NCAA Football Louisville Football

It wasn't too long ago that I was opining that Louisville might not be in as bad a shape as everyone thought. I take it back, they're screwed. Before this week, Louisville had lost 21 underclassmen since the beginning of 2007. And this past week has been a lot of the same.

With Trent Guy being shot outside a night club, and JuJuan Spillman being arrested (again) for dui/marijuana possession/concealed weapon, it's time to call in the professionals. And I'm not talking about counselors and security chiefs. We've gone well past all conventional approaches. What this team needs is a complete karma makeover.

Steve Kragthorpe's phone rings....

Hello...

DUDE!!! IT'S TY PENNINGTON!!

Who?...

TY PENNINGTON FROM EXTREME HOME MAKEOVER! WHAT'S UP BRAAAAH?

Scary news from Louisville, as junior receiver Trent Guy (pictured, right) was shot in the back as he left a nightclub early Saturday morning. He was hospitalized (obviously), but doctors expect him to make a full recovery. Police have made no arrests in the case, which makes no sense until you remember the victim is black.

The story is a familiar one, as you might imagine when you hear "nightclub," "early Saturday morning," and "shot." Nothing remarkable shows up in the details: stranger gropes woman, fiancé (in this case, Trent) gets upset, angry words get exchanged, everybody gets kicked out, pop go the shots.

As Guy's fiancée's friend Christopher 2X (uh...?) put it, "[h]e's a very fortunate and lucky young man to be alive." Technically, he's lucky in that his gunshot wound isn't threatening his life, but you know who was luckier than Guy that night? The other 99.9% of people at the club who weren't shot at all.

Grousing aside, it may be time for Louisville head coach Steve Kragthorpe to consider revising team rules on presence at bars. We're not advocating a "stay away forever there be dragons" approach; after all, part of the maturation process is to learn the difference between good and bad decisions, not to be protected from danger at all times.

Still, as Trent Guy and the team just learned, all it takes is one armed idiot to turn a good night out into a tragedy.

(Terrorist fist jab: The Wiz)

Every program has some turnover when there is a coaching change. There are players dissatisfied with the new system, personalities clash, promises made by the old regime are no longer valid, academics can always be an issue.

That's fine, but turning over a quarter of the roster in a little more than 12 months is ridiculous. Especially when a team goes from 12-1 and winning the Orange Bowl to 6-6 and home for the holidays. That appears to be what has happened at Louisville in the year after Bobby Petrino left and Steve Kragthorpe took control.

The Cardinals' beat writer from the Louisville Courier-Journal listed 21 underclassmen who have left the football team from the spring of 2007 to June 2008. While his list included a couple of players who left early for the NFL, it is still a crazy number.

• 4 players had to quit due to medical conditions.
• 6 were simply dismissed from the team.
• 8 transferred, left the program or quit the team.
• 1 was an academic casualty.

Add in the 17 seniors who graduated and that comes to 38 players out of the Louisville program in Kragthorpe's first year. There's winnowing out players not on-board with a new system, and then there's clearcutting.

Louisville brought in a 22-man recruiting class. That leaves 16 open scholarships coming into this season. They have roughly 20 scholarship seniors on the 2008 roster. The NCAA limits the number of scholarships to be given to a recruiting class in a given year to 25. It's going to be a while before Louisville gets close to its limits.

At least the walk-ons should get rewarded this season.

I lost my contact... not that it matters since I'm Duke's quarterback.

The Wizard of Odds brings us this entertaining story about Duke football, justice, and the American way: Duke backs out of a scheduled four-game series with Louisville after the first game, causing the Cardinals to sue for the buyout money.

The buyout stipulated that Duke had to pay $150k for each voided game if a "team of similar stature" could not be lined up as a replacement, and here comes the catch for Louisville. Duke's lawyers argued the 6-45 Blue Devils sucked so badly that virtually any football team would be of "similar stature" and the buyout was unenforceable.

The judge agreed:

"At oral argument, Duke (with a candor perhaps more attributable to good legal strategy than to institutional modesty) persuasively asserted that this is a threshold that could not be any lower. Duke's argument on this point cannot be reasonably disputed by Louisville."

Duke sucks: now a valid legal precedent. What a country!

Picture a team that was one Jeremy Ito field goal away from a shot at the national title in 2006. Most of the major contributors were back on offense in 2007 and expectations were for a similar year. I'm not going to recap the season for you. I will say that I was probably more surprised at the outcome than most of the Cardinal faithful. Seems I have some sort of Brian Brohm flinch reflex.

