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It's Homecoming at the University of Louisville and the football team is preparing for the Syracuse Orange. Women's soccer brought home Louisville's first (of many) Big East titles of the season, and Charlie Strong has a rich new contract. Check out all the news inside.

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Page 1: Louisville SportsReport: Oct. 26, 2011 issue

VOLUME XVI • NUMBER 10OCTOBER 26, 2011

$3.00

Page 2: Louisville SportsReport: Oct. 26, 2011 issue

PAGE 2 LOUISVILLE SPORTSREPORT FEBRUARY 3, 2011

Page 3: Louisville SportsReport: Oct. 26, 2011 issue

A

OCTOBER 26, 2011 LOUISVILLE SPORTSREPORT PAGE 3

E D I T O R I A L S T A F F

GENERAL MANAGER - Jack Coffee

SENIOR WRITER AND EDITOR - Russ Brown

OPERATIONS MANAGER - Howie Lindsey

ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES - Mickey Clark, Betty Olsen and Blanche Kitchen

CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS - Dave Klotz, Shelley Feller, Gail Kamenish,

Howie Lindsey and Chuck Feist

CONTRIBUTING COLUMNISTS - Matt Willinger, Jeff Wafford,

Jason Puckett and Rick Cushing

GRAPHIC DESIGNER - Scott Stortz

COPY EDITOR - Rick Cushing

The Louisville SportsReport is printed in Kentucky and based in Louisville. It is published weekly in January, February and March, monthly in April, May, June and July and weekly mid-August through late December by Louisville Sports News, L.L.C., in Louisville, Kentucky. Louisville Sports News, L.L.C.: Owner and General Manager - Jack Coffee. The SportsReport was founded in 1996. United States Postal Number: 015255

POSTMASTER: Please send address changes to Louisville SportsReport, P.O. Box 17464, Louisville, KY 40217. Four weeks advance notice is required on old addresses as well as new. Periodicals Postage paid at Louisville, Ky. Subscriptions are priced at $57.95 each (plus 6% Ky. tax) for 32 issues. Members of the University of Louisville’s Cardinal Athletic Fund receive a special group rate of $39.75 for their initial subscriptions and that amount is applied from each annual donation. Year-round first-class mailing is available for an additional $53 per year. Please call for Canadian and overseas rates. Not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts or photographs unless accompanied by return postage. Publisher reserves right to accept or reject advertisements. Copyright 2008 by Louisville Sports News, L.L.C. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. For subscriber information or circulation questions call 1-502-636-4330. Office hours at 2805 S. Floyd St. in Louisville: Mon-Wed. from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

VOLUME XVI, NUMBER 10 • OCTOBER 26, 2011

CSPACOLLEGESPORTS

PUBLISHERSASSOCIATIONCOVER PHOTO BY HOWIE LINDSEY

COVER DESIGNED BY SCOTT STORTZ

AMERICA’S FOREMOST AUTHORITY ONUNIVERSITY OF LOUISVILLE ATHLETICS®

Office Phone: (502) 636-4330Fax: (502) 636-9265

E-mail: [email protected]

Official Web site:www.cardinalsports.com

W H A T ’ S I N S I D E

4 RUTGERS GAME STATS, LOUISVILLE FOOTBALL DEPTH CHART6 THREE THINGS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED By Rick Cushing7 CONNORS INJURY CASTS A SHADOW ON RUTGERS WIN By Russ Brown8 WILSON HEADS FIVE NEW INDUCTEES TO HALL OF FAME By Jack Coffee10 THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY By Louisville SportsReport staff11 ORANGE COMING OFF A BIG WIN By Rick Cushing

12 CARDS WANT TO DELIVER ANOTHER MESSAGE VS. ‘CUSE By Russ Brown14 LOUISVILLE-RUTGERS GAME DAY PHOTO GALLERY15 EARLY SIGNING PERIOD APPROACHING FOR BASKETBALL By Jeff Wafford16,17 BIG EAST: HUSKIES, ORANGE LOOK LIKE BIG EAST BEASTS By Russ Brown18 MEN’S AND WOMEN’S BASKETBALL SCHEDULES21 CARDINAL STARS OF THE WEEK By Howie Lindsey

5 BACK UP THEIR WORDSLouisville coach Charlie Strong wants his team to back up their strong talk with stronger play on the fi eld each game. “I told them, ‘If we are going to say this, then I expect to see it,’” he said.

15 STRONG’S NEW DEALLouisville football coach Charlie Strong agreed to a new deal that extends his contract to the 2018 season and ups his pay to more than $2.3 million. “This proves to me how committed the University is to football,” he said.

9 INTERCEPTIONS APLENTYSenior linebacker Dexter Heyman intercepted a pass late in the fourth quarter to seal Louisville’s 16-14 win over Rutgers. “Actually, I knew that route before it happened... they run that route all the time,” he said.

19 CARDS’ DEPTH GETS A BOOSTFreshman guard Wayne Blackshear’s NCAA clearance gives Louisville immediate aid. “You probably won’t see the player we saw in high school until December or January,” coach Rick Pitino said last week.

22 WOMEN’S SOCCER BRINGS HOME FIRST BIG EAST TITLE OF THE SEASONWith a 1-0 win over Cincinnati Saturday night, Louisville women’s soccer clinched the program’s fi rst-ever Big East title. The Cardinals won the National Division regular-season title and are the No. 1 seed in the league tournament that begins this week. - photo by Michelle Hutchins, submitted by UofLSports.com

THE NEXT ISSUE OF THE LOUISVILLE SPORTSREPORT

WILL BE MAILED

NOV. 7

For advertising information call (502) 636-4330 in Louisville, or send correspondence to the:

Louisville SportsReportP.O. Box 17464

Louisville, KY 40217

7 NOTHING DECIDED YETAs of press time Monday night, Missouri had not yet withdrawn from the Big 12 to head to the SEC. That leaves Louisville’s status in limbo. “What we do, we’ll do in private right now,” UofL athletic director Tom Jurich said.

EDITOR’S NOTE: THE POST-SYRACUSE EDITION WILL NOT BE MAILED. IT IS SCHEDULED TO BE ONE OF SIX EXTRA DIGITAL EDITIONS DURING THE 2011-12 SEASON. FANS CAN ACCESS YOUR DIGITAL COPY OF THE MAGAZINE EACH WEEK

AT WWW.LOUISVILLESPORTSNEWS.COM OR FACEBOOK.COM/LOUISVILLESPORTSREPORT

12 DELIVERING A MESSAGEAfter a win over previous league leading Rutgers, Louisville has its sites set on knocking off Syracuse Saturday for Homecoming. The Orange are coming off a big win over then-No. 11 West Virginia.

Page 4: Louisville SportsReport: Oct. 26, 2011 issue

PAGE 4 LOUISVILLE SPORTSREPORT OCTOBER 26, 2011

CARDINAL FOOTBALL

OFFENSEQUARTERBACK 5 Teddy Bridgewater 6-3 205 Fr. 4 Will Stein 5-10 176 Jr.10 Dominique Brown 6-2 221 So. RUNNING BACK 28 Jeremy Wright 5-11 199 So. 10 Dominique Brown 6-2 221 So.20 Victor Anderson 5-10 189 Sr. 32 Senorise Perry (or) 6-0 201 So. 30 Kamal Hogan (or) 5-11 209 r-Fr. 22 Corvin Lamb 5-9 206 Fr. X-WIDE RECEIVER 14 Andrell Smith 6-3 209 Jr. 9 DeVante Parker 6-3 180 Fr. H-WIDE RECEIVER82 Eli Rogers 5-10 184 Fr. 1 Josh Bellamy 6-0 206 Sr. Z-WIDE RECEIVER 2 Michaelee Harris 6-2 198 r-Fr. 89 Scott Radcliff 5-10 182 Jr. 88 Jarrett Davis 5-10 172 So. TIGHT END 11 Josh Chichester 6-8 240 Sr. 81 Chris White 6-4 243 r-Fr. 85 Nate Nord 6-5 248 Jr.80 Stephon Ball INJ. 6-4 231 Jr. LEFT TACKLE 66 Alex Kupper 6-3 295 Jr. 73 Hector Hernandez INJ. 6-5 294 Sr. 78 Aaron Epps 6-5 265 Fr. LEFT GUARD 70 John Miller 6-2 308 Fr. . 68 Kamran Joyer INJ. 6-3 299 So. CENTER 55 Mario Benavides 6-4 300 Jr. 62 John Clark 6-2 305 Sr. RIGHT GUARD 53 Jake Smith 6-3 315 r-Fr. 72 Hunter Stout (or) 6-4 291 So. 76 Chase Petersen 6-4 294 Fr. RIGHT TACKLE 75 Ryan Kessling 6-5 314 Sr. 79 Jamon Brown 6-5 320 Fr 71 Chris Acosta 6-3 275 r-Fr.

DEFENSEFOX END 44 B.J. Butler 6-2 276 So. 91 William Savoy 6-1 248 Sr. 47 Malcolm Mitchell 6-2 236 So. DEFENSIVE TACKLE 93 Roy Philon 6-3 272 So.

95 Randy Salmon 6-3 291 Jr. NOSE TACKLE 92 Brandon Dunn 6-3 308 So. 99 Jamaine Brooks 6-4 318 r-Fr. DEFENSIVE END 6 Greg Scruggs 6-4 280 Sr. 17 Marcus Smith 6-4 255 So. 90 B.J. Dubose 6-4 257 Fr. SAM LINEBACKER 2 Preston Brown 6-0 258 So. 31 Champ Lee 6-0 204 So. MIKE LINEBACKER 46 Dexter Heyman 6-3 239 Sr. 51 Mike Privott 6-0 224 So. 37 Tyon Dixon 6-0 208 So. WEAKSIDE LINEBACKER 48 Deiontrez Mount 6-5 215 Fr.24 Daniel Brown 6-1 219 Jr. 43 Deon Rogers 6-2 200 So. CORNERBACK 41 Stephan Robinson 5-8 175 r-Fr. 3 Charles Gaines INJ 5-10 176 Fr. STRONG SAFETY 29 Hakeem Smith 6-1 183 So. 27 Jermaine Reve 6-2 175 Fr. FREE SAFETY 36 Shenard Holton 6-1 187 Jr. 25 Calvin Pryor 6-1 190 Fr. 33 Mike Evans 5-11 188 Sr. CORNERBACK 21 Adrian Bushell 5-11 190 Jr.5 Andrew Johnson 5-10 178 Fr.

