Kragthorpe Shuffles Cards After Louisville's Late-Season Collapse

The Big East Conference may not have a team ranked in the top 25 when the national polls are released later this month. If the results of the conference's annual preseason media poll are any indication, you might have a better chance to identity the winner with a flip of the coin. Pittsburgh emerged as the favorite from a tight field that saw four different teams earn multiple first-place votes.

If there is a team that best reflects the conference's struggle to find its identity, it could be Louisville. The Cardinals were one victory away of becoming bowl eligible last season, but they closed with five consecutive losses, punctuated by a 49-point stinker to Rutgers in the season finale.

Despite the mess, Louisville is optimistic that this season will be different. It probably needs to be for head coach Steve Kragthorpe.

Kragthorpe, whose team opens preseason practice Thursday, is looking to navigate Louisville back into bowl contention after winning just 11 games and failing to make the postseason in his two years at the helm.

Fans will point out that while former head coach Bobby Petrino may need advice on exit strategies -- he abruptly left both Louisville and the Atlanta Falcons and has since landed at Arkansas -- he led the Cardinals to 41 wins and four consecutive bowl games during a tenure that was part of the best stretch of play in the program's history.

To put it further in historical perspective, if Louisville fails to win five games this year, it will be the first time the program's wins total has declined for three consecutive seasons since 1973-75.

While fans may moan that Louisville Athletic Director Tom Jurich has consistently stood by Kragthorpe, the head coach believes the Cardinals can recapture the program's high level of play. And that journey begins in preseason practice.

"Everybody knows we have to go out there every day and we have to be at our very, very best and we have to compete every day," said Kragthorpe, who was tabbed an up-and-coming star after he led Tulsa to three consecutive eight-win seasons in four years prior to replacing Petrino.

In response to the Cardinals' collapse, Kragthorpe fired offensive coordinator Jeff Brohm, among others, and has taken over the offense and will call the plays this year. And Kragthorpe's first priority is to find a starting quarterback.

Junior college transfer Adam Froman and Justin Burke, who transferred from North Carolina State, emerged as the top two candidates during spring drills. Redshirt freshman Zack Stoudt and walk-on Will Stein are also trying to make their case for the job.

"Obviously, we want to see a guy step up and be the leader of our football team, not just the leader of the offense, because I think that's one of the things the quarterback position entails," Kragthorpe said.

"[Our offense] will be a little dependent upon who the quarterback is and obviously we want to the put the ball in the guy's hand to make plays and we are going to try to determine that as quickly as we possibly can throughout the course of training camp.

"We have a base way of doing things, our installation in terms of our schemes and how we are going to do things. But we are going to tailor the offense every week and customize the offense every week to the guys that are making plays and stepping up, and finding ways to create matchups for those guys to get the ball in space and make plays."



Sophomore running back Victor Anderson certainly fits that bill.

Anderson was the Big East Rookie of the Year last season and the first Louisville rusher since 2005 to gain more than 1,000 yards. He rushed for more than 100 yards in five games, including a career-high 176-yard, three touchdown performance against Kansas State, and finished with 1,047 yards and eight touchdowns. The Cardinals also return their two leading receivers and four players with starting experience on the line.

Offensively, the Cardinals must take better care of the football this season. They were 0-7 last year in games where they committed the same amount or more turnovers than their opponent. On the flip side, Louisville was 5-0 when it had less turnovers than its opponent.

The defense also will have new leadership under Brent Guy. The former Utah State head coach was hired to replace Ron English, who left to become the head coach at Eastern Michigan.

While the Cardinals finished seventh in the conference in total defense (368.8 yards per game), Guy has installed a new scheme that he hopes will allow the team to play faster. The strength of the defense should be at linebacker, headed by returning leading tackler Jon Dempsey.

Louisville also doesn't expect to catch any breaks with its schedule. The Cardinals play five road games during an eight game stretch. However, an early road showdown that could help swing momentum in Louisville's favor is at in-state rival Kentucky Sept. 19.

While the Cardinals weren't shown much love during the league's media day last week -- for the second straight year, Louisville was picked to finish next to last in the conference's preseason media poll -- Kragthorpe pointed to league parity. In 2007, for instance, Connecticut was picked seventh yet earned a share of the conference title with West Virginia. Last year, Cincinnati was selected fifth and won the league.

"It's where you finish; it's not where you start," Kragthorpe said. "Every year somebody is going to jump up and be the team to beat. Every year this league has seemingly gone down to the last weekend of the year to see who is going to be the champion."

Senior receiver Scott Long says the Cardinals don't need to look to preseason polls for motivation.

"This team is self-motivated," he said. "We didn't live up to our standard last year, and that motivates us enough. We don't need a preseason poll to light the fire under us."