SB Nation - Chris Campa

Louisville 21, Arkansas State 13

Mike Rutherford — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 01:11:07 -0000

First things first, congratulations to the guys on the field for picking up a victory. With everything that's happened and with all that's been said it can't be easy to keep showing up day after day, but they have and they certainly deserved to enjoy Saturday night.

Still, you may not think it's pretty, you may not think it's right, but this is the story of the game:

And I agree with Rick Bozich, the fact that U of L actually announced the crowd as 21,497 is probably the surest sign yet that Kragthorpe is definitely out of here

Hopefully so are numb Saturdays.

Even though apathy has been in complete control since somewhere the third quarter of the Utah game, I don't think any of us can deny that the Will Stein story is a pretty neat one.

I don't think he has the tools to guide any team to a BCS conference title, and I sincerely doubt that he'll ever start another game for U of L after this season, but he's really fun to watch and really easy to root for, and at this point that's about as much of a compliment as you can pay to any Cardinal.

I'm all for letting the kid take the reigns for the rest of the year.

Chris Campa is an absolute monster and he's one of those guys who I can see wowing coaches at a training camp and hanging around on practice squads in the league for multiple years. I really wish we had he, Dempsey and Campa for another year.

Maybe the highlight of the game for me was Victor Anderson going crazy on the sidelines during a long Bilal Powell run. There seems to be nothing fake about Vic. He genuinely loves his team, his teammates and this program.

Here's hoping we can get him at least one postseason trip before he leaves town.

Might be time to at least experiment with wearing a shoe, Ryan.

When the ball was in the air on the last play of the game, I only remember saying, "oh my god he's open." The sad thing is there was no fear or panic in my voice, it was pretty much just an observation.

I hate this.

Goal No. 2 for the rest of the season (behind keeping key players healthy) is getting Doug Beaumont into the endzone.

I do not believe Steve Kragthorpe is a good football coach.

Again, congrats to the team and thanks so much for working so hard so that we here have stuff - good or bad - to think and talk about.

The Good, The Bad, And The Kragtastic

CardsFan922 — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 23:37:37 -0000

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Well that sucked. Excitement abounded before the kick-off, and predictions of victory flew from unlikely corners (even frankpos thought we had a chance!). The beginning of the game probably improved frankpos's optimism: Chris Campa introduced himself to the Utah crowd and the home team with a big hit on the kick-off, and LD Scott got the team's first sack of the season on the first play from scrimmage. After forcing a three-and-out, the offense marched down the field: Scott Long made good on the pre-game angle from the CJ and beat his man for a 23-yard gain on the first play. More positive plays resulted in first and goal from the 8. The game thread got positively giddy: most were pretty quick to get excited and hop back on the bandwagon with both feet.

Everyone knows what happened next. But sulking wasn't doing it for me, so I thought I'd dive back in to the game and the post-game quotes and put together the good, the bad, and the Kragtastic. Join me? ....after the jump...

The Good

First and foremost, Chris Campa came to play. The oft-overlooked linebacker set the tone with a big hit on the opening kickoff, and then continued to lay the wood. And although I can't find for sure how many tackles he ended up with, it was a lot and all of them seemed like big hits.

Scott Long is talented. As was discussed during the game thread, hopefully he gets a chance to prove himself at the next level because his college career has been limited by Harry Douglas/Mario, injury and Kragthorpe.

The Defense as a unit played generally well: it held Utah to 4-13 on third downs and kept Utah out of the end-zone in the second and third quarters. They got pressure on the QB and recorded three sacks, and Chaz Thompson had a nice pick that set up the first touchdown.

Penalties were held down to a reasonably small amount, only 5 for 50 yards. Utah had 9 for 100 yards, including a couple that kept our drives going.

Doug Beaumont had a couple nice plays, ending up with 4 catches for 87 yards. Does everyone realize he's already a JUNIOR? Sorry, this isn't the Kragtastic section.

Cory Goettsche averaged 49 yards on punts, including a long of 57 yards. As Sam ruined the good vibes pointed out in the game thread, this may have had something to do with the thin air and the altitude. I choose to believe that he has figured out how to kick the ball farther and you can't prove it to me otherwise until the Pitt game.