SPECIAL TEAMSPUNTER

12 Chris Philpott (or) 6-0 198 Sr.

40 Josh Bleser 6-2 213 Sr.

PLACEKICKER

12 Chris Philpott (or) 6-0 198 Sr.

35 Andrew Fletcher 5-8 170 r-Fr.

LONG SNAPPER

33 Grant Donovan 6-1 213 r-Fr.

85 Nate Nord 6-5 248 Jr.

HOLDER

40 Josh Bleser 6-2 213 Sr.

4 Will Stein 5-10 176 Jr.

PUNT RETURN

89 Scott Radcliff (or) 5-10 182 Jr.

82 Eli Rogers 5-10 184 Fr.

KICKOFF RETURNS

28 Jeremy Wright 5-11 199 So. 10 Dominique Brown 6-2 221 So.

2011 DEPTH CHARTGAME STATSRUTGERS (5-2,2-1) vs. LOUISVILLE (3-4,1-1)Date: Oct 21, 2011 Site: Louisville, KY Stadium: Papa John’s CardinalAttendance: 48,435

SCORE BY QUARTERS 1 2 3 4 SCORERUTGERS 0 7 0 7 14LOUISVILLE 7 0 9 0 16

SCORING SUMMARY:1st 07:41 LOU - BROWN, D. 1 yd run (Philpott, Chris kick) 4 plays, 38 yards, TOP 1:40, RU 0 - LOU 72nd 00:00 RU - Huggins,Savon 1 yd run (Te,San San kick) 6 plays, 26 yards, TOP 2:38, RU 7 - LOU 73rd 12:00 LOU - Philpott, Chris 52 yd fi eld goal 7 plays, 53 yards, TOP 3:00, RU 7 - LOU 1006:10 LOU - HARRIS, M. 18 yd pass from BRIDGEWATER, T. (Philpott, Chris kick blockd) 7 plays, 68 yards, TOP 3:36, RU 7 - LOU 164th 14:10 RU - Sanu,Mohamed 12 yd pass from Nova,Gary (Te,San San kick) 14 plays, 80 yards, TOP 7:00, RU 14 - LOU 16

KICKOFF TIME: 8:05 PM END OF GAME: 11:15 TOTAL ELAPSED TIME: 3:10OFFICIALS: REFEREE: J.MCGINN; UMPIRE: R.FREENEY; LINESMAN: J.STABILE; LINE JUDGE: R.NEWELL; BACK JUDGE: J.DOWNEY; FIELD JUDGE: D.GALLAGHER; SIDE JUDGE: C.JUNJULAS;TEMPERATURE: 52 WIND: W-6MPH WEATHER: CLEAR

TEAM STATS RUTGERS LOU FIRST DOWNS................... 19 14 Rushing..................... 4 8 Passing..................... 12 6 Penalty..................... 3 0NET YARDS RUSHING............. 91 187 Rushing Attempts............ 30 34 Average Per Rush............ 3.0 5.5 Rushing Touchdowns.......... 1 1 Yards Gained Rushing........ 107 200 Yards Lost Rushing.......... 16 13NET YARDS PASSING............. 207 122 Completions-Attempts-Int.... 18-33-3 10-18-1 Average Per Attempt......... 6.3 6.8 Average Per Completion...... 11.5 12.2 Passing Touchdowns.......... 1 1TOTAL OFFENSE YARDS........... 298 309 Total offense plays......... 63 52 Average Gain Per Play....... 4.7 5.9Fumbles: Number-Lost.......... 0-0 0-0Penalties: Number-Yards....... 8-40 10-72PUNTS-YARDS................... 3-94 4-118 Average Yards Per Punt...... 31.3 29.5 Net Yards Per Punt.......... 31.3 24.2 Inside 20................... 1 0 50+ Yards................... 0 1 Touchbacks.................. 0 1 Fair catch.................. 0 2KICKOFFS-YARDS................ 2-141 4-265 Average Yards Per Kickoff... 70.5 66.2 Net Yards Per Kickoff....... 47.5 44.0 Touchbacks.................. 0 2Punt returns: Number-Yards-TD. 1-1-0 1-0-0 Average Per Return.......... 1.0 0.0Kickoff returns: Number-Yds-TD 2-49-0 2-46-0 Average Per Return.......... 24.5 23.0Interceptions: Number-Yds-TD.. 1-0-0 3-33-0Fumble Returns: Number-Yds-TD. 0-0-0 0-0-0Miscellaneous Yards........... 0 0Possession Time............... 29:56 30:04 1st Quarter................. 8:01 6:59 2nd Quarter................. 9:59 5:01

3rd Quarter................. 8:24 6:36 4th Quarter................. 3:32 11:28Third-Down Conversions........ 6 of 13 3 of 10Fourth-Down Conversions....... 1 of 1 0 of 0Red-Zone Scores-Chances....... 2-4 2-3 Touchdowns.................. 2-4 2-3 Field goals................. 0-4 0-3Sacks By: Number-Yards........ 0-0 1-9PAT Kicks..................... 2-2 1-2Field Goals................... 0-2 1-2

INDIVIDUAL STATSRushing No Gain Loss Net TD Lg AvgWright, Jeremy 11 109 1 108 0 29 9.8BROWN, D. 12 48 4 44 1 17 3.7ANDERSON, Vic 7 34 0 34 0 16 4.9BRIDGEWATER, T. 3 9 5 4 0 7 1.3TEAM 1 0 3 -3 0 0 -3.0Totals... 34 200 13 187 1 29 5.5

Passing Att-Cmp-Int Yds TD Long SackBRIDGEWATER, T. 10-18-1 122 1 30 0 Totals... 10-18-1 122 1 30 0

Receiving No. Yds TD Long Smith, Andrell 2 49 0 30HARRIS, M. 2 38 1 20CHICHESTER, J. 2 19 0 11Rogers, Eli 1 8 0 8Davis, Jarrett 1 8 0 8Nord, Nate 1 0 0 0ANDERSON, Vic 1 0 0 0 Totals... 10 122 1 30

Punting No. Yds Avg Long In20 TBBleser, Josh 3 118 39.3 52 0 1TEAM 1 0 0.0 0 0 0 Totals... 4 118 29.5 52 0 1 Punts Kickoffs InterceptAll Returns No.Yds.Lg No.Yds.Lg No.Yds.LgBushell, Adrian 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0Pryor, Calvin 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 25 25Heyman, Dexter 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 8 8Radcliff, Scott 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0Wright, Jeremy 0 0 0 2 46 23 0 0 0 Totals... 1 0 0 2 46 23 3 33 25

FIELD GOAL ATTEMPTS Philpott, Chris 1st 10:19 43 yds - MissedPhilpott, Chris 3rd 12:00 52 yds - Good

Kickoffs No. Yds TB OB Avg Philpott, Chris 4 265 2 0 66.2

DEFENSIVE STATSNo. Player Solo Ast Tot 29 Smith, Hakeem 6 1 7 2 Brown, Preston 3 3 6 25 Pryor, Calvin 4 1 5 46 Heyman, Dexter 3 2 5 24 Brown, Daniel 4 . 4 33 Evans, Mike 3 1 4 95 Salmon, Randy 3 . 3 35 Conner, Anthony 2 1 3 90 Dubose, B.J. 2 . 2 21 Bushell, Adrian 2 . 2 99 Brooks, Jamaine 1 1 2 92 Dunn, Brandon 1 1 2 93 Philon, Roy 1 1 2 19 Floyd, Terell 1 . 1 31 Lee, Champ 1 . 1 34 Durant, George 1 . 1 15 Johnson, Andrew 1 . 1 86 MAULDIN, L. 1 . 1 43 Rogers, Deon 1 . 1

Page 5: Louisville SportsReport: Oct. 26, 2011 issue

OCTOBER 26, 2011 LOUISVILLE SPORTSREPORT PAGE 5

RECRUITING NOTEBOOK10 AMAZING AND MEMORABLE MOMENTS OF THE 2009-2010 SEASONCARDINAL FOOTBALL

S Y R A C U S E V I S I T S , E Y E I N G B O W L E L I G I B I L I T Y

STRONG WANTS CARDS TO BACK UP THEIR WORDS WITH DEEDSBy Russ BrownCharlie Strong had seen and heard

enough. So when he gathered his Univer-sity of Louisville football players for their weekly meeting last Thursday prior to Fri-day night’s home game against Rutgers, rather than saying much himself, he asked for input from the Cardinals.

“I told them, ‘We’re not playing with trust or confi dence,’” Strong related on Monday. “’I don’t know if you guys even like each other. I’d just like to know what’s going on with this football team. Some-body stand up and tell me something. I’m tired of telling you, you tell me. So guys spoke what they needed to say.”

Strong liked what he heard, but he wanted the words to be put into action.

“I told them, ‘If we’re going to say this, then I expect to see it (tomor-row). If we say we’re go-ing to play with passion, I expect to see it (tomor-row). If we say we’re going to fi nish, I expect to see it (tomorrow). All

those are things you’re saying, I’m not.’ And we saw some of it on Friday.”

Enough, as it turned out, to edge Rut-gers 16-14 and inject new hope and excite-ment into a season that had been headed south with a three-game losing skid and losses in the two previous appearances in front of the hometown folks.

Now comes another challenge when surprising Syracuse (5-2, 1-1 Big East -- fresh off a shocking 49-23 rout of then-No. 11 West Virginia and seeking to earn bowl eligibility) visits Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium Saturday at noon. It will be UofL Homecoming.

Can the Cardinals (3-4, 1-1) handle success? They couldn’t following their victory over archrival Kentucky, which they had proclaimed as a “turning point” and their coach had labeled a “statement game.” Not so much. After that win, they proceeded to lose three straight -- to Mar-shall, North Carolina and Cincinnati.

“It was a tremendous building block for us,” Strong said of the win over Rutgers. “We have to build on that, knowing we have to be able to close out those games because each game is going to be close from here on.

“We practiced (Sunday night) with a little more juice. Now you’ve got to know how to handle it. Are our guys mature enough to handle it and go win the next one? OK, this one’s done and we’ve got to learn to put it behind us. We didn’t learn after the Kentucky game, let’s see if we learned it now. It’s the conference, it’s an important game.”

Incredibly, UofL hasn’t won back-to-back Big East games since its champion-ship season of 2006, a string of 30 league contests. Strong said he was incredulous when he was told that.

“Wow. Five years. That’s a long time,” he said.

The Cards, picked to fi nish seventh in

the Big East, are still in the thick of things at this early stage because the league ap-pears more balanced than ever before, with no solid favorite. Preseason pick West Virginia was rolling along until fl am-ing out in the Carrier Dome. Every team has at least one loss now except Cincin-nati, and its stiffest tests lie ahead.

“It’s a race that’s still wide open,” Strong said. “You have to play well at home. We tell our players that each week is just a one-game series because we’re so young we can’t look ahead. Get this one, then we’ll worry about the next one. We’re not strong enough or have enough maturity about us to look ahead.”

But Strong said he sees some good signs in his young squad, including the im-proved performance of the offensive line, a more productive running attack, the ability to overcome adversity and fi nally to win a close game.

“Our young guys are stepping up ... this team is beginning to grow,” he said. “Our offensive line played very well, and our defensive line. You have to play well up front.... Our team needs to play with confi dence and trust, guys believing in one another. And if we can get that ac-complished, we have a chance to build on that win.”

Syracuse has a good blend of run/pass with quarterback Ryan Nassib and running back Antwon Bailey. Against West Virginia Nassib completed 24 of 32 passes for 229 yards and four touchdowns with no inter-ceptions, while Bailey rushed for 125 yards and a touchdown. Nassib is completing 66 percent of his passes, with 15 touchdowns and only four interceptions.

“Syracuse is a good team,” Strong said. “They have a lot of seniors on offense. Their running back (Bailey) is doing a good job, their offensive line is very good and their quarterback (Nassib) does a good job of managing the offense.

