John Clay's Sidelines

Robert Clark

Robbie Andreu of the Gainesville Sun reports that two former Florida football players are transferring to Louisville. Tight end Gerald Christian and wide receiver Robert Clark are leaving the Gators to join former Florida defensive coordinator Charlie Strong at Louisville.

Christian was the No. 2 tight end behind starter Justin Reed. Christian and Clark were high school teammates at Dwyer High School in Palm Beach, Florida.

This continues Louisville connections to the Sunshine State. Quarterback Teddy Bridgewater was a Miami commitment who ended up coming to U of L and leading the Cardinals to a bowl game this season.

• Ex-Dwyer stars transferring from Florida to Louisville
• Two Gator exiles choose Louisville
• Florida hires new strength coach

(AP photo)

Mark Coyle’s first job as the new athletic director at Boise State: Transition his football program into the Big East.

Brett McMurphy of CBS Sports reports that Boise State, San Diego State, Houston, Central Florida and SMU will join the Big East to play football in 2013. Boise State and San Diego State will leave the Mountain West. Houston, Central Florida and SMU will leave Conference-USA. With Pittsburgh, Syracuse and West Virginia leaving the Big East, that means the league will go from five members to 10 in 2013.

Houston, Central Florida and SMU will compete in the Big East in all sports. Navy could become the 11th football member as early as next week. Air Force is reportedly considering an offer to be the 12th.

Continue reading ‘The Big East expanding all the way to the West Coast’

(AP photo)

Minority leader and Kentucky senator Mitch McConnell is trying to block West Virginia’s move to the Big East, reports the New York Times.

Citing sources, the Times says McConnell is lobbying the Big 12 on behalf of Louisville, his hometown school. This is after reports Monday that the Big 12 was set to invite West Virginia to it membership in the likely event that Missouri would withdraw from the league to join the SEC.

The Charleston Daily Mail reports that the WVU move to the Big 12 has been put on hold.

In my book, Louisville is  a better candidate than West Virginia. U of L has a better overall sports program, etc. West Virginia has a slight edge in football at the moment, but Louisville has proven that it can produce a national contender in the sport.

There are some who believe that the Big 12 may compromise and add both, then add another school for 12 members. But the league has said previously it plans on staying at 10 for the time being.

So how did this happen? How did it happen that Louisville got left out in the conference re-alignment cold? How did the Cards go from proud Big East member, with major basketball bonafides and automatic BCS qualifier status, to clinging to flotsam and jetsam from its sunken ship as the better, luckier boats continue on down the revenue river?

West Virginia over Louisville for the Big 12? Really?

Where was Tom Jurich?

After all, Jurich is considered one of the nation’s better athletic directors. He’s among the highest-paid. Even the most loyal Kentucky fan must recognize the good work Jurich has done at U of L. (It’s the reason why most in the Big Blue Nation spit at the mere mention of the Jurich name.) Louisville has a top-shelf athletic program in men’s basketball, women’s basketball, men’s soccer and women’s volleyball. That’s just to name a few. And football, once a shining light under Jurich jurisdiction, is fighting for a comeback.

Continue reading ‘How did Tom Jurich and Louisville get left in the cold?’

(AP photo/Garry Jones)

Nice win for Louisville tonight over Rutgers16-14. The big key was the Cardinals offensive line. U of L’s running game ground out 186 yards on 34 carries, for a 5.5 average. And Rutgers entered Papa John’s averaging four sacks per game. The Knights ended up with zero on this night.

To be sure, Louisville enjoyed some luck. Rutgers placeicker San San The, considered one of the best in the nation, missed a pair of chip-shot field goals. Rutgers wide out Mark Harrison dropped a wide open pass inLouisvilleterritory in the fourth quarter when he maneuvered behind the Cardinals defenders.

But Louisville’s true freshman quarterback Teddy Bridgewater is proving to be rather resourceful. He completed 10 of 18 passes for 122 yards with a touchdown, while the Louisville defense picked off Rutgers’ true freshman, Gary Nova, three times.

The ink barely dry on his new seven-year contract, Charlie Strong watched the ‘Ville improve to 3-4 on the year, 1-1 in the Big East. It gets Syracuse at home next Saturday before traveling to West Virginia on Nov. 5.

Continue reading ‘Louisville gets running game in gear to beat Rutgers’

(AP photo)

The Big East is holding its going out of business sale tonight on ESPN.

