I know the Pravda view coming from the UL administration is that Bobby Petrino left a program that was doomed to collapse because of poor recruiting and a roster full of bad apples.  You can think whatever you want about that.  I believe it as much as the Communist headline, "Long Waits for Stale Bread - Good For Your Health!".  One such "bad apple" that left the program after Saint Steve (SS) arrived is Anthony Allen.  Everyone surely remembers this terrible kid.  Military family, played as a true freshman (so grades were probably not an issue), holds the single game UL rushing record.  He was such a bad kid that he had to transfer to an awful insitution of higher learning to continue his football career (Georgia Tech).

I dont follow the Yellow Jackets but I did run across Anthony's stat lines for his first season with them. 

32 carries for 367 yards and 3 TDS.  4 recs for 81 yards and another TD.  The 367 is bloated a bit by an 82 yard TD run but even without, the average is still 9+ per carry.  I dont know why he isnt getting more touches.  Maybe Saint Steve's cousin is their offensive coordinator.

The one thing the Cards have going for them is that we have a surplus of talent at tailback (and Tronzo isnt a bad fullback either).  With Coach Petrino, the offense was balanced and tailored to match the talent.  With Saint Steve, who knows what you will get each week.  I suspect the next "bad apple" to leave will be Darius Ashley.   Lets just hope he doesnt end up another stat stuffing RB that we wish we had in our backfield.

I was fortunate enough to be in Louisville to see the Cards beat South Florida last year.  I walked into the stadium skeptical but still with some hope that what I was seeing on the field was still "growing pains" for the new "coach".   A few Scott Long TDs later and a win over a ranked team and I felt pretty good, still skeptical, but pretty good.  Since that time, I dont recall having anything to feel good about with the football program.  Now I feel beat down and ready for something, anything to go right.  This program is making me feel like one of those times at a casino when you are dropping chips on "RED" at the roulette table and "Black" has come up 58 times in a row.  You know it eventually has to turn your way but the results make you increasingly uncomfortable (and poor in this example).  So I am continuing to bet on "RED".  I am looking at these results....

- Scott Long gets hurt - "BLACK"

- We lose game after game after game - "BLACK"

- Cantwell continues to throw with a puzzling motion that makes him an easy target.  No one bothers to fix this. "BLACK"

- The kicking game continues to be laughable making us miss Art Carmody and wonder why we spend scholarships on kickers that cant kick. - "BLACK"

- The defense is decimated by injuries but that doesnt mean the players shouldnt know where to line up in a formation. No excuse - "BLACK"

- Rutgers punks us - "BLACK"                                                                                               

- UK lucks into another bowl game - "BLACK"

- Player after player leaves the program - "BLACK"

Keep in mind that all along in this, Jurich and the spin company are standing behind me at the casino telling me that "RED" is the way to go.  They are confident that betting on "RED" is much better than going with "BLACK" and winning the "Wrong way like that COACH that went 41-9.

- Recruiting is the way out of this mess but we continue to take chances on "good" kids that the recruiting services dont even take time to go watch. - "BLACK"

- Jeff Brohm GONE - "BLACK"

- We hire 5 or 6 defensive coordinators in 3 week's time - "BLACK"

- "Coach" Kragthorpe assumes total control over the team (and the table) - "BLACK"

- Greg Brohm GONE - "BLACK"

- A few more players leave the program.  Mozell Axson is out for the season - "BLACK"

- Some joke assistant to the assistant AD fills in for Jurich because he was noticably absent from the football kickoff and goes on to claim, "WE have the best bet in this casino and we are gambling in the right way with the right type of chips!".  I dont think she meant me in this "WE" statement eventhough its my @#%^# money thats being bet. - "BLACK"

So, where does this leave me?  Broke.  Disillusioned.  Falling into depression and debt.  Looking forward to a season of pulling against UK rather than for UL.

I think I'll just go play craps.

Notre Dame is about to come calling on Mr. Jurich.  I saw yesterday that the AD is leaving and they would be looking in about "100 directions" for his replacement.  My guess is that a lot of those directions will be due south of South Bend and the length of the state of Indiana.  Jurich has been great at UL but if Notre Dame calls, you leave.  The only exception to this is if you want to be the undisputed "man" at a school.  I'm no expert but I cant see the Notre Dame AD being as omnipotent as Jurich can be at UL.  I'd say this is something we should all be concerned about.  The one position Tom probably doesnt have a list of candidates for at UL is his own.  That leaves the search up to the University and thats a little scary.

