By Paul Sykes
Okay, I’ve had a few “beverages,” and I’m torn up by a post by my daughter in Nashville. But. The University of Louisville football team is 1-0. A 20-point winner over possibly the worst team in this area, but still a winner.
Yeah, they need work. Justin Burke needs to establish a connection with his receivers. A few times it looked like he was trying to throw to Yao Ming. Two weeks to work on that.
I loved the way the defense looked. Call me crazy, but guys were flying around trying to make something happen. They missed sometimes, but check out the stats. Indiana State didn’t gain a whole lot of yardage. Kentucky may, but at least these guys are into it and could fall into a few good stops. We’re flying around and trying. I’ll take that after the first game.
Johnny Patrick and Brandon Heath, I love you. Patrick’s pick and run for a TD got nullified. He’ll take a few more to the house before this season is done, minus the penalties. Heath understands what we are trying to do out there and is only going to get better.
A lot of fans are disappointed over a 20-point win over a doormat. You have that right, but realize these three things:
- Our hearts are big. Despite the disappointing margin of win, we never gave up and this game was never in doubt. We’ll only get better with experience. Don’t give up on this team.
- Doug Beaumont, Trent Guy, Victor Anderson, Cameron Graham and Bilal Powell are talented offensive weapons that will do well. Don’t sell them short.
- These are your guys out there. Boo the coach if you want. Your prerogative. But, please cheer on the playmakers. This is your team. Get behind them. Boring or not, Louisville won.
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Thanks to the 17 people who participated in the U of L v. ISU pick the score contest. Most of us overestimated how well the Cards offense would perform against the Sycamores. We were pretty close, though, on ISU’s offensive output.
Your winner is Glenn who offered 28-7 as his pick. Got within two points on the Cards and three with those Terre Haute rascals.
Koby predicted the Cards, 38-10. Good job. After that, we weren’t very close.
We’ll do it again the UK game. Charlie Springer has a special prize in mind. Watch for it.
Glad to see the Cards win.
My big concern is the kickoffs. I didn’t see U of L kick it past the 20 yard line – and it seemed that Indiana State was catching the kickoff around the 30 yard line. You can’t give the other team such good field position. You’ve got to bury them deep in their own territory on the kicks. UK and others will make the Cards pay big time if they don’t improve on this.
Times have changed. First UK wanted to juggle the schedule because they were having a hard time competing with us. Now we have to hope they are overconfident. Wow!
Can’t wait to see the tape of the game so I can comment knowledgably on it. Thanks for taping and sending it to me, Paul.
I was getting WHAS radio pretty clear down here and was able to listen to parts of it while working. Paul Rogers is one of the best in the business.
Penalties will kill you…and the desciption of Burke in the first half made it sound like he was having a horrible passing night early on.
But it is the first game of the year, so rough spots need to be ironed out and adjustments made. After UK’s big win…let’s hope they’ll be way overconfident for us
Enough of this bs about who is the worst team in America. We won’t know who that is until the end of the season.
True. And I am afraid we haven’t yet eliminated ourselves from the running.
Glenn,
Guessing a score does not make you an expert. Anyway, if we played a decent football team I could understand. But we didn’t. We played the worst football team in America!!.
I saw 1-9 on third down conversions, +100 yards in penalties and a horrid offense.
Also, the comments from Darius Ashley are very telling about this coach? Why does everyone keep making excuses for this guy?
Missing the prediction by two points was not guesswork. It was based on years of accumulated football experience, having played, coached, assisted and watched many, many games. I do know football and I will match my experience with anybody’s. I will again be within two or three points on my next one. Watch and see.
Congratulations, Glenn and good points in the post. Shoot me an e-mail if you’re headed to the Oct. 2nd game here against Pitt…we’ll get you inside and beveraged.
You can reach any of the Card Game writers thru the Contact Us section at the top of the home page.
As the undisputed winner of the Card Game pick ’em contest, I have earned the right to pass along some knowledge:
Louisville has a lot of new players at key positions playing in their first game together with numerous players (jucos and redshirt freshmen) against a team that had already played a game and was desperate for a good showing. New coaches everywhere you look. That’s why I thought it was foolish for people to throwing those high numbers out there.
The rest of the knowledge is that these guys will come together in a couple (two not one) of games and be pretty darn good. It won’t happen in Lexington, however.
Why should we not give up on this team when Darius Ashley has given up on Kragthorpe. He posted on his facebook account the following:
“Darius Ashley anxiously awaiting the arrival of my next head coach.”
Telling…