SB Nation User Blog: CardsFan922

#factaboutme i took us to the final 4! Without my one on one defense and left handed block we going...

CardsFan922 — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 22:00:32 -0000

#factaboutme i took us to the final 4! Without my one on one defense and left handed block we going home.

http://twitter.com/bjenks11/status/6942197462

Mike sanford is our new offensive coordinator. Excited about having mike at louisville

CardsFan922 — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 18:23:25 -0000

Mike sanford is our new offensive coordinator. Excited about having mike at louisville

http://twitter.com/CharlieStrong10/status/6936852545

Strong (ahem) Start To Recruiting

CardsFan922 — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 02:48:38 -0000

Looks like the hopes and dreams about Charlie Strong's recruiting prowess are starting to come true early.

Louisville landed 2010 speedster Corvin Lamb from Miami (Northwestern) High School and Louisville junior Devante Parker, according to Demling and other sources. Also, Iowa DE Tyler Harrell is transferring to UofL.

UPDATE: Demling reporting juniors Jamon Brown and Jerrell Moore (both Fern Creek) also committed tonight.

In addition, Mike is reporting (tweet-porting?) that Zach Stoudt is sadly transferring to a JUCO.

Parker is "Louisville's best wide receiver" prospect according to ITV. And there are some videos floating around of him (he wears #1):

Update Two, Video of Lamb:

Can't wait to see what sort of recruits this guy can bring in with a full year of work and a full staff.

Oral Roberts Preview

CardsFan922 — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 18:30:02 -0000

First, please pause for a brief moment of silence before reading the rest of this entry in honor of Oral Roberts, who died yesterday at the age of 91.

MOMENT OF SILENCE

Thank you. Now, on to a preview of a must-win mid-December game against Oral Roberts, who just lost to Indiana State.

Basketball Prospectus has a must-read-and-weep piece about how this year's team may not be able to turn this around like the last couple of years:

If you’re Pitino the biggest red-flag to arise even in murky December might be this: Louisville’s opponents so far this season (Arkansas, East Tennessee State, Morgan State, Appalachian State, UNLV, Stetson, Charlotte, Western Carolina) are shooting better from the floor than did the historically scary monster known as the Big East last year. That doesn’t bode well for the ‘Ville this year.

Ya, that's a pretty big red flag. The whole article is worth reading.

Oral Roberts limps into Freedom Hall with a couple of wounded big men, according to the Tulsa World.

ORU will be trying to regroup from Sunday's 60-54 loss at Indiana State and another sobering round of bumps and bruises. The Eagles started the game with six scholarship athletes and were down to five after sophomore swingman Kyron Stokes sprained his ankle in the first half and played only 10 minutes.

Apparently Stokes will play, though.

Finally, patience, not panic and other words words words from the Courier-Journal:

"Our backs are up against the wall," UofL guard Edgar Sosa said. "Right now everybody is considering us to be an NIT team, and we know we're better than that. These two losses really hurt us, and now we really have to play with all we got and leave it all out on the floor because we can't afford to lose anymore."

Hopefully Good Edgar shows up tonight.

Speaking of which, does this mean Chris Smith can play tonight?

A loss tonight would not end the season, of course, but like Mike said, it would certainly lead to some national "what is wrong with Louisville?" stories after losing 4 of our last 5, including three at home. Especially with Western coming Saturday, we could limp into the Big East with a (gulp) losing record. So, you know, play good tonight guys. Please.

Orlando Sentinel: Louisville expects UF's Charlie Strong to be next head coach

CardsFan922 — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 03:29:35 -0000

Orlando Sentinel: Louisville expects UF's Charlie Strong to be next head coach

Jurich said he has not talked money with Strong and the school is "working through an offer."

"I expect him to be our next head coach," Jurich said. "He wants to be our coach. But I don't want to jump the gun. We don't have an agreement until a deal is signed."

Sports! A Championship Saturday / College Basketball Open Thread

CardsFan922 — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 14:55:42 -0000

It's that time of year again. The closest we'll get to a playoff happens today, with conference championship games being played across the country. UK v. UNC basketball at 12:30. And to top it all off, a UofL Saturday night basketball game at Freedom Hall.

Fun day for sports. Everyone feel free to stop by and weigh in. Tebow could care less about your opinion.

via gratuity.files.wordpress.com

Our Short, Regional Nightmare is Over: Kragthorpe Out as Coach

CardsFan922 — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 15:58:50 -0000

What started as very early morning message board rumors, picked up steam at approximately 10:33 AM when Pat Forde joined the crew on Gameday for an announcement, and became basically official with multiple reports (ESPN.com, LSR, ITV), is the biggest news of the season, a sentence many of us have been waiting to write, read, say aloud, text or even Tweet: Steve Kragthorpe is no longer the coach of the University of Louisville football team. A noon news conference will make it official.

So now the waiting starts. Will Jurich name a successor today or go through a long search process? With many of the top targets tied up through conference championship and possible BCS games, it may be awhile.

But that is a worry for another day. For today? Go find some oranges and hold them up to the sky, baby. And know that somewhere, a guy that looks like Will Stein but is actually a blogger will be running through the streets of his hometown without his pants on. If you want to combine those two methods of celebration, no matter where you are, the staff here at CardChronicle won't judge. You've earned it.