The Bad

Oy. Where to begin? How about the rushing game, which put up a whopping 80 yards on one of the worst run defenses in the country, one that gave up more than 200 yards to Utah State and Oregon.

Vic, whose asthma may have been worsened by the thin air, was not himself, rushing for only 20 yards on 10 carries. He was outgained by Bilal Joseph Powell....by 2 yards, 22 total yards on 10 carries. Darius Ashley got in the game finally: he carried twice for six yards. Better average than the other two, anyway.

The defense allowed 214 yards on the ground to a team who starting running out of running backs when their top two both went down with injuries during the game. The defense also allowed 202 yards in the air to a QB who really wasn't that impressive except for that perfect strike TD immediately following Guy's fumble.

Any shred of confidence remaining in Trent Guy was obliterated after his fumble. I didn't see him on the field, he didn't get the ball thrown his way and he was pulled from both punts and kickoffs. Feel really bad for the kid.

Lots of punts, as we ended up 4-14 on third down conversions.

Burke completed less than 50% of his passes, threw an INT and had that weird play where he just sorta stood there in Vic's way on the hand-off.

The red-zone offense relied on an awkward Burke run (Play No. 2, see below for full chart) and the craziest touchdown catch I've ever seen (Burke threw a No. 8 that turned into a No. 6 when the ball bounced off Scott Long into the waiting arms of CamGraham) for our only touchdowns, and failed to score on the opening drive, which was a huge momentum swing early in the game.

The game just sorta sucked, was mostly boring, and the announcers were terrible.

The Kragtastic

Mike pointed out in the game thread (do a ctl-F for "WE ONLY HAVE EIGHT PLAYS") that we only have eight plays. He may actually be correct:

Run up the middle

Burke drops back to pass, there's nothing there, Burke scrambles (probably our best play)

Screen to the running back (every so often to the WR) - rarely works

3-step drop, quick jump ball to Scott Long

Play-action rollout, Tronzo underneath, Beaumont at the next level.

Whatever play that results in CamGraham open underneath or in the flat

Reverse

Slant to Scott Long

Play No. 1 was not effective, and Krag was surprised in this morning's CJ:

They pressured a little bit more," said Kragthorpe, adding that the Cards had to abandon the run once they fell behind. "On first down they had some different inside linebacker dogs that they hadn't run a whole lot."

Really? They were able to stop the run up the middle? We had 19 plays on first down, and by my count from the espn.com game chart, on 12 of those we ran the ball, more often than not up the middle. We had one play where we faked the FB dive and then pitched out, but it was covered nicely by Utah. But I don't remember many sweeps, many outside runs, misdirections, counters or play action on first down. I think they knew a No. 1 was coming more often than not on first down, and they ran a defense that countered it. That's some Kragtastic play-calling in the run game.

While not going for two points ultimately didn't cost anything because we didn't score again and Utah did, that would seem to be coaching 101. You scored a touchdown that gets you down 10, the only way to make it a 1-possession game is to go for 2. Maybe Krag was so shocked we scored a TD even though he called a No. 8 that was a yard short of the first down and 12 yards away from the end zone, even if caught.

Adam Froman played on special teams. I am not making this up.  Burke had to limp off the field at one point, and Froman is coming back from injury. I really can't see any upside to doing this? Unless he was looking to test Will Stein.

The overall awfulness that is Kragthorpe-coached Louisville football.

Ugh. I feel lousy. Glad I did this. Anyone have their own good, bad, and Kragtastic they want to share?

Connecticut 26, Louisville 21

Mike Rutherford — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 11:34:49 -0000

Sigh. The weekend's over, it's time to face this one.

If I said "I don't understand how we just lost that game" - or some slight variation - one time Friday night, I said it 20 times. Three days later I still have no handle on how it happened. Of course this is what fans of UConn victims have been saying for the past two years.

It's not a debate anymore, Vic Anderson is the real deal. If I could have frozen time the moment he caught the dump pass from Cantwell near the end of the first half, I would have put the odds of him getting into the endzone at no better than 10:1. He has the potential to be very special.