Fast forward to six months after the season, and I think reality is sinking in on Tom Jurich.

"We're definitely in a rebuilding process," Jurich told the school's Athletic Association's board of directors. "We're very limited from a depth standpoint. The next two years ... I just want to get through them."

The team lost 12 starters and 5 draft picks. But I think this whole rebuilding thing started about the time Middle Tennessee State put up 42. There's no way a 5-7 team from a mid-major conference should be able to do that. It shows how quick your fortunes can change.

Having said that, I don't think the rebuilding process is going to be nearly as painful as Jurich. I think Hunter Cantwell is a fine quarterback that has shown the ability to lead the team. I'm interested to see if Victor Anderson will step up this year at running back. He was good enough for Rich Rodriguez to offer him a scholarship as a junior.

The defense will surely be better with the addition of Ron English as defensive coordinator. There's going to be a lot of youth on both sides of the ball. But that's not always a bad thing. It makes for a short memory. The change in expectations might actually be a good thing for the team. What Louisville truly lacked last year was an identity. The defense was constantly guessing. The offense did put up some big numbers, but the consistency was way off previous years.

Maybe all this bonds the team together, and the coaches learn from their mistakes. Stranger things have happened. Louisville hasn't set the world on fire recruiting over the last three years, but 47th, 26th, and 43rd isn't exactly anything to cry about either. West Virginia has proven that you can win with that kind of recruiting in the Big East. And so has Louisville for that matter.

Was it really only four years ago that the Big East was in danger of losing it's BCS status? Miami and Virginia Tech left in 2003 and Boston College in 2004. The conference sent Pitt, one of several 8-4 teams in the Big East to lose to Utah in the Fiesta Bowl. And there wasn't much reason to think the conference was going to get better any time soon. The conference was written off by the media and the blogospher didn't even bother to poke fun.

But something happened last week that most of us didn't even notice. The Big East was granted a spot in the BCS through 2013.

The reason is simple: no one noticed the news. No one questioned the Big East's place at the adult table. The reaffirmation wasn't even a note in BCS meeting coverage. "It was quiet,'' Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese said Tuesday. "The way I like it."

You'd never make it as a blogger Mr. Tranghese. You need to rub it in someones face every once in a while. The least you could do is hold up one of those foam we're #1 hands. Or one of six, I guess. How bout a little woot-woot? Oh fine!

Despite the picture on the right, you can't just point to West Virginia and say their two BCS bowl victories and three straight top ten finishes are the reason. But I won't argue with you if you do. It really has been the improvement of several teams in the Big East that has brought the conference back to respectability. Louisville was expected to be one of the better teams in the conference. And mostly, they've come through. But the real surprise has been the improvement of South Florida, Rutgers, and Cincinnati. And more recently, Connecticut.

While the conference still isn't flooding the first round of the NFL draft with players, it is putting a lot more teams in the top 25. Sure, some coaches have left for "greener" pastures. Others like Greg Schiano and Jim Leavitt have made commitments to their schools that don't involve contracts. There's a balance, and certainly enough rising programs and programs that are there to keep the Big East respectable. At least until the Big 11 10 decides to add another team. Wankers.

I did this last year, so it seems only fitting that I would do it again.

And it wasn't even close. Louisville had five players drafted, while Pitt and West Virginia had three apiece. Rutgers, South Florida, Cincinnati, and Connecticut had two each. And for the first time since 1975, Syracuse did not have anyone selected.

That's 19 players drafted. And any way I slice it, that's just not all that good for a BCS conference. Looking at the distribution of what rounds the players were taken, it was pretty well spread out over the entire draft for the Big East. But that doesn't make it feel any better. It's especially bad if you look at a team like West Virginia that has had three 11 win seasons in a row along with three straight top ten finishes. They've had exactly four players drafted in the last three years. And Chris Henry and Pac Man Jones the year before that. So we won't even go there.

The ACC? Yeah, that conference we've been quietly laughing at after Miami, Va. Tech, and Boston College left. Yeah, they had 33 players drafted this past weekend. The coaching must really suck over there or something.

Pac 10? Oh, they had 37 players drafted. SEC? 35. Big 10? 28. Big 12? 27. Hell, C-USA had 11 players drafted! Patriot League? Never mind.

