:mj07:
They just keep doing the things they need to win games though, nobody is handing them victories, but everyone thinks Rutgers is going to be Cardinal Killers tonight, I thought it was a possiblility a few weeks ago, but just don't see it after watching Rutgers and Louisville play their last 3 games....
Louisville 38 Rutgers 21
5 units
Also an interesting article by a Texas Reporter for some more of you "have no defense" critics:
Louisville Sluggers
Why a BCS title shot could be in the Cards.
By Kirk Bohls
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
My decision to stick little ol' louisville in the No. 2 slot on my Associated Press ballot just behind
POWERFUL OHIO STATE seems to have raised a stink around here.
Unbeaten louisville, I'd remind folks.
Ohio State would chew up Bobby Petrino's team and spit it out, you say. Kind of like people were
saying the unbeatable Miami Hurricanes would do a number on a double-digit underdog Buckeyes team
in that 2003 Fiesta Bowl.
Sorry, I'm not buying it. I think louisville is for real.
Now, the cardinals may well lose one of their last four games. They have to go to undefeated Rutgers this Thursday and to Pittsburgh on Nov. 25, and have a decent South Florida at home in between. But the weekly poll is about how a team is doing right now, this very minute. Say what you want about louisville's defense giving up 540 yards in its showdown victory over West Virginia . . . it seems to me Texas Tech blitzed Texas for 518 yards recently, too.
Observers talked only of the Longhorns' dramatic comeback. But there wasn't a whisper that they no longer deserve a spot in the BCS title game because of a bad defense.
Nice double standard.
"I don't care how many yards we gave up against West Virginia," said Rocco Gasparro, louisville's
associate athletic director. "There's no difference in that and the Texas-USC game. That was up and
down the field in an offensive game. People forget about those."
Do they ever. Nobody talks about that Rose Bowl matchup as anything but a classic. Nobody brings up that the Texas and USC offenses totaled 1,130 yards on the Texas and USC defenses.
And you know why? Pedigree. Texas and Southern Cal have it. louisville does not. It's not in the club.
And that is a reflection of pure bias, the one commodity the AP panelists desperately try to avoid.
Deep down, I really think Texas has an excellent chance of reaching the championship game and would
deserve it. But I also believe louisville merits the exact same consideration at this point, because it is a perfect 8-0.
A number of interested parties have taken issue with my ballot and have suggested the cardinals couldn't beat Texas' second team. A main bone of contention revolves around conference affiliations. The Big East is pitiful, critics suggest. But its nonconference record was 32-8, the league's best ever. Throw out games against Division I-AA, and the conference is still 26-8.
The Big 12, on the other hand, was winless in eight games versus teams ranked in the coaches' poll. If nonconference games against I-AA competition are discounted, the Big 12 went 23-14.
The Big East batted .250 against Top 25 foes with a 1-3 record and can thank louisville for its only victory, an early win over Miami. Syracuse fell to a Drew Tate-less Iowa team in double overtime while Cincinnati hung with Ohio State for three quarters before losing and led Virginia Tech in the fourth quarter before falling.
The Big 12's marquee victory? Try Kansas' resounding win over South Florida. That's right. The Jayhawks beat a 6-3 South Florida team.
Our beloved league leads the nation in almosts. Colorado almost beat Georgia, Oklahoma almost beat Oregon with the biggest asterisk in college football history, and Baylor almost beat Washington State.
This week offers some interesting intrigue because Texas goes to Manhattan to take on a Kansas State team that lost at home to this same louisville, 24-6. That was a cardinals team that had already lost star tailback Michael Bush to a broken leg and quarterback Brian Brohm to a thumb injury. Backup quarterback Hunter Cantwell had played in just two meaningful games in his career, but beat the
Wildcats.
Cantwell, like Brohm, is considered NFL material. So is louisville quarterback recruit Matt Simms. If
the name rings a bell, that's Phil Simms' other boy.
louisville is for real. It has a crackerjack coach in Petrino, who makes Mack Brown money at $2.5
million over 10 years. It has excellent facilities, including a new $9 million indoor facility, and is
expanding its stadium to 63,000 and doubling its 25 luxury suites.
But here's a real good way to determine if louisville is in Texas' class:
Petrino has scheduled a home-and-home series with Georgia and is working on one with Louisiana
State.
However, Georgia Tech recently backed out of a 2007 game with louisville, which now needs an
opponent and would love to play the Longhorns. Technically, Texas has a vacancy, but associate AD
Butch Worley said it has an agreement for a "buy game" with an opponent that "will not knock your
socks off."
A Texas-louisville game would be a great matchup, one that ESPN would love.
But according to orangeblood fans, the Longhorns think louisville is beneath them. Or should be, in the polls.
