Category Archives: University of Louisville football

Backwards and Sideways

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<Is this football season upside down and inside out or what? Teams that should be winning are losing and those that should be headed for mediocrity are winning big. Upsets are prevalent throughout the top 25, especially among the top 10 teams. Is there any way we can just fast forward to next year?

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A lot of partying going in the U of L visitors section all the way until halfway through the fourth quarter against UConn. You also got the impression that UConn fans weren’t really engaged until their last touchdown. The constant rain made staying focused a challenge for even the most ardent of football fanatics.

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Our tradition of winning the wet, soggy games just went down the drain, too.

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Was Brian Brohm really throwing again to Sergio Spencer on the final interception? The Brohm-to-Sergio connection wasn’t working, had failed time and time again on the final series. The pass was right to the UConn defender, clearly avoidable, looked like it was thrown too quickly from my seat. (One was reminded of one of those Chris Redman passes to a Southern Miss defender back in the bad old days.)

* * *

Have to give the defense credit for holding UConn scoreless in the first half. Had U of L’s offense had been up to par, it would have been no contest. Coulda, woulda, shoulda ….

Backwards and Sideways

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1

<Is this football season upside down and inside out or what? Teams that should be winning are losing and those that should be headed for mediocrity are winning big. Upsets are prevalent throughout the top 25, especially among the top 10 teams. Is there any way we can just fast forward to next year?

* * *

A lot of partying going in the U of L visitors section all the way until halfway through the fourth quarter against UConn. You also got the impression that UConn fans weren’t really engaged until their last touchdown. The constant rain made staying focused a challenge for even the most ardent of football fanatics.

* * *

Our tradition of winning the wet, soggy games just went down the drain, too.

* * *

Was Brian Brohm really throwing again to Sergio Spencer on the final interception? The Brohm-to-Sergio connection wasn’t working, had failed time and time again on the final series. The pass was right to the UConn defender, clearly avoidable, looked like it was thrown too quickly from my seat. (One was reminded of one of those Chris Redman passes to a Southern Miss defender back in the bad old days.)

* * *

Have to give the defense credit for holding UConn scoreless in the first half. Had U of L’s offense had been up to par, it would have been no contest. Coulda, woulda, shoulda ….

Football factor

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Another reminder of the importance of college football in Louisville came when U of L basketball coach Rick Pitino devoted 11 minutes of his pre-season remarks to the football coaching issue.

Pitino said any time you see a coach suspending players, it means he “won’t sacrifice his principles for winning games, he’s building a program, he’s not trying to win a half, and you know he’s doing the right thing.”

Pitino is right. He also recognizes that football fever has gripped Louisville over the last several years and the community expects to win. Be patient, he is saying, we’re thinking long-term here.

No committees, thank you

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So we hear that Black Coaches Association has awarded an “F” to U of L for the process through which the university hired the new football coach. The BCA gets the headlines it seeks but you have to wonder whether the group did its homework. Did they not know Ron Cooper was our coach for three years? Or does history not count?

Among the BCA’s criteria was the racial composition of the search committees. The problem with search committees is that they often include well-meaning faculty reps with not a clue about football, as we learned when Schnellenberger departed.

Even though the football season has disappointed, we still prefer to have Tom Jurich make those decisions for us. By the way, he reportedly had Karl Dorrell, the black coach at UCLA, on his short list. Did the BCA even think to ask?

Football factor

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1

Another reminder of the importance of college football in Louisville came when U of L basketball coach Rick Pitino devoted 11 minutes of his pre-season remarks to the football coaching issue.

Pitino said any time you see a coach suspending players, it means he “won’t sacrifice his principles for winning games, he’s building a program, he’s not trying to win a half, and you know he’s doing the right thing.”

Pitino is right. He also recognizes that football fever has gripped Louisville over the last several years and the community expects to win. Be patient, he is saying, we’re thinking long-term here.

No committees, thank you

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So we hear that Black Coaches Association has awarded an “F” to U of L for the process through which the university hired the new football coach. The BCA gets the headlines it seeks but you have to wonder whether the group did its homework. Did they not know Ron Cooper was our coach for three years? Or does history not count?

Among the BCA’s criteria was the racial composition of the search committees. The problem with search committees is that they often include well-meaning faculty reps with not a clue about football, as we learned when Schnellenberger departed.

Even though the football season has disappointed, we still prefer to have Tom Jurich make those decisions for us. By the way, he reportedly had Karl Dorrell, the black coach at UCLA, on his short list. Did the BCA even think to ask?