Last night's debacle was the final straw for me. In doing my pre-game reading for the game, I discovered Louisville-Pitt was the lame game of the week. This is Louisville-Pitt, Big-East opener, Friday night, blackout! It doesn't get much better than that for UL. Of course we lost by 25 at home and it was in fact a lame game, probably the 2nd lamest of the season, though all have been lame to quite lame.

So, I decided to take some time this morning and take a closer look at the Koach's results. I think 28 games is more than sufficient for a college football coach to be judged against.

As with any review, let's start with the some of the highlights for beloved Koach:

- 2-0 against MTSU (though we gave up 250 yards rushing and allowed over 9 ypc in the game in '07)

- 3-0 collectively against Memphis, NC State, and Kansas State (Memphis went 6-7, NC State was 5-7, and KSU finished 5-7)

- No egregious losses to any FCS teams

- A close, well-fought battle against UK this year

- A huge win against #16 USF that had me irrationally dreaming of a BE title last season

- Strong support from the AD

And now for the lowlights...

- 9-16 overall record against FBS teams (12-16 overall)

- 25% of wins have come against the FCS

- Has lost 8 straight games against FBS opponents (yes, we're getting worse and not better under Koach; if that's even possible)

- Victim of the biggest upset in college football history (at the time, I think Stanford over USC may have topped the 37 point spread) -- basically Kragthorpe lost to one of the worst teams in football with a Petrino team that would have won the game by about 40 points

- 0-3 against Kentucky; 0-2 against UConn; 0-2 against WVU; 0-2 against Syracuse; 0-2 against Utah. That was exhausting, as was watching each and every one of those 11 losses

- Scoring 15 points per game less than his predecessor while at the same time giving up 10 more points per game

- Home games: 6-7 under Koach; 22-1 under Petrino (Hmmm... This might explain PJCS has been less fun the last couple of years and why expanding the stadium probably isn't a great idea right now)

- 4-11 in the BE

- Ruining Brohm's senior year

- No bowl appearances. I guess not everybody can make a bowl game. There's only 34.

- Press conferences

- Sideline appearance

- Tone of voice

- Relationship with the players

- Injuries, suspensions

- Recruiting

- Play-calling

- Attitude

- Fan support

That about sums it up for me. Did I miss anything?

Assuming we beat Seton Hall on Wednesday, next Saturday's tilt against WVU should be quite the game for a couple reasons.

• UConn will have likely/hopefully/potentially (~60% chance) lost to Pitt earlier in the day and UL will have the chance to lock up its first BE regular season championship. Normally I think of a regular season championship as a completely meaningless achievement in college bball. But winning the BE this year for Louisville would be completely different. Mostly because the selection committee will likely be doling out two automatic #1 seeds to the two best BE teams and winning the conference outright is a pretty good way to enter that conversation.
• Another huge implication then is ULs BE tournament draw as the #1 seed. The #1 seed has a HUGE advantage this year with Dominic James' injury. How great would it be to i) get a 2-day bye ii) take on Cincy/WVU most likely iii) then get to play Marq/Nova instead of Pitt/UConn in the semis to advance to the finals!?!

Scenarios for BE champ. It seems pretty straightforward to me (I think.. and this assumes Pitt beats Marquette at home and assuming we beat SHU at home):

Pitt beats UConn and we beat WVU - UL champs

Pitt beats UConn and we lose to WVU - Pitt champs (winner of three way mini-conference)

UConn beats Pitt and UL/WVU no longer matters - UConn champs (would win any tie-breaker with UL)

Taken together: A #1 seed in the NCAA tourney is much more likely than I originally thought (need to win the conference and advance to the finals of BE tourney)... and WAY more likely than after the ND fiasco two weeks ago.