Darius Ashley was not happy about being overlooked in University of Louisville’s opening game against Indiana State.
Someone, possibly not Ashley, took it out on the program Ashley’s Facebook account, reportedly blaspheming the team a couple of hours after the game. Then the comment was later edited to say that he was looking forward his next coach.
Heavy stuff, something that would never have happened before the age of hackers and instant communications.
But the question remains about why Ashley didn’t get a few carries if he is to be part of the rotation. He was, after all, the leading high school running back in Ohio two seasons ago. A major recruiting catch for Steve Kragthorpe. Huge. Some would argue the most significant yet.
Would have been a good idea to have communicated with the top recruit before or after the game.
Since when do players, however good they are, decide when they will play?
If the scuttlebutt about Chris Philpott is true, kickoffs should improve greatly with his return from disciplinary benching.
As for punting, I’ve benn waiting his entire career for consistency from Cory Goettsche.
Calm down, Darius, you WILL play in the next game. Be ready but beware- the U of L O-Line isn’t going to be blowing open any big holes so you better be quick or spend the afternoon on your butt.
Other sources report that Ashley was offered a chance to go into the game late but declined.
Ashley’s mother says he was told he would play. That’s why he is so upset.
And I repeat. The kid from Bell County KY was the first kicker in history to be the top vote getter in the CJ All-State balloting. He put something like 75% of his kickoffs, albeit from the 40 instead of the 35, into the end zone. He also averaged over 40 yards a punt and made a great percentage of his FGs. He would have loved to come to UofL but he never even heard from us. Hope we don’t play WKU in a couple of years because he will probably beat us.
Hey, at least we didn’t miss any extra points and field goals… at least that has improved in the special teams area. LoL Of course, I don’t think there were any long FGs at this game.
Whoops… Payne did miss one 35 yarder.
Most of the comments I’m hearing on why Louisville played poorly center around Justin Burke not being on the same page as his receivers, poor O-line play, and some of the defensive line players not playing – nose tackle Tyler Jessen, def. tackles Joseph Townsend and L.T. Walker.
Hopefully the bye week will help Burke build rapport with his WRs, and the D players will be back.
But one of my BIG concerns that I haven’t seen mentioned anywhere is the bad, bad, bad, bad kicking game. I’m talking kick-offs and punts.
Let’s compare. Louisville averaged 37 yards per punt and 55 yards per kickoff.
By comparison, Cincy averaged 43 per punt and 63 per kick-off, Pitt was 53/68 and Wake Forest (had to throw in an ACC team) was 47/66.
On average, U of L is about 10 yards less on punts and kick-offs. That is NOT good.
You can’t put your defense in those situations and expect to win against UK and others…maybe it works against Indiana State.
U of L has GOT to improve field position — through a much better kicking game and eliminating stupid penalities. These two things will kill a team.
If Louisville can greatly improve these areas, slow the game down, help their D stay fresh, and get the most out of Victor Anderson (meaning don’t rely on Burke to win the game with his arm), I’m hopeful that this season won’t be as bad as people think.
And this is where the controversy starts. According to Ashley, someone…a friend supposedly…posted the info on his accountwithout his knowledge. According to Darius, he left the Facebook account open and the words were not his.
Just another intriguing chapter in the mystery novel that has become Louisville Football this year.