Or maybe it’s an episode of “Honey, I Shrunk the Conference.”

Not really. But a pair of Big East grid matchups go head-to-head tonight when at 8 p.m. West Virginia-Syracuse on ESPN stages a Nielsen face-off with Louisville-Rutgers on ESPN2. Syracuse already has its bags packed for the ACC. Rutgers is rumored to be a future ACC member. Louisville and West Virginia are both waiting patiently by their respective mailboxes for Big 12 invitations. (If only Mary Jo Perino could get Missouri to make up its mind.)

Around here, the U of L-Rutgers matchup is the more interesting of the dual. Rutgers is a surprising 5-1 overall and 2-0 in the Big East with wins over defectors Syracuse and Pittsburgh. The Scarlet Knights’ lone loss came at North Carolina, 24-22, back on Sept. 10. Meanwhile, Louisville hasn’t won since upsetting Kentucky 24-17 in Lexington way back on Sept. 17. (Neither the Cats nor Cards have won since, actually.) The Cards lost at home to Marshall, then dropped road games at North Carolina and Cincinnati. U of L led the latter 16-7 at the half, only to be blitzed in the second half and lose 25-16.

Blitz is the Colbert “word” for tonight. Charlie Strong, coach of the fighting Cardinals, is joined at the hip with the blitz. And Rutgers ranks second nationally in sacks with four per game. The Knights are tied with South Carolina for the nation’s lead in takeaways with 24. To be fair, six of South Carolina’s takeaways came in the Gamecocks’ 54-3 trashing of Kentucky two weeks back.

It will be a stiff challenge for a Louisville offensive line that starts a pair of true freshmen and an offense that is in just its third week of Shawn Watson calling plays after the mysterious departure of Mike Sanford. Then again, Rutgers starts a true freshman at quarterback in Gary Nova, who completed 34 of 55 passes for 445 yards with four touchdowns and two interceptions in his two previous starts.

(AP photo/Gerry Broome)

As much as has gone wrong with Kentucky football the first six games of this 2011 season, Louisville appears to be in a precarious position, as well.

Charlie Strong’s Cardinals carry a 2-3 record and a two-game losing streak into Saturday’s Big East opener at Cincinnati. It’s a noon kickoff at Nippert Stadium.

The short-term controversy surrounding the Cardinal collection is the odd and damaging controversy over the offensive coordinator position. The week after the 17-13 home loss to Marshall brought a swirl of ugly rumors about a confrontation, possibly physical, between Strong and Mike Sanford, his offensive coordinator. U of L admits that a “loud” confrontation took place, but denies that it was more than that. Either way, Sanford didn’t make the trip last week to North Carolina. He’s no longer the play-caller, and it appears questionable as to whether he will be on staff the rest of the season.

None of that is good. Sacking a coordinator four games into your season is never a good sign about the stability of a program. It appears especially odd considering most felt Sanford did an excellent job last season developing an offense around running back Bilal Powell. Now Strong has turned the offense over to Shawn Watson.

Continue reading ‘Louisville football’s state of confusion’

With Missouri’s curators voting to take a good hard look at leaving the Big 12, the ensuing speculation affects the Commonwealth’s two largest schools.

If Missouri does in fact cut the cord with it’s long-time conference, chances are good it would end up as the SEC’s 14th team. (My prediction all along, by the way.) With Texas A&M already on board, that would mean two SEC additions ideally suited to the Western Division. One West school would have to move East to balance out the numbers. The most likely candidate would be Auburn. The Tigers would still be able to play Alabama every year as the one yearly inter-divisional opponent.

If Missouri does leave, the Big 12 has already voted to explore expansion. That’s where Louisville comes in. It’s conceivable the Cardinals could get an invitation, much to Rick Pitino’s chagrin. The school would almost surely accept. Sticking with a watered down Big East means running the risk of sticking with a league that could well lose its BCS status.

Continue reading ‘A Missouri move could affect U of L and UK’

(H-L photo/David Perry)

Big Blue Links for Sunday:

Mark Maloney of Herald-Leader — Louisville came away with more than a rivalry victory Saturday night. According to Coach Charlie Strong, the Cardinals made a statement with their 24-17 road triumph over Kentucky. “This is a tremendous team victory … and we said earlier to our team that we needed to have a statement game,” Strong said.

