Louisville – Indiana State Postgame Recap: Cards 30, Sycamores 10

Louisville won their 2009 home opener 30-10 in front of 39,344 fans, but possibly lost any trace of hope/optimism from their fan base for the future.

The Good:
- Vic Anderson rushed for 93 yards and two touchdowns and will no doubt be a beast for the rest of the season. Bilal Powell also ran the ball 15 times for 76 yards and a score.

- Justin Burke, making his first start since his senior year of high school, began the game 1-for-7, before finding a rhythm and finishing 17-of-31 for 223 yards and two interceptions. He missed some passes early, but seemed to settle down and should do nothing but improve going forward.

- Louisville’s defense held the Sycamores to just 101 yards of total offense and forced four turnovers. Jon Dempsey led the Cards in tackles with seven solo and three assists for a total of 10 tackles on the game. William Savoy also made six tackles (four solo) and had two sacks, including Louisville’s first in five games.

The Bad:
- The Sycamores led 7-3, five minutes into the second quarter. Indiana State. A team on their way to their 28th consecutive loss…..

- Steve Kragthorpe as offensive coordinator. Krags supporters, already few and far between, are going to have to completely close their eyes and turn their backs on the facts if they plan on supporting him after this fiasco. Louisville was just 1-for-9 on third down conversions.

The Ugly:
- Steve Kragthorpe as head coach. FOURTEEN penalties for 128 yards. At times it appeared as though this team had never been on the same field together before. Yeah it was the first game of the year and there will always be kinks in the chain, but FOURTEEN penalties?? Sheez…get control of your team Krags.

Krags on the penalties: “I’ll just tell you that we didn’t play well and we were sloppy.”

Krags on whether they can correct the mistakes from game one prior to headin’ to Lexington: “I think so. It’s like Lou Holtz said today at halftime of one of those games – ‘you usually make your biggest improvements between week one and week two,’ and we’re going to have to do that pretty quickly. It’s a bit of a different schedule now because I’ve been in a situation where you play your first game and then have a week off. We’ll utilize the off week by practicing Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Then, we’ll come back with our normal game week practice schedule.”

“I don’t think anybody is pumped up right now. You want to win every time you take the field and we won tonight, but I’m disappointed with the way we played and I think our players are too. I think there are a lot of things we have to continue to work on to become the team we want to be.”

You had better work on those things feverishly if you expect to not get embarrassed in two weeks. Kentucky’s Whomp squad is going to be chompin’ at the bit to shutout the Cards for the second strait year (Louisville’s points last year came courtesy of the Cardinals’ defense and a safety).

The Final Word from Indiana State Head Coach Trent Miles: “My hat’s off to Louisville. They’re a very well-coached team, a very physical team. They outplayed us and did a good job. They’ve got some excellent football coaches on that staff. Larry Slade, Brent Guy, Coach Myers, Coach Delgado and obviously Coach Kragthorpe. I think they’re a wonderful, wonderful football staff. They do an excellent job with their football team. I know in the past, he’s had a little heat from people around here, but he’s doing the right things and he’s doing it the right way. They beat us. They were the better football team tonight.”

Tags: burke, indiana state, Kragthorpe, long, louisville, quotes, recap, Trent Miles

Category: Louisville