by Paul Sykes
Louisville football fans thinking, that by some miracle, Steve Kragthorpe’s kids could become bowl eligible by sweeping their final three games are served notice that Rutgers is rolling again.
Or was Rutgers’ 31-0 route of South Florida just more evidence that South Florida forgets how to play football once it crosses north of the Mason-Dixon line? Or it is, as UC head coach Brian Kelly insists, the overall parity in the Big East? Whatever the answer is, Rutgers will have plenty of motivation when it arrives in Louisville in two weeks.
Rutgers (7-2) grabbed the visitors by the horns and unceremoniously ground them into sausage. RU will likely be 9-2 when it hosts WVU in its final game on Dec. 5th. In their way? Syracuse and Louisville could probably combine their squads and still not beat Greg Schiano’s woodchoppers.
What’s puzzling about last night is that USF (6-3) entered game ranked No. 23 and has one of the most exciting quarterbacks in the game with B.J. Daniels. They have two future NFL defensive ends in George Selvie and Jean Paul Pierre.
WVU drops the close one to da Bearcats last night. I wonder if Tony Pike is NFL quality or not…
Typical late season swoon from USF. How many years in a row have they started well and then folded? I suspect their coach is feeling a lot of heat. And I don’t mean Florida in the summer time.
I wouldn’t read to much into the USF game. USF doesn’t play RU very well and they typically do worse as you said up north. Anyone who watched the game could see that USF couldn’t get out of their own way. Big play, fumble, Big play INT, muffed punt, blocked punt, personal foul, dropped pass, mystery fair catch. It was as if these guys never played football in their lives. USF was lucky RU didn’t put a hundred on them the way they played. One last think, that Davis guy on the Oline, he gets away with a ton of holding. Didn’t impact the game, but he does hold a lot.
I a Rutgers fan, but I would be very cautious about Louisville. In 2007, we built up a huge lead in the first half, and then collapsed in the second half and lost. We had a very good team in 2007 with Rice/Britt/Teel, and still lost to a Louisville team that was not as good as the team we beat in Piscataway in 2006.
Thanks for stopping by the site and weighing in, Roger! Glad to have you here and stop by often…
I am very impressed with the way Rutgers has bounced back from the opening game loss to Cincy. For UofL, if we lose to Syracuse…the wheels come off this train and we could lose to the Scarlet Knights by even worse a score this year.
Hate the fact we have to play Rutgers so early (11 a.m.)on the day after Thanksgiving. That Friday has been a traditional day at Churchill Downs for me, my wife and friends for almost 30 years. If UofL is 3-8 going into the season finale (for us) against Rutgers and the weather is rough…I just might miss my first UofL football game at home since 1997, when I didn’t attend Ron Cooper’s final home game against East Carolina
Horse racing over football, Paul? Can it get any worse?
Cooper’s final game, Kragthorpe’s final game. I smell a parallel. And two lousy coaches.
Paul,
Thanks for the note. I must tell you that I am a rabid Rutgers fan. I think your descriptions and conclusions are apt. I must also say that while I enjoy seeing my alma mater pound a team, I was also sad to see Louisville get blasted last year. I don’t want to see Bobby back (he belongs at Michigan with that other loser) but I do want to see Louisville rise again. I don’t doubt that it will.
Cheers,
Roger in Rochester, NY