Mark Story of Herald-Leader — On the best statistical night of his Kentucky career, Morgan Newton didn’t get nearly enough help. Against a determined Louisville defensive effort, UK couldn’t run the ball. The Cats’ struggling offensive front couldn’t keep Newton on his feet, surrendering a whopping six sacks. Still, as the fourth-quarter clock ticked toward 0:00, Newton put the Cats in position to tie in a game in which UK trailed throughout.

(H-L photo/Mark Cornelison)

John Clay of Herald-Leader – Yet Kentucky played as if it believed it. The Cats once again started slowly, tentatively, trailing at halftime for the 11th time in the last 13 games. The offense performed only when its back was against the wall, late in the first half when down 14-3, then late in the game when down 24-10. In both cases, too little, too late. Once again, Kentucky got too little from its offensive line, a unit that was expected to be a strength.

Jerry Tipton of Herald-Leader — For the game sponsor, Friends of Coal, Kentucky’s 24-17 loss to Louisville on Saturday night looked much more like slurry than land reclamation. UK tried mightily to reclaim the victory, staging an improbable rally from 14 points down that died 18 yards from tying the score. Louisville held on to snap a four-game losing streak in the in-state series.

Rick Bozich of Courier-Journal — Strong was still yelling after the game. But he wasn’t yelling the same things he had been saying for a week. Not after Louisville hung a thunderous 24-17 defeat on Kentucky in Commonwealth Stadium. When UK quarterback Morgan Newton’s final pass sailed incomplete with 46 seconds to play, Strong pulled off his headset and raced to chest-bump Cardinal senior linebacker Dexter Heyman. Then he high-fived freshman quarterback Teddy Bridgewater, who pinch-hit for the injured Will Stein and threw two touchdown passes.

Larry Vaught of the Advocate-Messenger — It’s official now. Kentucky is in crisis mode and will not go to a sixth straight bowl game. It’s not just that the Wildcats lost 24-17 to Louisville here Saturday night to end a four-game winning streak against the Cardinals. It’s the way UK lost again. Louisville was the more physical team. Louisville was the more aggressive team. Louisville was simply better in all phases of the game. Don’t let the final score fool you, either. Kentucky made a valiant comeback try, but the team that deserved to win won the game.

(H-L photo/David Perry)

Kyle Tucker of the Courier-Journal — The University of Louisville football team turned to a new quarterback Saturday night to end its four-game losing streak against rival Kentucky. The Wildcats’ veteran quarterback, junior Morgan Newton, looked like a new man himself but got too little help. True freshman Teddy Bridgewater took over for injured starter Will Stein early in the second quarter and threw a pair of critical touchdown passes to lead the Cardinals to a 24-17 victory in Commonwealth Stadium.

Matt May of the Cats Pause — It’s rare that a play in the first seven minutes of the game turns out to be one of the most important but you could certainly make the case that La’Rod King’s fumble after a long catch from Morgan Newton on the Cats’ second possession was just that. UK already led 3-0 – although not getting a touchdown after having it 1st-and-Goal from the 5-yard line didn’t help – when King took a slant pass and rumbled up field inside the Louisville 25-yard line. King was blindsided by Dexter Heyman, jarring the football loose and allowing Louisville to take the air out of Commonwealth Stadium.

Ben Jones of Cats Illustrated – Stuart Hines was running out of answers. Kentucky’s senior left guard and captain faced reporters after his team’s 24-17 loss to Louisville and delivered the company line. “Missed opportunities,” he said, echoing his head coach. “Not making the plays.” But he retreated when asked if he felt the offensive line had a major part in the loss.

Ethan Levine of the Kentucky Kernel — With the score held at 24-17, UK’s offense drove down its home field and looked prepared to score the game-tying touchdown in front of its home fans. On a third down inside the Louisville 10-yard line, junior quarterback Morgan Newton completed a pass to freshman wide receiver Demarco Robinson for a first down. But after having the ball stripped from his possession, Robinson recovered his own fumble on the wrong side of the first down sticks, forcing a critical fourth down for the Cats with the game on the line. UK was unable to convert on fourth down as Newton overthrew a sideline pass, clinching the victory for Louisville.

Continue reading ‘BBL: Louisville’s statement sends Kentucky into a spin’

(H-L photo/Mark Cornelison)

Click here for the Herald-Leader photo gallery from tonight’s game.