“They do a great job of running the football, then they have a good play-ac-tion game off of it. So you load the box to stop the run, then they throw a play-action pass and the guy’s running wide open, which they’ve been able to do. They’ve had a ton of guys wide open.”

Defensively, Strong said Syracuse re-sembles UofL because of the pressure the Orange applies. Syracuse was able to keep the Mountaineers’ high-powered offense led by quarterback Geno Smith in check most of the game. WVU entered the game averaging 40.8 points and 503.5 yards of offense and fi nished with 23 and 408. Smith, the Big East’s passing effi ciency leader, threw for 338 yards and two TDs but had two passes intercepted, and the losers were limited to 70 yards on the ground.

It also was the highest-ranked oppo-nent the Orange had beaten since a 50-42 triple-overtime win over No. 8 Virginia Tech in 2002.

“This is a good matchup for us,” Strong said. “We’re going to have to play ex-tremely well to beat this team.”

Junior defensive end Chandler Jones, in his fi rst game back after injuring a leg in the season opener against Wake Forest, was named Big East Defensive Player of the Week for a six-tackle, two-sack per-formance against the Mountaineers. He also batted down a Smith pass. And wide receiver/kick returner Dorian Graham was named Special Teams Player of the Week for his 98-yard kickoff return for a touch-down.

“We have a long way to go,” Syra-cuse coach Doug Marrone said. “Let’s not confuse the issue. We really haven’t accomplished anything besides winning a football game against a very good op-ponent.”

Freshman Michaelee Harris hauled in a perfectly thrown 18-yard touchdown pass from freshman Teddy Bridgewater in the third quarter despite close guarding by Rutgers DB Logan Ryan. - photo by Gail Kamenish

RUSS BROWN’S RUNDOWN

UOFL 16, RUTGERS 14The game was over when: UofL linebacker Dexter Heyman intercepted a pass by Rutgers’ Gary Nova on the visitors’ 40-yard line with 1:41 remaining and the Scarlet Knights having only one timeout left. Four rushing plays ran out the clock.

Turning point: Michaelee Harris’ outstanding catch in the end zone of a pass from Teddy Bridgewater to give the Cards a 16-7 lead with 6:10 remaining in the third quarter. The pass was on target, but Harris was well-covered by a Rutgers DB and had to stretch to make the reception. “They played the coverage we wanted, so we checked to the play, Teddy threw it up and somehow I came down with it,” Harris said.

UofL Offensive Player of the Game: Sophomore Jer-emy Wright fi nally gave UofL its fi rst 100-yard rusher of the season, gaining 108 yards on 11 carries for a 9.8 average. His 29-yard run in the fi rst quarter was the Cards’ fi rst rush over 20 yards since Dominque Brown’s 23-yarder at Kentucky. Wright’s run carried to the Rutgers 1-yard line and set up Brown’s touch-down run from there.

UofL Defensive Player of the Game: Making his fi rst start at free safety, true freshman Calvin Pryor in-tercepted a pass and had fi ve tackles, one for a loss.

Who’s Hot: Although he missed a 43-yarder, placekicker Chris Philpott connected on a school-record-tying 52-yard fi eld goal after hitting a 51-yarder against Cincinnati the previous week.

Who’s Not: Do you have to be reminded? Louisville’s offense. The Cards remain near the bottom of FBS in nearly every major offensive category -- No. 114 in scoring (16.3 ppg, 111th last week), 100th in total of-fense (327.4), and 93rd (up from 102nd) in rushing offense (120.0 ypg). The Cards are relying far too much on their defense; there is going to come a time when they’ll need to score more points to win a game.

On the Rise: UofL’s running game generated a sea-son-high 187 yards against Rutgers after getting only 230 total in its previous three games. Whether that’s an aberration or the start of a new trend re-mains to be seen. Brown’s 1-yard TD run was Lou-isville’s fi rst since the Marshall game and only its third of the season.

On the Rise Part II: Louisville’s offensive line turned in its best performance of the season, giving up zero sacks against a team that was No. 2 in the nation in that department coming in with four per game.

On the Decline: The coaching staff’s math skills in consecutive games. On a Cincinnati punt, the Cards had only nine players on the fi eld. Then on a fourth-down play against Rutgers, they got a delay-of-game penalty while having just 10 men on the fi eld.

On the Decline Part II: UofL had 10 penalties for 72 yards and is in danger of becoming the most penalized team in the country. The Cards aver-age 8.43 penalties per game, putting them at No. 118, slightly ahead of only Florida State (8.57) and Florida (8.71).

Quotable: “When I saw him drop it, I thought, ‘Oh yes! It’s just our day, our day.’” – UofL cornerback Adrian Bushell on Rutgers wide receiver Mark Har-rison’s drop of a sure touchdown pass in the fourth quarter with UofL leading by the fi nal score.

RUSS BROWNRUSS BROWN

Page 6: Louisville SportsReport: Oct. 26, 2011 issue

PAGE 6 LOUISVILLE SPORTSREPORT OCTOBER 26, 2011

CARDINAL FOOTBALL

Three things you may have missed By Rick Cushing

RUNNING INTO THE BLITZ

Charlie Strong revealed after last Friday night’s victory over Rutgers that part of the reason for UofL’s success in running the ball against the Knights was that the Cards ran “into the blitz.” He explained: “If you can get a hat on every defender you create seams, and once you get through the fi rst line of defense there’s open space for the running back (to exploit).” UofL running backs did exploit Rutgers’ blitz-happy defense, with Jeremy Wright rambling for gains of 29, 27, 29, 13 and 12 yards en route to a 108-yard rushing game, Dominique Brown running for 17 and 13 yards, and Victor Anderson posting a 16-yard gain. Those backs, once they cleared the line of scrimmage, saw open ground and took off.

Credit for UofL’s rushing success also refl ects mightily on the superb play of an offensive line that had been much maligned before Friday. Not only did the O-line not allow any sacks (Rutgers came in second in the country at 4.0 sacks per game), it opened huge holes, especially in the second half, that allowed the Cards to roll up a season-high 187 yards on the ground. Rutgers came in 28th in the country in rushing defense, allowing just 110.33 ypg.

“The offensive line was awesome,” said quarterback Teddy Bridgewater.Said middle linebacker Dexter Heyman, “My hat really goes off to them (the O-line).”Said Strong, “They really did a super job.”

ANOTHER FRESHMAN SHINES

The brightest aspect of the Cardinals’ season has been the splendid play of a number of freshmen, from QB Bridgewater to wide receivers Eli Rogers, Michaelee Harris and DeVante Parker, to offensive linemen Jake Smith and John Miller, to defensive lineman Bryant DuBose to defensive backs Terell Floyd and Stephan Robinson. You now can add DB Calvin Pryor to that list.

Making his fi rst start of the season at free safety because of an “internal issue” involving previous starter Shenard Holton, Pryor had his fi rst collegiate interception, which he returned for 25 yards in the fi rst quarter, and recorded fi ve tackles (tied for third-most on the team), including one for a loss. “Pryor played very well,” said Strong.

Pryor is from Port St. Joe, Fla., and was a three-sport star in high school (football, baseball and basketball). As a junior point guard he averaged 12 points and eight assists as Port St. Joe H.S. reached the Class 2A Final Four, and he hit nearly .400 as a center fi elder as the Tiger Sharks reached the regional fi nal.

Freshman contributions also extend to special teams. Lorenzo Mauldin, a tight end from Atlanta, recorded a nice tackle on a kickoff Friday night and has two tackles this season.

TOUCHING GESTURE BY RUTGERS

As UofL defensive back Anthony Conner lay motionless on the fi eld early in the second quarter after striking his helmet on the knee of Rutgers’ Mohamed Sanu, the entire Rutgers team moved onto the fi eld and took a knee as medical personnel attended to Conner. He eventually was tied to a stretcher and loaded on a cart, then transferred to an ambulance and taken to a hospital, where a broken neck was diagnosed. Luckily, Conner is not paralyzed, although his football career is over. The actions of the Rutgers team were both touching and classy. You may recall that a Rutgers player, Eric LeGrand, suffered a broken neck in a game last fall and was paralyzed from the neck down. He has staged a remarkable recovery, has regained sensation over his entire body and now can move his shoulders. He currently works as an analyst on the Rutgers Radio Network, although he doesn’t travel to away games.

DATE OPPONENT / EVENT TIMEDATE OPPONENT / EVENT TIME

Thu., Sept. 1 Murray State W, 21-9

Fri., Sept. 9 Florida International L, 24-17

Sat., Sept. 17 at Kentucky W, 24-17

Sat., Oct. 1 Marshall L, 17-13

Sat., Oct. 8 at North Carolina L, 14-7

Sat., Oct. 15 at Cincinnati L, 25-16

Fri., Oct. 21 Rutgers W, 16-14

Sat., Oct. 29 Syracuse (ESPN2) Noon

Sat., Nov. 5 at West Virginia Noon

Sat., Nov. 12 Pittsburgh TBA

Sat., Nov. 19 at Connecticut TBA

Fri., Nov. 25 at USF (ABC/ESPN/ESPN2) TBA

2011 LOUISVILLE 2011 LOUISVILLE FOOTBALL SCHEDULEFOOTBALL SCHEDULE

V I S I T C A R D I N A L S P O R T S . C O M FOR UP-TO-THE-MINUTE CARDINAL INFORMATION

Rutgers coach Greg Schiano and his entire team moved onto the fi eld and took a knee as UofL’s Anthony Conner was being attended to after suffering a broken neck. - photo by Howie Lindsey

Page 7: Louisville SportsReport: Oct. 26, 2011 issue

OCTOBER 26, 2011 LOUISVILLE SPORTSREPORT PAGE 7

LOUISVILLE ATHLETICS

By Howie LindseyBy the time your read this, the entire

landscape of University of Louisville athletics could have changed. That’s how fast things can move in the ever-changing landscape of college athletics these days.

But as of Monday at midnight, let’s sum up where Louisville stands.

Louisville, one of the top athletic programs in the Big East Conference, has long been ru-mored to be a candidate for the Big 12 if and when that league decides to expand. The Big 12 is waiting to announce anything publicly until one of its member schools, Missouri, makes up its mind which league it wants to be in -- the Big 12 or the SEC.

Several Missouri sources said the Tigers likely would announce they are leaving the Big 12 on Monday, during or after a meeting of the Big 12 leaders in an undisclosed Dal-las location, but that didn’t happen. After the meeting Monday night, interim Big 12 com-missioner Chuck Neinas told The Kansas City Star that Missouri did not submit a letter of conditional withdrawal, nor did it notify the Big 12 on Monday of its plans to leave the Big 12.

“The conference encouraged Missouri to stay in the Big 12,” Neinas said.

The Big 12 issued a statement after the meeting that read: “In a regularly scheduled meeting today at an undisclosed Dallas-area location, the Big 12 Conference Board of Di-rectors reaffi rmed previous action to execute institutional grants of Tier 1 (over-the-air) and Tier 2 (cable) television rights to the confer-ence.

“The Board also discussed a wide range of topics, including NCAA legislation, the Bowl Championship Series and exploration of a conference-dedicated TV network.