• Coach P.  Commit this to memory, "Will Scott will never again take minutes away from Preston Knowles".  For God's sake, Knowles hits as many threes and can defend without committing a foul every time down court.
• The final 20 seconds looked like every other end-of-half effort that we have botched over the past few years.  Call a T.O. and tell everyone to make sure the ball goes through Padgett.
• Sosa did more things right than wrong tonight (a step in the right direction).
• Twill hit a few shots but killed us in key moments.
• We miss free throws at the wrong time.  We cant hit 1-2 when we have a small lead in the first half.  Those points keep the pressure on the other team.
• The attack plan on Thabeet was wrong.  Padgett and DC can both take the guy once he bodies up to them.  Uconn doesnt double down with him so the up and under works.  We did it like once with a big player.  When Palacios and Clark try it, they cant bump him first and he can set and block the shot.
• McGee is a lot better defender than I ever thought he would be.  I am offically going to stop calling him Wee Man.
• I dont understand why the refs allowed the clock to stop just under 3 minutes and then stretched it to the under 3 TO.  They stopped play because of cramps?  If thats a rule, then how do WNBA games not last as long as a cricket match???
• For the St. X grads, please read that last one again.  It will probably take you a few minutes and a google search or two to get the joke.

I spent my Sunday morning in Manila trying to get the UL game to stream on the internet.  Apparently, WHAS, WLAP, Yahoo, etc all block international access to the radio feed.  I guess they dont want anyone in the Philippines to hear their commercials and try to order some Purnell old folks country sausage from KY.  The game was on at 5am local time on Sunday here.  I woke up at 4:45am like any good UL fan would and logged on.  It took me the entire first half to find a way to fool the nazi block on my radio broadcast (I logged on through my work IP address and it allowed WHAS to see me as a US IP..brilliant).  Listening here was awesome.  I was yelling at the start of the second half and ended up opening my hotel door and high fiving two Filipino room service waiters that were walking down the hall.  They were scared.  I was happy.  Even a long way from home, UK sucks.  That was abundantly clear on Sunday (or Saturday where you are) and now even Filipinos know it.

My name is Orlandocard and I have a problem.  I am the last honest U of L fan left on the damn planet red.  I am being bombarded by message board posts, blogs, and friends bashing Petrino.  You might really believe that you wouldnt want BP back coaching the Cards but thats just emotion talking.  Cut through the BS.  Petrino is a GD idiot but he won 41 out of 50 games.  As long as he continued to win, he could have the AD from Notre Dame on the sidelines interviewing him with Erin Andrews giving her side of the story to Kirk and Chris Fowler.  He won the Liberty Bowl after interviewing for the LSU job.  I forgot about it quickly.  He was thinking about where to live in Atlanta while he was winning the Orange Bowl and I didnt care.  

Do you really care about the integrity side as long as the Cards win and they stay off probation? (and they wouldnt win on probation so that is a moot point)

For that matter, would I take Willie Williams back as long as he was not a risk in the NCAAs eyes?  Of course I would.  He ate some pot.  Big deal.  Go hit somebody.  God knows we needed that Ray Lewis "I recently killed" approach to the defense this year.  

Nice guys lose.  I'd rather spend time at Papa Johns watching the Cards stomp a team mercifully than worry about whether or not our coach was a saint.

So go ahead and fool yourself on this one.  You'd take him back.  You know you would.

Coach P said on his show that George Goode did not clear customs and will not be suiting up this season.  He is attempting to get allowed to at least practice with the team.  

Who is in charge of helping the coaches screen these guys?  Why cant they win some of these?  A 1 player freshmen class stinks and will hurt us down the line no matter how good next year's is.  Look at what happened to UK.  They had good recruiting classes every other year and its hard to tie them together for pushes for championships with the gaps.  

Preson Knowles might be good but 1 player is pretty sad.

Liked:  The uniforms.  Its taken me quite a while to get used to the new lettering but they looked great on TV.

Disliked:  The picture quality on our locally televised games is terrible.  Of course its made worse by my HD bias.

Liked:  The prospects of watching other teams try to match up against the Cardinal offense at every position.  Get ready for plenty of zone because man 2 man is not going to work.

Disliked:  Bob Valvano.  He is hard to take and with satellite you cant get the radio broadcast to align.

Liked:  40-20 out of DC and Padgett.

Disliked:  Andre "wee man" McGee.  The over-under on Knowles spelling Sosa is Christmas.

Liked:  The fear you can smell from UK fans as they had a 3 day awakening to the football team coming down to earth and the prospects of their tiny tots trying to matchup with the Cards interior.

Continue reading this post »

Let me preface this by saying I have absolutely no "credibility" to lean on like many that call radio talk shows claiming to be a pop warner coach or a former player at some level or another.  That said, I did sit 4 rows from the UL bench and watched the coaching staff do their thing during the Syracuse game.