:SIB
They just keep doing the things they need to win games though, nobody is handing them victories, but everyone thinks Rutgers is going to be Cardinal Killers tonight, I thought it was a possiblility a few weeks ago, but just don't see it after watching Rutgers and Louisville play their last 3 games....
Louisville 38 Rutgers 21
5 units
Also an interesting article by a Texas Reporter for some more of you "have no defense" critics:
Louisville Sluggers
Why a BCS title shot could be in the Cards.
By Kirk Bohls
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
My decision to stick little ol' louisville in the No. 2 slot on my Associated Press ballot just behind
POWERFUL OHIO STATE seems to have raised a stink around here.
Unbeaten louisville, I'd remind folks.
Ohio State would chew up Bobby Petrino's team and spit it out, you say. Kind of like people were
saying the unbeatable Miami Hurricanes would do a number on a double-digit underdog Buckeyes team
in that 2003 Fiesta Bowl.
Sorry, I'm not buying it. I think louisville is for real.
Now, the cardinals may well lose one of their last four games. They have to go to undefeated Rutgers this Thursday and to Pittsburgh on Nov. 25, and have a decent South Florida at home in between. But the weekly poll is about how a team is doing right now, this very minute. Say what you want about louisville's defense giving up 540 yards in its showdown victory over West Virginia . . . it seems to me Texas Tech blitzed Texas for 518 yards recently, too.
Observers talked only of the Longhorns' dramatic comeback. But there wasn't a whisper that they no longer deserve a spot in the BCS title game because of a bad defense.
Nice double standard.
"I don't care how many yards we gave up against West Virginia," said Rocco Gasparro, louisville's
associate athletic director. "There's no difference in that and the Texas-USC game. That was up and
down the field in an offensive game. People forget about those."
Do they ever. Nobody talks about that Rose Bowl matchup as anything but a classic. Nobody brings up that the Texas and USC offenses totaled 1,130 yards on the Texas and USC defenses.
And you know why? Pedigree. Texas and Southern Cal have it. louisville does not. It's not in the club.
And that is a reflection of pure bias, the one commodity the AP panelists desperately try to avoid.
Deep down, I really think Texas has an excellent chance of reaching the championship game and would
deserve it. But I also believe louisville merits the exact same consideration at this point, because it is a perfect 8-0.
A number of interested parties have taken issue with my ballot and have suggested the cardinals couldn't beat Texas' second team. A main bone of contention revolves around conference affiliations. The Big East is pitiful, critics suggest. But its nonconference record was 32-8, the league's best ever. Throw out games against Division I-AA, and the conference is still 26-8.
The Big 12, on the other hand, was winless in eight games versus teams ranked in the coaches' poll. If nonconference games against I-AA competition are discounted, the Big 12 went 23-14.
The Big East batted .250 against Top 25 foes with a 1-3 record and can thank louisville for its only victory, an early win over Miami. Syracuse fell to a Drew Tate-less Iowa team in double overtime while Cincinnati hung with Ohio State for three quarters before losing and led Virginia Tech in the fourth quarter before falling.
The Big 12's marquee victory? Try Kansas' resounding win over South Florida. That's right. The Jayhawks beat a 6-3 South Florida team.
Our beloved league leads the nation in almosts. Colorado almost beat Georgia, Oklahoma almost beat Oregon with the biggest asterisk in college football history, and Baylor almost beat Washington State.
This week offers some interesting intrigue because Texas goes to Manhattan to take on a Kansas State team that lost at home to this same louisville, 24-6. That was a cardinals team that had already lost star tailback Michael Bush to a broken leg and quarterback Brian Brohm to a thumb injury. Backup quarterback Hunter Cantwell had played in just two meaningful games in his career, but beat the
Wildcats.
Cantwell, like Brohm, is considered NFL material. So is louisville quarterback recruit Matt Simms. If
the name rings a bell, that's Phil Simms' other boy.
louisville is for real. It has a crackerjack coach in Petrino, who makes Mack Brown money at $2.5
million over 10 years. It has excellent facilities, including a new $9 million indoor facility, and is
expanding its stadium to 63,000 and doubling its 25 luxury suites.
But here's a real good way to determine if louisville is in Texas' class:
Petrino has scheduled a home-and-home series with Georgia and is working on one with Louisiana
State.
However, Georgia Tech recently backed out of a 2007 game with louisville, which now needs an
opponent and would love to play the Longhorns. Technically, Texas has a vacancy, but associate AD
Butch Worley said it has an agreement for a "buy game" with an opponent that "will not knock your
socks off."
A Texas-louisville game would be a great matchup, one that ESPN would love.
But according to orangeblood fans, the Longhorns think louisville is beneath them. Or should be, in the polls.
:SIB