“Additionally, a strong desire for the Uni-versity of Missouri to maintain its Big 12 affi li-ation was expressed. All 10 member institu-tions (including Texas A&M, which is leaving to join the SEC) and (new member) TCU par-ticipated in the meeting.”

So why did Missouri sources believe Mon-day would be the day they’d withdraw from the league?

Missouri’s Board of Curators held a press conference last Friday permitting Chancel-lor Brady Deaton to negotiate all conference matters on behalf of the school and recom-mended the establishment of a football game with a regional rival and an annual basketball tournament in Kansas City.

All three of those directives point to Mis-souri leaving the Big 12. Giving Deaton the authority to make decisions without a vote of the Curators expedites the process, and the latter two items, the football game and the basketball tournament, are an olive branch to the Missouri fans and business owners in Kansas City who would be upset if Missouri left the Big 12 and the Big 12 championship football game and Big 12 basketball tourna-ment were removed from the city’s list of an-nual events.

Missouri still could withdraw Tuesday (or Wednesday, or Thursday or, well, you get the idea), but until they do, the Big 12 is not likely to act on getting a new member.

Once Missouri makes its pick, the talk amongst Big 12 sources has centered on Lou-isville, West Virginia and BYU.

A month ago BYU appeared to be the Big 12’s top option, but sources indicate the BYU TV Network presents a problem because the

Cougars would need to forfeit all Tier 1 and Tier 2 TV rights to the league.

Two weeks ago the league added TCU, a natural fi t given that the Horned Frogs are right in the middle of Big 12 country, have a top football program and other sports as well and, given that they had been planning to switch leagues (to the Big East) next year anyway, were readily available.

While BYU is still a candidate, the league and BYU would have to reach an agreement on TV rights, which appears not to be an easy task. That leaves Louisville and West Virginia for that possible 10th spot.

Some, including ESPN and CBS, have spec-ulated that West Virginia now appears to be the Big 12’s top pick, but that runs contrary to what local sources have told the Louisville SportsReport.

Austin (Texas) American-Statesman col-umnist Kirk Bohls quoted one Big 12 school offi cial as saying: “I’d say West Virginia is the leader in the clubhouse. I think we’ll come out better than before. I’d rather be with someone who wants to be with our confer-ence than anybody who doesn’t.”

Asked why the Big 12 would be upgraded by adding West Virginia, the offi cial said: “West Virginia has better football than Mis-souri, better basketball than Missouri, a bet-ter budget than Missouri and more passion among its fans than Missouri. They’re better, any way you turn ‘em. The travel’s not good (to Morgantown, W. Va), but that’s it.”

But another well-placed Big 12 administra-tor told Bohls: “The only place where there’s an advantage for West Virginia is better football. Their academics is not as strong. If there’s any thought about what’s best for the student-athlete, we’ll go with Louisville.”

As for UofL, Vice President for Athletics Tom Jurich is keeping things close to the vest for now. He said last Tuesday: “I think there is a lot of speculation out there right now. Our focus right now is on the Big East. What we do, we’ll keep private right now.”

Jurich later added: “We’ll have to be fl uid. We have to be fl uid in anything that we do for this athletic department and this Univer-sity. We will continue to be. You hear all the things that we hear. We have worked very hard over the last 14 years to build this into something special, and we want to make sure that we prosper.”

As for the Big East, the league is moving forward with pursuing new members. UCF, Houston, Temple, SMU, Boise State, Navy and Air Force have been identifi ed as likely targets. A week ago Monday the Big East voted to double the exit fee from $5 million to $10 million should a member leave the league. Jurich noted the increase is all about league stability.

“I think it has been something that we have all looked at very hard, because the league is trying to create a stable situation because they were blindsided themselves, and I think this is one way that they can show stability to the other schools they are out try-ing to recruit right now,” Jurich said. “That was the main objective.”

When asked about the $10 million exit fee, Jurich noted it would not be an obstacle to a decision for Louisville.

“I think anytime you add onto something like that it certainly does restrict you, but that is not going to change our minds either way,” he said. “... From our standpoint we don’t look at that as any kind of an obstacle.”

CONFERENCE CALL: BIG EAST OR BIG 12?

NOTHING DECIDED YET

LOUISVILLE FOOTBALL

By Russ BrownAlthough the University of Louisville players

were shaken by the career-ending injury suf-fered by senior cornerback Anthony Conner during last Friday night’s 16-14 victory over Rutgers, they vow to carry on, just as they did in pulling out the victory after Conner was hurt.

“He’s a great kid,” senior linebacker Dexter Heyman said. “Everybody loves playing with him. (After the injury) we went from playing with him to playing for him.

“Anthony Conner is defi nitely one of the great warriors on our team, but we’re not go-ing to sit here and feel sorry for ourselves now that he’s out. He’s a very special friend of mine and a lot of the guys, but we do have football games to play and we have to perform. We’ll miss Anthony a lot, but we’re ready to strap it up and go play. Football has to be played.”

The 5-11, 187-pound Conner suffered a broken neck in the second quarter while tack-ling Rutgers receiver Mohamed Sanu. Con-ner’s helmet hit Sanu’s knee, sending Sanu somersaulting onto his back, but it was Con-ner who didn’t get up.

The good news delivered by an emotional UofL coach Charlie Strong later was that Con-ner had not suffered any paralysis and had movement in all of his extremeties. Still, the injury hit Strong and the Cards hard and obvi-ously put a sobering damper on an important victory.

“Anthony Conner, it’s so sad,” Strong said. “Our prayers go out to him and his family. It happens in this game. You just never want to see it happen to one of your own. I told our players right after the game, and some of them didn’t take it very well. We’re going to miss him.”

Junior cornerback Adrian Bushell told re-porters after the game that he was forego-ing celebrating the win, leaving the football complex and heading for the hospital to visit Conner.

“It’s a big loss,” Bushell said. “My heart and prayers go out to him. It made us want to go win the game for him. We talked about it during every timeout that, ‘We’ve got to go win this for AC.’”

Strong said the next day that Conner, who is in stable condition at Jewish Hospital, was in “very high spirits” and didn’t remember what happened.

“He said, ‘I just remember when I came to, you and coach (Vance) Bedford were the only two voices I remember hearing,’” Strong said.

Strong said tests are continuing and that he and the doctors are waiting on Conner’s mother to get to Louisville from Houston.

“Then I think everyone is going to sit down and make a decision of where we’re going to go,” Strong said. “I just know it’s nothing life-threatening. His neck is broke and everything is precautionary right now until all the evalua-tion and tests are done.”

Conner transferred to UofL from Butte (Texas) Community College. He started two games and appeared in 10 in 2009 as a junior, then suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament during spring practice in 2010 and missed all last season.

Conner entered this season as the only cor-nerback who had started a game. He started fi ve and played in all six this season, record-ing one interception and one forced fumble, along with 21 tackles.

As frightening as the scene was for the Louisville players, coaches and fans, it wasequaled by the Rutgers contingent becauseit was a fl ashback of a horrible scene for theScarlet Knights. A year ago, Rutgers defensivetackle Eric LeGrand also had a violent collisionon the fi eld and still hasn’t walked again.

As Conner was being treated before be-ing taken off on a cart, the Rutgers playersand coaches gathered on the fi eld and knelt,many with their heads down as if in prayer.When Conner was driven off, they stood andapplauded. It was a heartwarming display ofcaring and sportsmanship, and it didn’t stopthere.

“Praying for the Louisville DB,” LeGrand tweeted from Piscataway, N.J., where he is ananalyst on the Rutgers Radio Network.

“Lord, I ask that you touch the Louisville football family and the player that had thecareer-ending injury,” Rutgers senior captainJustin Francis tweeted from the team bus afterthe game.

“We appreciate all the thoughts and prayers for Anthony and his family duringthis diffi cult time,” Strong said. “I would alsolike to thank the Rutgers football team andhead coach Greg Schiano for their display ofclass and compassion for Anthony during thegame last night. The Rutgers football familywent through something very similar almosta year ago, and they know the severity of thesituation.”

UPDATE: Conner underwent surgery atJewish Hospital Monday afternoon to helpstabilize a cervical fracture and could be re-leased later this week, according to Strong.

If that happens, Conner could conceivably be able to attend the Cardinals’ game againstSyracuse Saturday afternoon in Papa John’sCardinal Stadium.

“It’s going to be how quickly he can re-cover,” Strong said. “I just know they saidhe needs to get up and walk around. There’snothing that is keeping him from walking.”

Strong said he visited Conner before the surgery and that the Houston native admittedbeing a little nervous before the surgery butwas calm after Dr. Richard Holt explained theprocedure.

“Anthony didn’t go into a panic state at all, and he was in good spirits,” Strong said.

Strong added that he told his players that Conner’s injury was a reminder of how unpre-dictable and fragile life can be and that theyshould seize the moment.

“I said to our team, ‘You never know. Live in the moment, for today, not tomorrow. En-joy the moment.’“

CONNER’S INJURY CASTS A SHADOW ON RUTGERS WIN

Anthony Conner, pictured here intercepting a pass in the Murray State game, had surgery on his neck Monday morning.

Page 8: Louisville SportsReport: Oct. 26, 2011 issue

By Jack CoffeeHALL OF FAME – words that engender visions of achievement, exceptional accomplish-

ments and the best at whatever the particular institution is honoring. The Baseball Hall of Fame is desired by all major league players, and the same is true for all professional sports.

The University of Louisville has an Athletic Hall of Fame that recognizes athletes, coaches and administrators for standing above their peers in whatever sport in which they partici-pated. This Friday fi ve more outstanding former athletes will be inducted to the Cardinal

Hall of Fame at the KFC Yum! Center, bringing the total number of inductees to 167. Those 167 individuals represent the best the university has to offer on the athletic fi eld and in the arena.

The fi ve inductees for the 2011 class include a familiar name to Cardi-nals fans and some not so familiar except to the most avid of fans:

OTIS WILSON was one of the most dominant defensive players ever to wear the red and black. A linebacker, he led the team in tackles in 1977 and `78. In spite of playing only three seasons (freshmen were not eligible then), he stands second on the career list with 484 tackles,

only four behind Mark Sander, who played four seasons. He is third and eighth for most tackles in a season, with 175 as a sophomore and 157 as a junior. When he was senior teams wisely ran the other way. After making fi rst-team All-American his senior year he was drafted in the fi rst round by the Chicago Bears, where he played eight years, helping the Bears to a Super Bowl title in 1986.

MATT BERGER could hit a baseball. He is the UofL career leader in home runs with 64 and had a good eye at the plate, being the all-time leader in walks with 164. But his statistical wonders don’t stop there. He is second in career RBIs (204), third in runs scored (190), fi fth in hits (253), sixth in at-bats (794) and seventh in games played (215). He was a Freshman All-American and three-time all-conference player. He played fi ve seasons of professional ball.

MIKE CLOUSER is the third person from swimming and diving to enter the Hall of Fame, joining two well-known Louisvillians -- Bernard Dahlem and John Nation. Mike was a four-time conference champ in three-meter diving. He also was conference champion in the one-meter and set school and conference records in both events.