• First of all, the sideline was chaos from the start.  There were hundreds of spirit girl kids all over the place and random people (not with the team) mulling about.  The team came out fired up. It was absolutely infuriating to see John Russell, Bolen and Sergio all walk out with no pads.  Coach needs to at least give an injury report.  Seeing them like that was deflating.  It will be the same with Harry next week and could be for weeks to come but we wont hear a damn thing.
• The open receiver on the first play from scrimmage was seen from every person sitting around me before the UL team seemed to notice.  I looked at him, glanced back at the QB before he rolled way wide and then hoped he wouldnt get a clear throw.  When he caught it, I think I was closer to him than the closest defender.
• This scenario kept occuring throughout the game and I dont want to drag myself back through it.
• The scary part from yesterday was that the defensive backs were rarely spoken to by the coaches.  Rod Council sat behind the bench on a gatorade cooler between series with his head down.  Buchanan and Heath sat near each other but no one seemed to coach them.  God knows I cant coach but I would think that a few pointers between plays might be a good idea when they are continually out of position.
• With Petrino, everyone had their place on the sideline.  Yesterday, coaches had to go looking for players to get ready to go in on a punt or kick.
• Coach K walked around and said nothing to players for long stretches of the game.  In two cases during timeouts, he stood in the huddle talking on the mic while the players watched.
• At least 4 times, players were standing near the sideline and were told to go get in the game like 5 seconds before the play started.
• On two occasions, Brian was standing with his arms out asking for a play while Coach K looked at that GD laminated play sheet he carries.
• The booing hurts the team.  I have booed at every game but I wont for the remainder of the season after seeing how the players react to it.  This team needs all the positive mojo they can get because they certainly arent getting it from the coaching staff.
• Brian was on the phone with the booth several times talking and shaking his head.  He was frustrated even while throwing for 555.
• None of the players took Syracuse seriously until they went down 21-7.  When they scored the first two TDs, everyone seemed to be nonchalant about it.  Once down 14 it changed to fear.  No one looked like they thought they were going to win the game.
• I cant stress this enough.  I saw little evidence that the Coaches are coaching.  They dont talk to the players enough.  They didnt yell and scream.  The players were left to themselves.
• Last and certainly not least.  UK still sucks.

I posted this on Insidetheville Smackboard and couldnt get one UK fan to bite.  Maybe they cant read more than 5 lines.  ANYBODY OUT THERE????  What do you think?

My 10 cents worth.....an admittedly biased opinion...

Quarterback

Brohm/Cantwell vs. Woodson  -  Edge to UL

I add Cantwell in because I think he will play and be effective.  Woodson will be chased all day long so whatever talent he might have will not be allowed to shine.

WRs - Douglas/Urrutia vs Burton/Lyons - Edge to UL

This is not as close as the CJ will make it.  Douglas is the best WR in college football.  When healthy, Urrutia has conistently been great.  Who do you double in the secondary?  Burton can get deep and Lyons is opportunistic but neither can match the consistency of Douglas or the matchup problem Urrutia creates.

TEs - Barnidge and Kuhn vs Tamme and ?? - Push

Barnidge and Kuhn are both solid blockers and Barnidge is a 3rd down catching machine but Tamme is a tough matchup for every team UK plays.  He may get underutilized because he will have to be kept in to pass protect.

Oline - Edge to UL

Both lines have questions but UL has an All American center.  If you are going to have questions, its best to know that the center exchange is not going to be one of them.

D-line - Huge Edge to UL

KY has one player - Pryor - that could even play for UL, and I doubt he would start.  UL is thin in depth at DE but 6 deep in tackle.

Linebacker - Huge Edge to UL

By midseason it will be evident that UL's linebackers are among the nation's best.  Malik Jackson and Lamar Myles are superstars and there is plenty of depth to go with them.

Secondary - Push

UK has a potential all-american at CB.  UL has great safeties.  If Turrene is as good as he is being billed, the balance could tilt to UL but for now, I'll call it a push.

Special Teams (returns) - Push - Its proven in this series that special teams is what can make a close game a blow out or get a team back in contention.

Burton is an awesome kick returner.  Spillman and Guy can do the same with punts but they arent as proven as Burton.  

Special Teams (kicking) - Big edge to UL

Carmody is the best and UL has experience for kickoffs and punts.  I have no idea what UK has but they cant match this.

Special Teams (defense) - Edge to UK
UL may block a punt in this game but they are just as likely to give up a TD.

Coaching - Push

Brooks is an idiot and proves it all the time.  Kragthorpe is an unknown.

Intangibles - Push

UK has home field but that hasnt meant much in Lexington.  UK also is likely to think they are better than they are so stopping a quick start from UL is critical.  If the Cards score first, it will get ugly.