Official Saturday Kragthorpe Rumor / Other Games Thread

CardsFan922 — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 15:39:04 -0000

Official Saturday Kragthorpe Rumor / Other Games Thread

Forde just said it on Gameday at 10:33 EDT that KRAG is out and Strong is top candidate. The link above is for espn.com story with the same information.

Sumlin and Strong first two mentioned in the espn.com article.

Is our short regional nightmare over? Talk about it and all of today's hot hot football action in the comments.

Links'o Nothing-Good-Happens-In-Tampa Week

CardsFan922 — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:39:24 -0000

Every two years, the University of Louisville football teams heads to Tampa to take on the South Florida Bulls with increasingly bad results:

2003: Overtime Loss After Lefors INT

2005: Total WTF game, USF destroys Brohm, Bush, Mario, etc. 45-14. CardsFan922's streak of bad luck watching UofL games at BW3s on Bardstown Road continues (2004 @Marquette, 2004 Renardo Foster tears ACL)

2007: Treat Guy fumbled the opening kick-off for a USF TD and it went down hill from there. This is the only video evidence I could find of the 55-17 beat down:

So bad things seem to happen in South Florida, for some reason.

But the past doesn't matter, and this will be one of the weaker USF teams to welcome us to Tampa. And the Cards defense has quietly put together defensive scores of 13 (Ark. State), 17 (WVU) and 9 (Syracuse) in the last three weeks. Do we have a shot? Will Froman do a Groethe impression? Also, please note that in the simulated season, BJ Daniels was the starting QB. And we win tomorrow 30-3. We here at CardChron headquarters don't know if the fact the season was right about the first means it will be right about the second.

So what do we know about tomorrow?

According to the Courier-Journal, Adam Froman was mentally there even if he wasn't physically 100%, and they almost put Will Stein into the game against Syracuse. The decision not to proved prescient (your move, Heiser) as Froman led them on the winning TD drive:

"You could tell he was a little rusty," Kragthorpe said. "But he made some nice plays for us off the scrambles. He can make some plays with his feet. He'll be fine."

Coaches considered pulling Froman from the game, but as quarterbacks coach Matt Wells said: "He was so into it mentally."

"If he wouldn't have been there mentally, we would have probably made a change, but he wasn't missing anything mentally," Wells said. "I expect him to come back and play at a high, high level this week."

USF's 9th Year Senior Carlton Mitchell (seriously, how long has that guy been there?) will apparently be healthy enough to play tomorrow, says the Trib:

University of South Florida WR Carlton Mitchell (ankle) is probable for Saturday's game against Louisville.

Mitchell missed last week's game at Rutgers after suffering a high ankle sprain against West Virginia on Oct. 30.

"He's going to dress for the game," USF coach Jim Leavitt said. "How much he plays depends on how well he feels. He's getting close."

Mitchell, who showed no signs of being limited as he sprinted off the practice field Thursday, leads USF with 29 receptions for 542 yards, four touchdowns and 14 years of eligibility.

Part of that quote is altered from the original. Can you guess which?

That same link summarizes the pre-game story lines in a nutshell: bowl-eligibility on the line, as long as they don't turn the ball over:

he Bulls (6-3, 2-3 Big East) can become bowl eligible with a win against Louisville (4-6, 1-4). On paper, that shouldn't be a problem as USF is an 11 1/2 -point favorite.

Turnovers, however, are the big equalizer. Through nine games, USF has committed 18 turnovers, but half (nine) have come in its three losses.

"You just can't turn the football over," offensive coordinator Mike Canales said. "That's been the demise of us."

USF has won only once since Oct. 3, but in that game (a 30-19 win against WVU), the Bulls were turnover-free.

USF better be careful, or Jim Leavitt will scare the bulls--t out of them at halftime:

The Bulls not only got trampled on the field, but also ESPN's A-team announcing crew had little good to say about the Bulls once the game got out of reach.

Even before the second half started and USF trailing 13-0, ESPN sideline reporter Erin Andrews provided a glimpse of the atmosphere around the Bulls.

"It was very loud, very intense, and very scary in there," Andrews reported someone told her of Coach Jim Leavitt's halftime speech.

Anyone who would like to volunteer to comfort EA as part of the D.E.N.N.I.S. system please leave your contact information for her in the comments.

So we face a USF team who was just humiliated on national television, who faces Miami in the Game of the Century next week on ABC at 3:30 PM, and we face them in a place we've never beaten them.

Go Cards!

The Dream Dies Where Most Dreams Die....Indiana

CardsFan922 — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:48:40 -0000

The Dream Dies Where Most Dreams Die....Indiana

Trinity High School product Darren Yeagle scored both goals as Indiana University beat the University of Louisville's No.6-ranked men's soccer team 2-0 Thursday night in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

The Hoosiers (11-9-1), who avenged a 4-0 loss to the Cardinals (13-3-4) during the regular season, will play host to Butler at 2p.m. Sunday in the second round.

...

Yeagle, playing in just his third match against the Cardinals, said beating UofL meant a lot to him.

"Of yeah — I love it," he said. "After the first 15 minutes, we knew we could play with them."