JILL MORTON was the fi rst women’s basketball All-American at the University of Lou-isville, earning fi rst-team honors in 2000. She led the nation in three-point shooting her senior year with a .535 percentage, highest in school history, men or women. Her .445 career three-point shooting percentage is second to Dwayne Morton’s .461. She is eighth on the all-time career scoring list with 1,402 points and was the Cards’ fi rst WNBA draft pick in 2000.

JACKIE SPENCER is also a former women’s basketball player (1982-85). She ranks sev-enth in career scoring with 1,443 points. Against Cincinnati on Feb. 2, 1985, she ac-complished a remarkable quadruple-double with 14 points, 14 assists, 10 steals and 12 rebounds, a feat that may never be matched. She led the team in scoring her junior and senior years and was All-Metro both years. She led the Cards to three straight Metro titles and a regular-season championship.

Scanning the list of Hall of Famers, it’s interesting to recognize familiar names and re-member their accomplishments as Cardinals. Names on the list include the famous -- Grif-fi th, Lyles, Unseld, Tyra, Unitas, Olsen(s), Camp, Hickman, Crum and Schnellenberger. But there are many names unfamiliar to the average Cardinals fan because they played years ago or in an obscure sport in that day. Remember that until recently sports other than football and basketball did not have the promotions of the present day.

If you’ve been around a while like me (translation-old), you will enjoy reading down the list looking for old friends and current acquaintances. You might fi nd a friend that you had no idea they were an athlete at the university. I enjoy seeing old friends and new on the list. My childhood friend Jerry King from the West End is there, as is my teammate from Shawnee, Lee Bouggess. My high school all-star coach, Gil Sturtzel, captain of the Sun Bowl Team and former assistant football coach at UofL, also is there.

Many folks I’ve gotten to know over the years are in the Hall of Fame -- Mario Cheppo, Junior Bridgeman, Amos Martin, John Madeya, Scott Reburn, Ted Schulz, Sonny Bass, Bill Gatti and Joan Burks. There are even politicians listed -- two-sport star and Governor Law-rence Wetherby and former Louisville Mayor Bill Stansbury. He was a cheerleader before and after WW II. The present Board of Trustees includes Hall of Famer Frank Minnifi eld.

Any alumnus or friend of the university may nominate a former athlete, coach or ad-ministrator, and the forms can be found on the uofl sports.com web site along with the list of members.

PAGE 8 LOUISVILLE SPORTSREPORT OCTOBER 26, 2011

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Melvin Baumann, a native of New Albany, has had football season tickets since 1960, one year after he graduated from UofL’s Dental School, and said he “very seldom misses a game.” Of special memories he said: “Watching Tom Jackson play linebacker was special. I remember thinking, ‘He’s the best you could be.’ He stands out to me as the No. 1 player in all my time of going to UofL football games. There were a lot of other good ones, of course. My most unusual memory is when we played Syracuse and ran the opening kickoff back for a touchdown. Then we kicked off to them and they ran it all the way back for a TD. When we ran the opening kick all the way back, I remember thinking, ‘What a great way to start the game.’ Then they matched us. What a start.”

Bauman said he and his wife, Terese, attended most of the bowl games UofL went to. “They’ve all been fun except for that trip to Boise State (Humanitarian Bowl, 1999). It was so cold, and the seats were so narrow. It’s the worst experience I’ve ever had at a football game. (UofL lost, too – 34-31).

“But I’ve really enjoyed UofL football over the years. And I hope to keep enjoying them for years to come. I’ll be 83 next month.”

Bauman also held basketball season tickets since 1960, but he “gave them up a couple of years ago. We’ve been going to Florida for the winters, and I had been giving my tickets away. Then when they moved downtown I couldn’t fi nd anybody who wanted to pay the fee to keep my seats. I’ve seen a lot of good games.”

DEDICATED FANS

Page 9: Louisville SportsReport: Oct. 26, 2011 issue

By Russ BrownDexter Heyman wants you to know

something. He could have scored after he made his game-saving interception with 1:41 left in Friday night’s 16-14 win over Rutgers, but he took one for the team. In other words, he didn’t want to risk fum-bling the football in search of more glory.

So when he jumped in front of Rutgers receiver Mohamed Sanu and made a clean theft to end any comeback hopes by the Scarlet Knights, he almost immediately dove on the ground, settling for an 8-yard gain.

“Football and sports in general is all about sacrifi ce, and I sacrifi ced making a

great play, a pick six, for the betterment of the team,” Heyman said. “That’s what it really came down to.”

Then the senior line-backer added with a grin, “Now, I don’t want y’all to think I couldn’t have scored. I could

have scored. But I need to get down (on the ground). I’ll take that sacrifi ce if we get out of there with a nice, solid, clean win, because I’ve seen crazy things happen in sports all the time.”

When asked whether his teammates teased him about his fl op, Heyman replied with a laugh, “Of course they teased me about it.”

Heyman’s interception was one of three for the Cardinals in a twist of fate. If anyone fi gured to take advantage of turn-overs it was Rutgers, which ranked No. 1 in the FBS in turnover margin with plus-13 while UofL was near the bottom at mi-nus-4, which ranked 96th.

Freshman free safety Calvin Pryor got the Cards’ pick-off party started by inter-cepting a pass by Rutgers freshman quar-terback Gary Nova on the visitors’ third play of the game. Pryor was making his fi rst start in place of junior Shenard Holton, who was suspended for an undisclosed violation of team rules.

Then on Rutgers’ next series, junior cor-nerback Adrian Bushell swiped another Nova pass at the Knight’s 38-yard line to set up UofL’s fi rst touchdown, a 1-yard run by tailback Dominique Brown four plays later.

Louisville (3-4, 1-1 Big East) had man-aged only six interceptions in its fi rst six games, so Friday’s performance could be a good sign as the Cards get ready for Syra-cuse (5-2, 1-1) Saturday in Papa John’s Car-dinal Stadium.

“We are real big on getting turnovers,” Bushell said. “That’s how you win a game, you’ve got to get more turnovers than the

other team. We stressed that all year and fi nally we got some, and we got the win. So we’ve got to keep that going so we can move on to the next step.”

Heyman’s interception was his second of the season. He also had a tackle for loss and leads UofL in tackles with 51. His latest theft came after Rutgers got the ball on its own 20-yard line after intercepting a pass by UofL quarterback Teddy Bridgewater in the end zone with 2:08 left, plenty of time for the Knights to get in position to attempt a game-winning fi eld goal.

Nova completed a 13-yard pass to wide-out Mohamed Sanu, then threw an incom-pletion before Heyman’s interception. He said he jumped the pass because he knew what route Sanu was going to run.

“Actually, I knew that route before it happened, if you want to know the truth,” Heyman said. “They run that route all the time, it’s their top route. That just comes back to a lot of fi lm study and execution. I even told the guy next to me that I was going to jump it.

“Honestly, it was just another play. I know that sounds funny, but at the end of the day it’s a football game and every play counts. That play didn’t count any more or any less, it just came at a crucial point in the game. You take those in stride.”

Heyman said other defenders also made big plays that won’t necessarily show up in the stats, naming defensive back Hakeem Smith and linebacker Preston Brown and “guys just fl ying around getting to the

ball.”However, cornerback Adrian Bushell, for

one, was glad to see that it was Heyman -- a team captain -- who made a big play at the fi nish with the game on the line.

“Dexter is one of our inspirational lead-ers, so for him to get that interception at the end was big,” Bushell said. “He made a lot of plays, but it was a team effort re-ally. Everybody did their job, did what they had to do.”

With typical modesty, Heyman rejected any notion that he saved the game, point-ing instead to a revived running attack that rang up a season-high 187 yards, including 108 by sophomore Jeremy Wright, who be-came the Cards’ fi rst 100-yard rusher this season. Brown added 44 yards and Victor Anderson contributed 34.

“Our running game saved the game,” Heyman said. “We had three running backs, who if they had been in the whole game, easily could have rushed for over 100 yards. Those three and the offensive line, my hat goes off to them. They showed up ready to play and really kept us in it.”

PHILPOTT TIES RECORDSenior placekicker Chris Philpott contin-

ues to bounce back from adversity, brush-ing off his misses on fi eld goals as if they were nothing more than a pesky fl y. He snapped a string of three straight misses with three fi eld goals at Cincinnati, includ-ing a career-best 51 yarder.

Then against Rutgers he missed his fi rst

attempt, a 43-yarder in the fi rst quarter,but nailed a record-tying 52-yarder in thethird period to snap a 7-7 tie. That kick tiedhim with Klaus Wilmsmeyer, Ron Bell andWilbur Summers for the longest fi eld goalin UofL history.

“I just told (Philpott) to go in there and kick it,” Strong said. “In order for him tohave confi dence he has to know we believein him. After he missed the fi rst one, I said,‘Look, you’re going to get another oppo-runity, just relax and go kick it.’”

OCTOBER 26, 2011 LOUISVILLE SPORTSREPORT PAGE 9

LOUISVILLE FOOTBALL

P H I L P O T T T I E S F I E L D G O A L R E C O R D

HEYMAN DOWNPLAYS THEFT, BUT TURNOVERS A GOOD SIGN

For conference updates, log on to www.CardinalSports.com

Senior linebacker Dexter Heyman set sail after intercepting a pass at the Rutgers 40-yard

line with 1:41 left, then almost immediately went to the ground because he didn’t want to

risk a fumble. “Now I don’t want y’all to think I couldn’t have scored,” he said after the game.

“I could have scored. But I need to get down ... because I’ve seen crazy things happen in

sports all the time.”- photo by Howie Lindsey

RUSS BROWNRUSS BROWN

Page 10: Louisville SportsReport: Oct. 26, 2011 issue

PAGE 10 LOUISVILLE SPORTSREPORT OCTOBER 26, 2011

GAME THREE PREVIEW - KENTUCKY

Yes, we realize that Louisville was actually favored to beat Rutgers Friday night by a slim margin (1 1/2-2 1/2 points), according to Las Vegas, but it seems pretty easy to call the Cardinals’ 16-14 win an upset. UofL came into the game 2-4 and

on a three-game losing skid, and Rutgers came in riding a four-game winning streak, including a 34-10 pasting of Pittsburgh on Oct. 8. Had Louisville lost to Rutgers the Cardinals would have been 2-5 overall, 0-2 in the league and practically out of the bowl picture. But now, after knocking off the Scarlet Knights, nearly anything is possible in the remaining fi ve games.

Don’t get us wrong, it will still be tough to make a bowl. The Cards’ chances couldn’t be called GOOD because they must win at least three of their remaining fi ve games, and three of those games are on the road. But their last two games have opened up

the possibility that they still can make a bowl. The league-leading team is Cincinnati (6-1, 2-0), and Louisville played them toe to toe for 60 minutes. Louisville just beat Rutgers, which beat Syracuse and Pittsburgh, two of UofL’s remaining fi ve opponents. Syracuse beat West Virginia, another of Louisville’s remaining opponents. West Virginia clobbered Connecticut 43-16, and Connecticut beat South Florida. What does all this mean? Not a whole lot, other than anything is possible in this league in the remaining fi ve games.

