Another sweltering day, a lightly-regarded opponent, and an early kickoff.
Players and fans rolling out of bed early, disgruntled by a noon start, going through the motions. How much money does the football program get for an ESPN3 game, one that’s available only on the Internet? Not nearly enough. Noon kickoffs scheduled the next two weeks, and who knows how many more after that.
Give plenty of credit to all the fans who made it, all 53,647 of them, comprising the fifth largest crowd in University of Louisville history. An impressive showing, hopefully indicating that fans are solidly on board in spite of who UofL may be competing against in a given game, especially impressive so early in the day.
UofL was a 40-point favorite going into the game, which when translated means the odds makers were expecting UofL to win by 50 or 60 points. Charlie Strong could have threatened his players within an inch of their lives but there was no way they weren’t going to have a letdown against Eastern Kentucky.
A great opportunity for EKU, playing one of the nation’s top 10 teams for the first time ever, the adrenaline flowing, every reason to be highly motivated.
EKU was psyched enough to expose a familiar weakness in UofL’s kickoff returns and coverage, the Cardinals gaining only 23 yards on their one return while Eastern Kentucky appeared menacing at times, racking up 176 yards on six returns, the last possible tackler making the stop on a number of them.
Meanwhile, UofL’s running game appeared almost non-existent, with the home team managing only 78 yards while EKU was putting up 107 of them. The longest runs of the game were eight yards each by Senorise Perry and Dominique Brown. Michael Dyer’s best was a six-yard carry.
Quarterback Teddy Bridgewater sensed some lethargy on the offensive line and, at one point, felt compelled to pull them aside on the sideline, trying to get them motivated, wanting to get the running game going. Still the protection was good enough for him to complete 23 of 32 passes for 397 yards and four touchdowns — two to DaVante Parker, one to Damian Copeland, and another to Gerald Christian.
Another noon start next week at the University of Kentucky, which passed for 413 yards in dismantling Miami of Ohio, 41-7 on Saturday. The Wildcats will be highly motivated and wide awake, with every intention of surprising their highly ranked arch rival.
Louisville had better be wide awake and ready to rumble after still another early wakeup call.