Even more upsetting for West Virginia fans, two players left early for the NFL and weren't drafted. Those two being Darius Reynaud and Johnny Dingle. Yeah, sorry folks. Those Dingle-Berry photo's won't be happening anymore. Those are definitely two players the Mountaineers could have used this year, though. I'm not saying that their stock would go up any with one more year of college. But it sure wouldn't go down.

Louisville will have the most holes to fill as well. You don't replace Brian Brohm, Harry Douglas, and Art Carmody. I know there are others, but those three were special at their positions. West Virginia won't be far behind with the loss of Slaton and most of the secondary and defensive line. Rutgers, well we don't know how bad it is because we haven't seen anyone but Ray Rice run the ball. The rest of the conference should be fine. And that's not a good thing if you think about it.

I hated this guy so much while he was at Louisville, I take great joy in knowing that I will never have to write about him again. And by hate, I mean respect if you look at what he did the last three years to West Virginia.

WHAT NFL SCOUTS ARE SAYING

Pro Football Weekly Ranking the Quarterbacks

Brohm – Pop gun arm incapable of drilling NFL throws into tight NFL windows – I can envision him now getting picked off left and right trying to hit the deep out on the next level. Cannot throw on the run. Marginal athleticism - struggles to evade the rush. Pushes the ball and accuracy consequently suffers.

PROBABLY GETTING DRAFTED..

Even after that assessment, will probably go in the late first early second round.

GUY WHO WATCHED HIM FOR THREE YEARS IS SAYING

If all you knew of Brian Brohm was his performance last year, then I would say most of the above is spot on. However, there is a reason he was considered a top five pick if he would have come out for the draft after his junior year. He really is that good. And Louisville really was that bad last year. Most everyone will point out to you that a large part of the problem last year was that the defense put the offense in bad positions by letting teams score at will on them. And that's certainly true. But he didn't get a lot of help from the offense either. The rushing game got scary bad to nonexistent through the meat of the schedule. Harry Douglas was hurt in the middle of the season, and Mario Urrutia wasn't Mario Urrutia. Despite that, he completed 65% of his passes for 4,000 yards and 30 touchdowns. Pop gun arm or not that's pretty good. Last year wasn't an easy year for Brohm, but he took it all in stride and did everything he could to help the team win.

His numbers and Louisville's record in 2006 and 2005 speak to what he is capable of when surrounded with adequate players. And while he might not have the OMG! skills that impress everyone leading up to the draft.

OMG! Football news! February is like the worst sports month in the world! Unless you like meaningless mid-season NBA and NHL games. Sure I love NCAA basketball. But that love has been tainted by my coaches fashion sense and my teams ability to rip defeat from the jaws of victory. So I'm kind of not liking February at all.

Anyhow, some good news today football fans. The Big East released the 2008 football schedule. And while that's nothing compared to being in the stands after hours of tailgating and screaming obscenities at opposing fans and players, it is a reason for hope. The hope that another football season will soon be upon us.

And lookie, there are actually some good out of conference games this year. In September:

Cincinnati @ Oklahoma-Will the Sooners crumble again in the face of Big East might?

Penn St. @ Syracuse- When this game was scheduled Jo Pa was heard saying, "That Paul Pasqualoni is a tricky devil. We're going to have to find a way to shut down McNabb!"

Kansas @ South Florida- The Bulls can't be looking at this game the way they were a year ago.

West Virginia @ Colorado- This game fills the void left by Maryland opting out of the series. And given the size of Maryland coach Ralph Friedgen, that's quite a void to fill.

Iowa @ Pitt- Again, Iowa might not like this game as much as they did when they scheduled it.

Rutgers vs. TBA-Ah, the unknown enigma that is TBA. You just never know what team you're going to play.

Alabama freshman Jeremiah Elder started the trend, and now we've got a second man overboard due to an armed robbery charge:

Louisville cornerback Rod Council has been dismissed from the team following his arrest for armed robbery in his home state of North Carolina. As of Wednesday evening, he is being held on $50,000 bond for a charge of robbery with a dangerous weapon. As a result, Kragthorpe got rid of him immediately, as he should.

While Elder took a redshirt in 2007 and wasn't expected to be a big contributor this year, Council was the best "cornerback" in what passed for Louisville's "secondary" last "year" and is a major loss for the Cardinals as they attempt to reassert themselves as a Big East power.

Also... like... dude:

According to the incident report, Council allegedly entered the store about 4:15 a.m. and pulled what looked to be a 9mm Uzi on the clerk, who was the only other person in the store at the time.

When Rod Council (allegedly) robs a store, he goes all out. Maybe he played too much Syndicate this month?