Louisville’s young receiving corps has done an excellent job getting open and catching the

ball this season. Bridgewater’s 18-yard TD pass to Michaelee Harris (frehman to freshman) in the third quarter was a thing of beauty. The passing game has been hindered only by the O-line’s inability to protect the quarterback. Most impressive is the number of receivers who have made a contribution in the fi rst seven games. Eleven receivers have caught multiple passes in a game, and two more have caught at least one. Six different receivers have more than 100 total yards receiving through the fi rst seven games, and three have 200-plus yards (Josh Chichester at 280, Harris with 260 and Eli Rogers with 218).

Louisville’s offense has looked downright UGLY at times and is currently ranked 114th in scoring at 16.29 points per game. You’ve heard the phrase, “You can only go up from here.” That is true for UofL’s offense. And we believe they will. Consider this: Louisville’s

starting QB (Bridgewater) and three linemen with starting experience (Jake Smith, John Miller and Jamon Brown) are freshmen. Three of Louisville’s top four receivers are freshmen (Harris, Rogers and DeVante Parker), and the Cardinals’ top two rushers are sophomores (Dominique Brown and Jeremy Wright).

Louisville’s defense is loaded with young talent that will just get better and better. I think a year or two from now we’ll look back and realize all the talent on this defense. The list of contributing underclassmen on Louisville’s defense is amazing:

BJ Butler (DE), BJ Dubose (DE), Malcolm Mitchell (DE), Brandon Dunn (DT), Jamaine Brooks (DT), Roy Philon (DT), Marcus Smith (DE), Deiontrez Mount (LB), Deon Rogers (DE) Preston Brown (LB), Andrew Johnson (CB), Terell Floyd (CB), Calvin Pryor (S), Jordon Paschal (CB), Stephan Robinson (CB) and Hakeem Smith (S). Six of 11 starters are underclassmen, so as good as they’ve been so far this season (17th nationally in defense), they are going to be even better as the season goes along.

In spite of the GOOD win over Rutgers on Friday, the Cards still struggle with BAD penalties at some of the most inopportune times. Rutgers had three fi rst downs by penalty, while the Cards had none. The three penalty fi rst downs helped the Knights have

19 fi rst downs in all to the Cards’ 14. For the season, UofL has given up 12 fi rst downs by penalty and has benefi ted from only two penalty fi rst downs. Louisville is 118th out of 120 Division I teams in number of penalties per game with 8.43. The Cardinals have 59 penalties in seven games, out-done only by Florida State (8.57) and Florida (8.71). Of course, be careful what you wish for - Louisville could be like Kentucky. The Cats are third in the nation for fewest penalties per game (3.71 per), but they still stink. And it makes sense that Navy (No. 1, 2.29) and Army (No. 5, 4.0) are two of the top-fi ve least penalized teams in the country.

UofL basketball coach Rick Pitino thinks the Occupy Wall Street protesters have made a BAD choice in one way. With an eye on all the conference upheaval of recent months, Pitino thinks the protesters should move to various cities across the country that

serve as headquarters of conferences that have been the victims of upheaval. “Instead of marching on Wall Street, march on the greed of the conferences,” Pitino said. “If you want to see true corporate greed, march on the conferences, that’s greed. It’s all about money, it’s all about TV, it’s all about football. It’s not about loyalty, it’s not about who’s been where, it’s not about traditional rivalries. It’s corporate greed at its best.”

Louisville native Nate Smith had an outstanding college football career at UofL from 2000-2003. These days he is just as GOOD at rugby, and he owes a debt of gratitude for his athletic accomplishments to another former UofL placekicker, David Akers

of the San Francisco 49ers. Smith fi rst met Akers 13 years ago, when Smith was a sophomore at Pleasure Ridge Park High School. His father paid Akers at one point for individual lessons, and he defi nitely got his money’s worth. Two years later Smith was the placekicker for the Cardinals, following in Akers’ footsteps. “He helped me on both the mental and physical side of the game of football,” Smith said. “I could always talk to him if I needed anything. Even if I ever had a bad day or a bad week of practice.” Over the ensuing four years Smith proceeded to break all of Akers’ career records, fi nishing with 275 career points and 44 fi eld goals. Now Smith has even followed Akers’ path to Philadelphia (Akers was a multiple All-Pro there). Smith was in the City of Brotherly Love last weekend for the 2013 Rugby World Cup Atlantic Qualifi er as a member of Team USA, which is trying to earn its fi rst-ever berth in the Rugby League World Cup. Smith has been the team’s leading scorer the last two years. “I just want to be an athlete ... ball in my hands trying to make a move, seeing if I can make a hole,” he said.

As only a coach with seven national titles to his credit can do

without fear of some UGLY reprisal from superiors, Connecticut women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma was candid in his criticism of Notre Dame for not wanting to become a part of the

Big East Conference in football. “They don’t play (football) in our league and never want to play in our league,” Auriemma said during Media Day in New York last week. “For a lot of us, it’s a huge problem. They’ve been in our league something like (17) years. How long are we going to date before we just decide this ain’t working? I’m not happy about it. That’s not the opinion of UConn, the Big East Conference, my president, my AD. That’s just Geno Auriemma’s opinion. I’m pissed about it.” Auriemma added: “If Notre Dame had come in as a football and basketball school, all in, we wouldn’t have a problem. Miami wouldn’t have left. Virginia Tech wouldn’t have left. Boston College wouldn’t have left (all for the ACC). We probably wouldn’t have any of these issues, would we? We have one school that holds the future of our league in the palm of their hand, and they’re not really that concerned about it.”

Former UofL assistant basketball coach Steve Masiello is in his fi rst season trying to remake Manhattan College into a GOOD basketball program, and he is relying on frequent advice from his former boss. Masiello refers to Pitino as “a second father,” and

the two speak with each other almost every day. “The biggest thing Coach Pitino taught me is to stay humble,” Masiello said. “No matter how much success you have or don’t have, just stay humble. Just be appreciative of where you are, and that’s something I try to do every day. I’m very fortunate to be here -- this is a dream job for me, I love where I’m at. I try to just approach this with, I’m gonna try to outwork everyone, have humility about it, and just have a lot of fun with this.” Masiello, a New York native and a former assistant at Manhattan, was hired by the school six months ago after serving the previous six years as an assistant to Pitino. He took over for Barry Rohrssen, whose fi ve-year tenure ended following a 6-25 record last season.

Tom Jurich missed his fi rst football game since coming to Louisville Friday night. But before the conspiracy theories start, we can answer the question. Jurich was in Flagstaff, Ariz., accepting the 2011 Northern Arizona University Dwight Patterson

Alumnus of the Year award. A 1980 graduate of NAU, Jurich was a student athlete there when the Walkup Skydome opened in 1977. He earned fi rst-team Kodak All-American honors in 1977 - the fi rst collegiate kicker to be named to the Kodak honor list -- and also received All-American acclaim from The Sporting News. He is the only kicker in Big Sky Conference history to be named the league’s Offensive Player of the Year (1977). Jurich was inducted into the NAU Athletic Hall of Fame in 1989. He was drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers and later played with the Minnesota Vikings. After serving as an assistant football coach at the University of Minnesota, Jurich was hired as assistant athletic director at NAU in 1984. He became athletic director in 1988 and served for eight years.

GOOD

GOOD

BAD

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UGLY

C O M M E N TA R Y B Y H O W I E L I N D S E Y, J A C K C O F F E E A N D R U S S B R O W N

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JOSH CHICHESTERJOSH CHICHESTER

Page 11: Louisville SportsReport: Oct. 26, 2011 issue

OCTOBER 26, 2011 LOUISVILLE SPORTSREPORT PAGE 11

BOTTOM LINEThis fi gures to be a hard-hitting game, and the team that makes the fewest mistakes will have an advantage. I’ll have faith that the Cards will eliminate some mistakes, make some big plays in the passing game and prevail in a close one.

ORANGE COMING OFF A BIG WIN VS. WEST VIRGINIA

BY RICK CUSHINGDoug Marrone returned to coach

his alma mater three years ago, seeking to return winning football to a school that was a national power throughout the second half of the 20th century but had not enjoyed a winning season since 2001 and had become the laughingstock of the Big East Conference.

After going 4-8 in his fi rst season (2009), Marrone led the Orange to an 8-5 record last year, capped by a 36-34 victory over Kansas State in the inaugural Pinstripe Bowl in Yankee Stadium. The next hurdle to cross was backing that up with a team that was missing eight starters on defense, which was the strength of last year’s team -- Syracuse ranked 97th in the country in total offense but seventh in defense last season.

But eight starters returned on offense, and Marrone was an offensive coordinator with the NFL’s New Orleans Saints before taking over at Syracuse, so the plan was to rely on the offense to carry the defense this year. What the Orange did to West Virginia last Friday is evidence that whatever Marrone is doing is working.

The Orange routed the No. 11 Mountaineers 49-23 as senior Ryan Nassib threw for four touchdowns and ran for another. He was 24 of 32 for 229 yards with no intercep-tions. The young defense also played well, holding a West Virginia offense that had been averaging 503.5 yards to 408 and forcing two turnovers. The Orange also ran for 194 yards, held the Mountaineers to 70 rushing yards and sacked Geno Smith four times.

“We’ve been able to stay the course, never give up, and keep building,” said Marrone. “I’m proud of the kids, I’m proud of the assistant coaches…. We’re just fi ghting, and I’m trying to do my best.

“ (Against West Virginia) we made plays, the kids ex-ecuted. They played extremely hard. They always have. We made plays at the right time, and we kept them (West Vir-ginia) off balance. They’re a very good football team, and we won a game.

“I think that the players trust each other. Whoever goes into the game, we have a lot of trust in each other. We were focused and we were able to execute. At the end of the day, that’s what we did. We executed … and we ended up win-ning a football game against a very good football team.”

Marrone has instilled a mentality of playing “extremely hard,” fundamentally sound football. His team has bought into it. The Orange will bring a 5-2, 1-1 record into Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium on Saturday for UofL’s Homecom-ing. The Cards (3-4, 1-1) will have their hands full.

OFFENSESyracuse’s game plan last year was to let the defense

carry the day while the offense did just enough to triumph. This year those roles were reversed, and senior quarterback Ryan Nassib (6-2, 227) has taken up the challenge of lead-ing the team. He is 148 of 224 (66.1 percent) for 1,523 yards (217.6 a game) and 15 touchdowns with just four interceptions. He doesn’t run much but is agile.

Three receivers have more than 20 catches -- junior Alec Lemon (6-2, 196, 34 catches for 351 yards and three TDs), senior tight end Nick Provo (6-4, 246, 28 catches for 326 yards and fi ve TDs) and senior Van Chew (6-1, 161, 23 catches for 330 yards and three TDs). Lemon also com-pleted the only pass he threw this season, for a 28-yard TD, so that’s something the Cards should be wary of.

Provo caught six passes for 61 yards against West Virginia, including three TD passes covering 3, 10 and 5 yards. He is a John Mackey Award candidate, an award that goes to the top tight end in the country. Mackey, who died this summer, is a Syracuse alum and is in the College and NFL Halls of Fame.

Four other receivers have caught TD passes, including senior Dorian Graham (5-10, 185), who has caught two.

Graham also returned a kickoff 98 yards for a TD against West Virginia.

