By Paul Sykes
Unless you are Rutgers or a segment of University of Louisville football fans, the majority of people who follow Big East football have to be content with their season openers.
- In a Labor Day game, Rutgers seemed willing to let Cincinnati do all the work, falling behind 31-7 in the first half en route to a 47-15 drubbing to the defending league champ. UC’s passing attack looked awfully good with QB Tony Pike and about six or seven receivers.
- Pittsburgh rolled out of the fall practice mode and thumped Youngstown State 38-3. Running back Dion Lewis had three touchdowns and 129 yards.
- West Virginia took Liberty to the couches 33-20, with Noel Devine scampering for 112 yards. New quarterback Jarrett Brown tossed for 243 yds and ran for another 69. Looks like the option is still alive in Morgantown. Allowing 299 yards of offense to Liberty raises some eyebrows, though.
- UConn held off Ohio 23-16 Looks like they have another top-flight running back there, with Jordan Todman rushing for 154 yards.
- South Florida wasted Wofford 40-7. Matt Grothe tossed for a couple of touchdown.
- Syracuse took Minnesota to overtime before losing 23-20. That one features only six total points in the second half. Former Duke basketball guard Greg Paulus debuted as the Orange quarterback and went 19-31 for 167 yards, including a touchdown and one costly pick that cost the Orange dearly.
You can fill in your own review of Louisville’s 30-10 win over Indiana State in the comments section. Just know that, at least for now, Louisville in a six-team tie for second place in the conference.
Given the crazy nature of this series against UK since it was rekindled by Howard Schnellenberger and Bill Curry…expect the unexpected and don’t be shocked by anything. 2005 is a prime example. Bobby Petrino led a pwerful and absolute scoring machine into Commonwealth and even UK fans expected a blowout. We know how that one turned out. Louisville hanging on for dear life and making a stop at the 1 yd. line to preserve a 31-24 win. That Louisville team would go on to score over 40 points eight times that season. That’s why they play the game…
I guess the influentials at UofL could force Jurich’s hand and “demand” he fire Kragthorpe…but I just don’t see that happening right away.
CB, not sure if 97% is an accurate number. Definitely over 50%, I’ll give you that…and could soar higher if we’re 1-3 going into the homecoming game against Southern Miss.
I’m still speculating that Krags is here for the 2010 season, unless we go like 1-11 or 2-10. He may be the most despised man in the city by then, but 5-7 or better ensures he’s our coach next year, I think.
There’s always basketball…
Yes “coaches come, coaches go” and some coaches don’t go soon enough. I can tell you that a lot of good Card fans are so frustrated that they are conflicted to the point that they actually want us to lose to hasten the coaching change. They equate it to that of amputating a foot because of gangrene to save the rest of the body.
I can tell you that I talked to two members of the board of trustees during the game and while they both pulled hard for the Cards they are very unhappy. One wanted some firings to occur during the game!
You can say “love the players, love the game” all you want. I agree with it. But 97% of the Cards fans I know (and that’s a minimum figure) want a coaching change. I would like to think that 97% of us can’t be wrong.
If we look like garbage against UK and Pittsburgh, cbcard, I might jump on the bus with you. But let’s give it a couple of games at least. Pretty hard to get excited about playing Indiana State, whether you are a fan or a player.
Sonja,
I appreciate your spirit and I honestly wish the players and the coaches had half of yours, but the display on the field Saturday was pathetic or worse. UofL could be arguably the worst team in Div. 1 football after that performance. Yeah, I know they won and other teams lost but no one played anyone as bad as ISU. I will still root for the Cards and would love nothing more than for them to pull out a win. But I am to smart to get burned by Kragthorpe again. The point spread will be under 20 and I will lay $100 down and be richer becasue of it. That won’t stop me from rooting for my team but it is obvious Kragthorpe isn’t very good, and has done a poor job of inspiring this team. Anyone else running the show I would say yeah UofL has a fighting chance, but not this guy, If he can’t win in Commonwealth with Brohm, Douglass, and Wood, there is no way in hell he wins with this group. Well, this group actually has a lot of talent its just that the leadership from the coaching staff is so poor it makes them incapable to reach their potential. Go Cards and I’m just trying to figure out who the next HC will be.
Love the players, love the game. I guess that we should all just hang our heads and weep because we have to play UK? Believe it or not, there is still a lot of pride and determination on this team and they are very ready to go to Lexington and battle.
And that is what matters. Coaches come, coaches go. Lately it seems like they are about the same as the players…here four or five years and gone…
I’m not ready to go to Lexington and just hand them the Governor’s Cup. Neither are the guys on the this team. Get behind them and stay behind them.
So the UofL team, and the fans should be happy with that performance? C’mon Paul, you and I both know Krag is done. This team will not improve enough to be competitive with UK in two weeks, and that my friend will not get people to show up to home games and not boo. If you all are having a score pick ’em contest, I’ll go with UK 42, UofL 10. And it won’t even be that close. By the time the Cards finally make it back to Cardinal Stadium they will be 1-2 and will proceed to lose to Pitt and Southern Miss to start the season at 1-4. By that time everyone including my Mom will say Jurich should go ahead and fire Kragthorpe so we can start recruiting for the future and get a coach in here asap who will teach these kids how to be tough and play football to a level that is at least respectable.