I have my doubts over whether or not a quarterback unable to move well enough to make a simple handoff should be taking snaps with the game on the line, but I suppose you have to listen to a senior leader when he says he can go. Bum ankle or not, there's no excuse for Hunter making that throw, especially given the amount of time he had.

Josh Chichester's good is still outweighing his bad, but both are unquestionably present. Cantwell was definitely too keyed in on the big man after the first quarter, a habit which likely cost us six points when he missed a wide open Brock Bolen down the right sideline.

Awesome to see Bilal finally break out. The prospects of an Anderson/Powell backfield for the next two seasons might be the biggest thing this program has going for it.

Penalties absolutely killed us. Earl Heyman's questionable roughing the passer led to a Husky score, Abdul Kuyateh's second false start turned a crucial 3rd and 2 into a 3rd and 7, and I'm pretty sure at least one of the 52 not enough men on the line of scrimmage infractions was costly. The final tally shows just seven flags for 60 yards, but the severity of almost all of them made it feel like much more.

Donald Brown is a future pro, and he deserves more Heisman pub than he's receiving.

I don't understand how the secondary continually allows the middle of the field to exist uncovered. I realize that English was bringing Thomas or Buchanan up to help out against the run, but there were three or four plays where the Connecticut receiver camping out between the hashes didn't have a defender within ten yards of him. That just can't happen.

Me thinks Zach Frazer was the better option at QB for UConn all along. If he can keep opposing secondaries at least semi-honest, then this could be a team the nation sees being blown out in a BCS game.

I'm going to go ahead and step up and take a solid chunk of the blame for this one. I left the hat I'd worn for the Tennessee Tech and Kansas State games over at a friend's house a couple of weekends ago, and ended up being forced to go with my number two. I was worried about this from the day's outset, and I think it's safe to say that my fears were confirmed.

I don't blame you, Stoudt.

It's not really his fault, but the ten minutes of cliche after cliche being hurled in a monotone voice that is the Steve Kragthorpe postgame interview is almost impossible to take after a loss like Friday's. A tipsy friend in the backseat of our car hopelessly said, "I can't take it, turn it off" at least three times while Krags was busy delivering the script any one of us could prepare at this point.

The three fourth-down attempts blew my mind. I realize that Dougherty still isn't 100%, but how are we ever going to know what his ceiling is if we never trot him out there? Kragthorpe said the wind was the biggest factor in each of the decisions, but the wind was at U of L's back the third time. Making the move even less understandable is the fact that Cantwell had just left the game, and the only other option besides trying the 42 or 43 yarder was apparently a draw play on 4th and six. Opting not to take three hurt us badly in a couple of games last year (hey, Syracuse), and it might have cost us the game Friday night.

Being removed of placekicking duties did not help Chris Philpott on kickoffs. Desi Cullen, on the other hand, was a huge weapon for the Huskies. Wonder where the hell they found him.

Doug Beaumont: still awesome.

It's not an original complaint, but I had some serious issues with the music on Friday. Playing nothing for five minutes and then blasting the beginning of a song for three seconds before play resumes is frustrating, as is the choice of "Highway to the Dangerzone" in the moments leading up to the biggest offensive play of the game. Full blame for that interception goes to Loggins.

I came scary close to throwing my second-string hat when the deadball timeout was called.

The play worked, but I don't understand not using a lead-blocker on third and short, especially one as capable as Joe Tronzo.

Hope that joint was great, Matt.

Dexter Heyman may have made the most impressive defensive play of the season thus far when he came flying out of nowhere to keep Donald Brown from getting the corner and prancing into the endzone. When I saw the play developing, I didn't think there was any way one of our guys was going to be able to get there.

Chris Campa also deserves a shout-out for flying around the field and throwing some weight around all night. Sans a bad offsides penalty, Mo Mitchell was another standout.

Serious question: was Anderson's return to the 25 after he botched the initial catch the longest kick return we've had all season? I can't remember any better.

The Connecticut player waving bye to the crowd and doing the international sign for "shh" after Cantwell's last interception is almost less cool than Larry Taylor. Almost.

A bye week, and then at Memphis on a Friday night followed by a Saturday home game against Middle Tennessee. The city's not exactly going to be buzzing for the first 3/4 of October...hopefully, I suppose.

508-279. Son of a bitch.