Senior tailback Antwon Bailey (5-7, 197) heads the rushing attack. Against West Virginia he ran 22 times for 125 yards and a TD, his fourth consecutive game with more than 100 yards rushing and at least one touchdown. For the season he is averaging 4.6 yards a carry and 96.9 yards a game and has run for six TDs. He also is 1 for 1 passing, a 20-yarder.

Four of fi ve starting linemen are back, headed by ju-nior tackle Justin Pugh (6-6, 299). The center is sopho-more Macky MacPherson (6-2, 265), the grandson of former Syracuse coach Dick MacPherson.

Place-kicking is in very good hands. All Ross Krautman did last year as a true freshman was make 18 of 19 FG attempts, tie Gary Anderson’s school record for FGs in a season and make fi rst-team Freshman All-American. This year he is 9 for 12, and two of his misses were blocked.

Syracuse averaged 22.2 points a game last season but is averaging 29.86 ppg this season, 54th in the country.

DEFENSE: The defense was projected to be a work in progress but

has been surprisingly good, especially against the run. The Orange is 15th in the country in rushing defense, allowing just 99.43 yards per game. It is 116th in pass defense, however, allowing 299.43 ypg. Syracuse is 63rd in scoring defense, allowing 26.71 ppg., and tied for 29th in turnover margin at plus-2.

The D got a lift against West Virginia with the return of ju-nior defensive end Chandler Jones (6-5, 247), who had missed the previous fi ve games due to injury. Against the Mountain-eers he had six tackles, including two sacks, and one pass break up. He was second-team all-Big East last season.

The other DE is senior Mikhail Marinovich (6-5, 250), who has three tackles for a loss, including two sacks, and leads the team with four QB hurries.

The team’s leading tackler is junior safety Phillip Thom-as (5-11, 196) with 53, and he also leads the team with four interceptions, which is tied for sixth in the country.

Leading the team in sacks is freshman outside line-backer Dyshawn Davis (6-3, 213) with four. Syracuse is tied for 29th in the country at 2.43 sacks per game.

The only returning starter at linebacker, sophomore Mar-quis Sprull (6-1, 221), anchors the D at middle linebacker after a promising freshman season at outside LB. He is third on the team with 36 tackles and has recovered a team-leading two fumbles.

Replacing All-Big East punter Rob Long has been a problem. Long led the Big East with a 43.8-yard average last year. This year junior walk-on Shane Raupers is aver-aging 37.4 yards a punt.

PLAYERS TO WATCHNassib makes the team go on offense, and Jones is the

one to fear on defense.

TEAM STRENGTHThe O-line, especially left tackle Pugh, who’s projected

as a future NFL Draft pick. TEAM WEAKNESSThe secondary has been porous, so look for the Cards to

throw the ball a lot. COACHING RESUMESyracuse was Marrone’s fi rst head coaching job after

17 years as an assistant (1992-2008), including stints at Georgia Tech, Georgia and Tennessee in college and with the New York Jets and New Orleans Saints in the NFL. His record is 17-15.

ALL-TIME SERIESUofL and Syracuse have met 10 times, with each team

winning fi ve. The Cards have won the last two meetings. Syracuse pulled one of the biggest upsets in college football history when it beat the Cards 38-35 in 2007 despite being 37-point underdogs. That was Steve Kragthorpe’s fi rst sea-son and was a sign that his tenure would not go well.

HEAD COACHHEAD COACHDOUG MARRONEDOUG MARRONE

QB RYAN NASSIBQB RYAN NASSIB

2011 SCHEDULEDATE OPPONENT TIME/RESULTSept. 3, 2011 Wake Forest W, 36-29 OTSept. 10, 2011 Rhode Island W, 21-14 Sept. 17, 2011 at USC L, 38-17Sept. 24, 2011 Toledo W, 33-30 OTOct. 1, 2011 Rutgers L, 19-16 2OTOct. 8, 2011 at Tulane W, 37-34Oct. 21, 2011 West Virginia W, 49-23 Oct. 29, 2011 at Louisville Noon Nov. 5, 2011 at Connecticut TBA Nov. 11, 2011 South Florida 8:00 pm ETNov. 26, 2011 Cincinnati TBA

Dec. 3, 2011 at Pittsburgh 12:00 pm ET

2010 RESULTSDATE OPPONENT RESULT RECORD Sept. 4, 2010 at Akron W 29-3 1-0

Sept. 11, 2010 at Washington L 41-20 1-1

Sept. 18, 2010 Maine W 38-14 2-1

Sept. 25, 2010 Colgate W 42-7 3-1

Oct. 9, 2010 at South Florida W 13-9 4-1 (1-0)

Oct. 16, 2010 Pittsburgh L 45-14 4-2 (1-1)

Oct. 23, 2010 at West Virginia W 19-14 5-2 (2-1)

Oct. 30, 2010 at Cincinnati W 31-7 6-2 (3-1)

Nov. 6, 2010 Louisville L 28-20 6-3 (3-2)

Nov. 13, 2010 at Rutgers W 13-10 7-3 (4-2)

Nov. 20, 2010 Connecticut L 23-6 7-4 (4-3)

Nov. 27, 2010 Boston College L 16-7 7-5

Dec. 30, 2010 Kansas State W 36-34 8-5

FAST FACTSThe Orange was 2-4 at home last season (0-4 against FBS schools) while going 6-1 on the

road (after going 3-23 away from home between 2005-09). This year Syracuse is 4-1 at home (3-1 against FBS schools) and 1-1 on the road. Three of its fi nal fi ve games are on the road.

Syracuse has had such all-time greats as

Jim Brown, Ernie Davis (the fi rst black Heisman Trophy winner in 1961),

John Mackey, Larry Cszonka, Floyd Little, Art Monk and Marvin Harrison.

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SATURDAY

OCTOBER 29, 2011

LOUISVILLEVS.

SYRACUSE

LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY

12 NOON ESPN

Page 12: Louisville SportsReport: Oct. 26, 2011 issue

By Russ BrownHey, maybe the race for the Big East

Conference championship and automatic BCS bowl bid is really as wide open as Lou-isville’s Cardinals have insisted. And maybe they can actually contend for the title, a scenario that seemed out of the question just over a week ago.

But heading into Saturday’s game against Syracuse (5-2, 1-1), UofL (3-4, 1-1) is one of seven teams with at least one league loss already. Cincinnati (6-1, 2-0) is the only remaining undefeated team in conference play, but the Bearcats still have three tough road games ahead of them -- at Pittsburgh, Rutgers and Syracuse -- plus a home game against preseason league favorite West Vir-ginia (5-2, 1-1).

The Cards aren’t a juggernaut by any stretch of the imagination, but there aren’t any such outfi ts in the Big East, which is balanced with what looks to be at this point very mediocre teams.

Besides its 16-14 victory over Rutgers Friday night, two other developments in the conference last week could give rise to more optimism in the UofL camp. First, there was Syracuse’s dominating 49-23 up-set of then-No. 11 West Virginia on Friday night. Then came Cincinnati’s last-minute 37-34 victory at South Florida on Saturday for the Bulls’ third straight conference loss after a 4-0 start.

So you have to think that maybe games at WVU and USF, which generally had been written off as losses by everyone but the players and coaches, could now be within reasonable reach of a Louisville upset. Of course, in Syracuse’s case, it could be that the Orange is better than thought, which could spell trouble Saturday.

In any case, the victory over Rutgers un-questionably gave the Cards new life, snap-ping a three-game losing streak and mark-ing only their second home win in the past six games.

“This sends a message out to the Big East,” said freshman wide receiver Micha-lee Harris, who caught the decisive 18-yard touchdown pass against Rutgers. “Not only that, but we needed to play very hard so we could earn our respect back in this con-ference. We needed to show people that how we have been playing is not the real us.”

Noting that UofL was a two-point fa-vorite, Harris added: “I know we probably were projected to win this game, but a lot of people didn’t believe we could do it. But we kept up the faith. Even though we were 2-4, we didn’t get down about it. We just came out and played our game and got a big win.”

Asked what message Harris believes the Cards conveyed, he replied:

“The message is just because we were 2-4, that don’t mean count us out of it. We’re going to come out and play hard ev-ery game. Every week we’re going to show up.”

Aside from possibly contending for the league title, UofL needs to win three of its last fi ve games -- against Syracuse and Pitt at home and WVU, USF and UConn on the road -- to get bowl eligible. All are prob-ably tossups, at best, but a loss to Rutgers would have doomed the Cards’ bowl hopes for all intents and purposes. So the Scarlet Knights were a must win.

“This is big momentum,” cornerback Adrian Bushell said. “We’ve got a lot of big games coming up. This can be the differ-ence betwen us going to a bowl game and sitting at home in December. I feel like all of them are a must win, but this one was really a must win. You could feel it in the atmosphere.”

Before we get too carried away, though, it must be noted that Louisville played far from a fl awless game and that the victory shouldn’t obscure ongoing problems. The Cards continue to commit far too many penalties (10), their offense still struggles to sustain drives, their defense has costly lapses and on special teams, they missed a fi eld goal and had an extra-point attempt blocked. Of their 10 possessions, only two drives were over 38 yards, they had a mere three fi rst downs in the fi rst half and they’re 100th of 120 FBS teams in total offense (327.4 ypg).

Furthermore, they got a lot of help from Rutgers, which dropped a wide-open, sure touchdown pass in the fourth quarter and missed two fi eld goals, any of which would have provided a victory.

“We caught a couple of breaks, no ques-tion about it,” senior linebacker Dexter Hey-man said. “That’s all part of the game.”

And Heyman, for one, realizes that while the victory over Rutgers was a good one and was much-needed, it shouldn’t be overemphasized lest it become fool’s gold.

“You have a win, you have something to fall back on and something to look for-ward to in terms of where you’ve been and where you’re going,” he said. “But 1-1 isn’t 6-1. We still have fi ve games left to play and we have to do our best to make sure they all count in the best way.”

Coach Charlie Strong has harped on fi n-ishing games because UofL has let several get away in the second half or fourth quar-ter, so it was seen as an encouraging sign of maturity and leadership that the Cards reversed that trend against Rutgers.

They broke a 7-7 halftime tie by scoring their fi rst third-quarter touchdown of the season on Harris’ 18-yard reception from Teddy Bridgewater with 6:10 left in the pe-riod. Then they held Rutgers at bay after the visitors had closed to within the fi nal score on a 12-yard touchdown pass from Gary Nova to Mohamed Sanu in the open-ing minute of the fourth quarter.

“The thing about us is ever since Coach Strong has been here, we’ve been in every game,” Heyman said. “It’s just been a mat-ter of fi nishing and closing out the deal. We were in the exact same situation last week

(vs. Cincinnati). So it bodes well for us to know we’re turning the corner, so to speak. But we have to build on this, we have to let this carry us as long as we can.”

Said Strong: “It’s good that we fi nally put it together and snapped our losing streak. But we have to build on this and continue to get better. What’s good about this game is we didn’t play our best, but we won.”

RUNNING ATTACK COMES TO LIFEOne element of the win that will have to

stay at a high level if the Cards are going to continue to have success is their running attack, which underwent a revival against Rutgers. Led by sophomore Jeremy Wright’s 108 yards on just 11 carres for a 9.8 av-erage, UofL rushed for a season-high 187 yards, topping its 181 at Kentucky.

