Manday Musings: the Weekend that was in Pinkie Sports 10/5 edition

Welp, that was a fairly awful weekend in the world of Pinkie sports.  We are a third of the way through the 2009 college football campaign and things aren’t looking great for our squads. On Friday, the Cardinals played two good quarters of football and followed it up with two atrocious quarters en route to a 35-10 defeat. Then on Saturday, the Cats decided to literally give third ranked Alabama the game and ended up losing their second strait contest 38-20. Let’s get into it.

The Louisville Cardinals are at a crossroads. I am not going to get into the specifics of the Pitt game because there is a larger issue at hand. Athletic director Tom Jurich now has to seriously and HONESTLY examine whether or not Steve Kragthorpe can get the job done. I know the overwhelming majority of the fan base feels he cannot, but ultimately Jurich makes that call.

Despite what some Louisville fans claim, Tom Jurich wants the football program to be a top 10 program year in and year out and Jurich will not continue with Kragthorpe simply because of their friendship. Tom Jurich is not happy about how things have gone, but I also know he believes, or at least did believe, Kragthorpe can deliver. That being said, it is now time for honest examination of the Louisville football program.

Keep in mind, this is all based on four games, and circumstances can and will change. If Kragthorpe ends up winning seven games this year, then this will all most likely be a moot point. If Kragthorpe fails, as in winning no more than three games, and is retained, then Tom Jurich will need to hold a presser and spell out exactly why Kragthorpe is the man for the job. I like Tom Jurich and think he is the best A.D. in the country, but I think it would serve him well to answer some specific questions that have been on the mind of Louisville fans.

The Cardinals sit at 1-3 on the year and have not beaten a Division I (yeah, I know it’s allegedly FBS, but I DON’T CARE) opponent since last October when they took out 14th ranked South Florida. Quite frankly, Louisville is not getting better. In fact, they appear to be regressing, which is not good considering they have only played four games. Starting quarterback Justin Burke looks like he will be back for that game. But regardless of who is playing at quarterback, the Cards have to win their next two contests, period. 

Kragthorpe pointing out Wanny's stache during the game

Southern Miss is coming in this Saturday for homecoming and will be without their starting quarterback, who is out for the rest of the season. The Eagles are 3-2 on the year, but have not scored fewer than 26 points in a single game. So the Louisville offense better get it together because they will have to score points to win. After Southern Miss, the Cardinals travel to face UCONN in East Hartford. The Huskies are 3-1 on the season have their lone loss came against a decent North Carolina squad.

Bottom line, if the Cards win these next two, then they will be sitting at 3-3 and there will be some momentum going into the very difficult final stretch of games which include at Cincinnati, at West Virginia, and at South Florida. If they don’t, then Louisville will probably be full steam ahead towards hiring a new coach and I will get into that very topic this week. For now, it would be best for all parties for Louisville to simply get their sh*t together and win some games.

In Lexington, the Cats fell to #3 Alabama 38-20 and like last week against Florida, I say so what. Alabama is very good and if these teams play ten times, I think ‘Bama wins at least nine. However, Kentucky could have played much better. The Cats coughed up the football four times, highlighted by quarterback Mike Hartline’s three picks. Hartline is yet again the focus and to me, it is because of his generally awful decision making.

I am not a regular at Kentucky football practices, but I can guarantee you quarterbacks coach Randy Sanders does not teach Mike Hartline to throw the ball to the middle of the field.. off his back foot…across his body…and into double coverage. I am not sure of how Mike Hartline thinks, but apparently he feels he has the arm strength to accomplish that feat.

Having said that, this is not a bash Mike Hartline session, although I’m sure if I held one I could get quite a crowd from UK fans. As I said in last week’s edition, Mike Hartline is who he is, and what he is is marginal. Coach Rich Brooks (top 5 human in my book) said after the game, “Mike Hartline…is our best option and we’ll go forward with that.”

Love. This. Man.

Rich Brooks knows more about football and being hilarious than I ever will. And for the record, I do not believe this is the time to burn the redshirt of the highly touted Morgan Newton. However, the back-up quarterback is Will Fidlerand as far as I’m concerned, why not give him a shot? I don’t see how he could be any worse than Hartline and maybe you get a spark from him. If not, so what, it’s not as if the quarterback play is a strength for the Cats and Hartline isn’t going anywhere.

On the positive side of things, Derrick Locke is a beast. The man has blazing speed and can make a defender whiff almost anytime he wants. He did fumble again, but all in all, the kid just gets it done on the football field. Coach Brooks called Locke a “warrior” after the game and he’s right on the money. Locke finished with 85 yards on 20 carries and 6 catches for 63 yards. But with Locke it was more about the way he competes. The kid just plays hard all the time. Also, congratulations from us here at the Pinkie to kicker Lones Seiber who became the all-time scoring leader for UK football.

The Cats are now 2-2 and have two tough road games ahead. They travel to Columbia to face the ole ball coach, then go to Auburn to face the surprisingly good Tigers. The Cats will most likely be underdogs in both contests and to complicate matters, cornerbacks Trevard Lindley and Paul Warford will probably miss the next game due to injury. In my mind, if I’m Rich Brooks, I don’t even think about playing those guys until the Auburn game and probably not even then.

You need to have those two healthy for as much of the season as possible and it’s not as if UK would be a favorite against Auburn if they were. I say rest Trevard and Warford for two weeks, and have them ready for the stretch of games that include Louisiana-Monroe, Mississippi State (which is no gimme by the way), Eastern Kentucky, and at Vanderbilt. The Cats should win at least three of those four games and, if we assume losses to South Carolina and Auburn, should be sitting at either 5-5 or 6-4 heading into the final two games.

Quick hits time:

-The Bengals won again and now are 3-1. They tried to give Cleveland their first win, but in the end, chose to win the game. A very refreshing mindset change from what we are all accustomed to seeing from the Who Deys. Marvin’s boys now have a showdown with the Ravens for first place in the AFC North.

-This goes out to all teams in the MLB Playoffs: DO NOT LET THE TONY LARUSSA AND THE CARDINALS WIN THE WORLD SERIES.

-Fantasy update: Steven Jackson still has no touchdowns and I’m still furious over it.

-At halftime of the Louisville-Pitt game on Friday, fellow Pinkie squad member Carl H and myself were waiting in line to use the facilities and overheard an unreal exchange between UofL fans. After listening to UofL fan #1 ramble on about Jon Gruden being the next coach because he heard Gruden may have bought a house in Lake Forest (real quote by the way), UofL fan #2 counters with this gem, “He ain’t gonna be the next coach here. In fact, I’ll s*ck your $%#@ if he is our next coach.”

We’ll definitely have some recruiting news and updates this week and I’ll have a post about potential future coaches for Louisville football in the event Kragthorpe is not retained.