U of L quarterback Brian Brohm’s school record for TD passes and is second behind Brohm’s 3,777 yards in 2002.

One of Stein’s most memorable performances came in a regional final, in which he threw six touchdown passes against Lexington Henry Clay. Here are video highlights from that game:

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Trinity, despite its incredible success over the years, has produced only two Kentucky Mister Football winners — Jeff Brohm in 1988 and Brian Brohm in 2003.

This year’s U of L roster includes four former Shamrocks — running back Blayne Donnell, defensive back Agyei Williams, offensive lineman Alex Kupper and Will Stein.

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