Although it’s too early to tell, UofL’s young offensive linemen may have come of age. They kept Rutgers’ sackmeisters out of the backfi eld and opened holes for Wright, Dominque Brown (44 yards/12 car-ries) and Vic Anderson (34/7). The Scarlet Knights came in averaging four sacks per game, second in the nation, but never got to Bridgewater.

“One thing you can count on is that when you have a solid run game, morethan likely you’re going to have a solid of-fensive performance,” Heyman said. “Andthat’s what we got.”

Why the improvement?“They blocked people fi nally,” Strong

said. “We were lining up correctly and put-ting a hat on people.”

Strong added that Bridgewater did a good job “spinning” the run plays, that isredirecting them to the side opposite whereRutgers’ pressure was going to come from.

“We kept it simple, just basic running plays,” Bridgewater said. “Our goal com-ing in was to see where there pressure wascoming from and fl ip (the play) to the otherside. Being able to identify their pressurewas a big key.”

Harris said UofL’s ability to run the foot-ball played a “huge” part in the victory.

“On certain downs, when we needed to throw to get the fi rst down, they wereexpecting the run,” he said. “Because theystuck their faces in on the play-actions andthey were trying to respect the run, wewere able to complete passes.”

PAGE 12 LOUISVILLE SPORTSREPORT OCTOBER 26, 2011

Sophomore linebacker George Durant showed off the new gloves the

Cardinals wore Friday for their game against Rutgers.

- photo by Steve Ludden

Sophomore Dominique Brown crossed the goal line from 1 yard out to give the Cards

a 7-0 lead in the fi rst quarter. As you can see, several UofL blockers helped clear

his way, including freshman left guard John Miller (70). - photo by Howie Lindsey

LOUISVILLE FOOTBALL

CARDS WANT TO DELIVER ANOTHER MESSAGE VS. SYRACUSE

Check out the magazine online at Facebook.com/LouisvilleSportsReport

Page 13: Louisville SportsReport: Oct. 26, 2011 issue

OCTOBER 26, 2011 LOUISVILLE SPORTSREPORT PAGE 13

COFFEE BREAK2007 CARDINAL CARAVANRECRUITING NOTEBOOK

Page 14: Louisville SportsReport: Oct. 26, 2011 issue

PAGE 14 LOUISVILLE SPORTSREPORT OCTOBER 26, 2011

WOMEN’S BASKETBALLCARDINAL FOOTBALL PHOTO GALLERY VS. RUTGERS

Those members of UofL’s men’s and women’s tennis teams who made the athletic director’s honor roll were introduced to the crowd during the UofL-Rutgers game. - photos by Howie Lindsey

Those members of the men’s basketball team who made the athletic director’s honor roll were introduced during the game.

Sophomore Jeremy Wright, who led the Cards with 108 rushing yards (the fi rst UofL back to top 100 yards this season), exchanged hand slaps with fans as the team circled the stadium after the game.- photo by Darrell Russell

Those members of the women’s golf team who made the athletic director’s honor roll took a bow during the UofL-Rutgers game.

Those members of the all-girls cheerleading squad who made the athletic director’s honor roll were introduced to the crowd.

Teddy Bridgewater surveyed the defense as he prepared to take a shotgun snap from junior Mario Benavides. - photo by Darrell Russell

Page 15: Louisville SportsReport: Oct. 26, 2011 issue

OCTOBER 26, 2011 LOUISVILLE SPORTSREPORT PAGE 15

LOUISVILLE FOOTBALLRECRUITING NOTEBOOK

By Jeff WaffordWith the early signing period for basket-

ball just a few weeks away, the University of Louisville seems to be keeping an eye on only a couple of prospects at this point.

The player they want the most appears to be Robert Upshaw, a 7-foot center from San

Joaquin Memorial School (Calif.) who visited Lou-isville two weeks ago. He said he enjoyed his offi cial visit to Louisville, but that trip was the fi rst on the four-star player’s schedule.

“I have three more visits - to Fresno State, Georgetown and Kansas

State,” he said. “After those visits I’ll sit down and deliberate where I want to go. There’s a possibility I might make a decision in November.”

Upshaw is rated as the No. 8 center in the class of 2012 and the No. 43 player overall.

The Cardinals also are keeping tabs on 6-6 small forward Andrew White, a four-star player from Miller School (Va.) who made an offi cial visit to UofL three weeks ago. The No. 12 small forward and No. 56 player overall in the class of 2012, White wrapped up a visit to Texas Sunday night after also taking trips to Kansas and West Virginia. He had stated previously he may take a fi fth visit before making his decision.

“I’m not sure if I’m going to take one more offi cial visit or not,” he said on Sun-day night, shortly after returning home from Texas. “I’ve been talking to my dad about what to do next, so I’m not sure what’s go-ing to happen. I would like to make my fi -nal decision in the next week or two, so if I decide to take another visit, it will have to happen soon.

“I’m not really concerned about signing early, but I do want to commit to a school soon. I know that some schools on my list can’t wait for me to make a long decision. I know that some schools will have to move in a different direction, so I don’t want to lose out on a school that has a spot avail-able for me right now.”

If he were to take that fi fth offi cial visit, White said all the remaining schools recruit-ing him – Alabama, Cincinnati, Florida State, George Mason, Maryland, North Carolina State, Oklahoma State, Richmond, Tennes-see, Virginia Tech and Wake Forest – are still

being considered.Rick Pitino and his coaching staff are

thought to have two scholarships to hand out in the 2012 class, and they already have a verbal commitment from three-star guard Terry Rozer (6-1) from Shaker Heights H.S. (Ohio). Rozier is rated as the No. 112 player in the class of 2012.

High school seniors can sign binding Na-tional Letters of Intent beginning Wednes-day, Nov. 9. The early signing period lasts until Nov. 16. If recruits do not sign a letter of intent in November, the next period they can sign begins in April.

While the Cardinals seem close to closing out the 2012 class, they also are in heavy scouting and recruiting mode for the class of 2013. With at least three scholarships available for that class, Louisville has a slew of prospects they are considering. None are closer to home than 6-8 power forward Derek Willis from Bullitt East H.S., which is about 20 minutes from UofL’s campus. The four-star player, who is rated as the No. 23 player in his class nationally, made an early commitment to Purdue but then continued to hear negatively about his decision, which caused stress on him and his family.

“When I’d go to in-state tournaments, I’d always have people in my ear or my dad’s ear, ‘You should go to UofL or UK,’” Willis said in a recent interview with Rivals.com. “I just kind of ignored that. But it really is hard because you’d get it at school, then come home and have messages about it. It’s annoying.”

The added attention made Willis recon-sider his commitment to the Boilermakers, and he re-opened his recruitment over the summer. Now Indiana, Louisville, Kentucky and Purdue are his top four programs. All of those schools have offered him scholar-ships.

“My top schools, they change from week to week, but those are my main schools,” he said. “I’ve been sitting down thinking about what I like and don’t like about them.”

In recent weeks Willis has visited all of the schools on his list and has hosted coach-es from those programs. Don’t expect him to rush into a decision this time around, though.

“It’ll probably be next fall (before I com-mit again),” he said. “I’ll keep checking out these schools, maybe take offi cial visits, and that’ll be it.”

EARLY SIGNING PERIOD APPROACHING FOR BASKETBALL

JEFF WAFFORDJEFF WAFFORD

Robert Upshaw, Louisville’s top-rated recruit in the 2012 class, is not concerned about signing early.

Last week the University of Louisville extended the contract of second-year foot-ball coach Charlie Strong seven years, ex-tending his deal with the Cardinals through the 2018 season and upping his per-season pay to more than $2.3 million (from $1.6 million).

“I like the direction the program is go-ing in,” UofL Vice President and Director of Athletics Tom Jurich said. “I’ve evalu-ated Charlie from A to Z and have been im-pressed with how he handles this program. I like what he stands for and I’m impressed by his work ethic and passion. I see nothing but positives going forward and like what he is trying to establish at Louisville.”

Jurich said he’d been working on a new deal for Strong since the end of last season when Strong led the Cardinals on a sur-prising bowl run and a win in the Beef ’O’ Brady’s Bowl in St. Petersburg, Fla. Strong had four years remaining on his current contract, which would have tied him with the Cardinals through the 2015 season.

“I told Charlie when I hired him that I wanted him to build a program, and I’m excited by the future,” Jurich said. “It’s easy to see how the student-athletes have bought into his system both on and off the fi eld. I think we have some great young talent in this program, and they play very hard.”

For his part, Strong said in a statement released last week that the new deal makes him grateful and humbled.

“I’m very appreciative to Tom Jurich for having the faith in me to lead this pro-gram at the University of Louisville,” he said. “This proves to me how committed this University is to football. I’m so thankful for the opportunity to be the head coach of this program and receiving this long-awaited opportunity. I’m also grateful for the commitment and faith Tom and our administration have shown in me to make this extraordinary commitment to me and my family.

“Tom hired me to build a program, and my staff and I are working extremely hard to make the community and our fans proud of this program in all aspects. The Universi-ty of Louisville is the place I want to be, and most importantly, is where my family wants to be. This contract is very humbling, and I’m looking forward to putting a winning program on the fi eld for our outstanding loyal fans.”

Strong was hired Dec. 9, 2009, and made an immediate impact on the pro-gram. He guided a senior-laden team to a 7-6 record and a 31-28 victory over South-ern Miss in the Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Bowl. It was an improvement of three games in the win column, which was one of the best in the country.

Taking over after three straight losing campaigns, Strong guided the Cardinals to shutout wins over Memphis and Connecti-cut and stopped the Cardinals’ 11-game Big East road losing streak with a 28-20

victory over Syracuse in the Carrier Dome. The Cardinals became bowl eligible with another big road win, 40-13 over Rutgers. For his efforts, Strong became the fi rst UofL football coach to garner Big East Coach of the Year honors when he was named the 2010 co-Big East Coach of the Year.

This season, Louisville is 3-4 with wins over Rutgers, Kentucky and Murray State. The Cardinals were coming off their third straight loss when Strong’s new deal was announced, prompting some in the media to question the timing of the deal.

“We had been working on this since last November,” Jurich said. “We wanted to get it done in the summer, but this has been in the works for a while.”

Confi dent in the trajectory of the pro-gram, Jurich pressed forward with the new deal. Strong’s players believe their coach is here for the long haul.

“This is what Coach Strong wants to build up,” senior DE Greg Scruggs said. “It’s not like this is a stop-and-go for any-thing. Coach Strong wants to make this his empire. Coach Strong wants his mark to be on this university.”

If Strong leaves prior to June 30, 2012, he’d owe a buyout of $2.5 million, and the buyout on the contract decreases from there. If he leaves between July 1, 2016 and June 2018 (the end of the contract), he’d owe the school $1 million.

“We always want to have a coach here who really wants to be here,” Jurich said. “I think Charlie has already demonstrated that. He’s very committed to turning this program into a great winner. He’s already worked so hard to change the culture of this program.”

OFF THE FIELD SUCCESSOff the fi eld, Strong put an immediate

emphasis on showing improvement in the classroom. Under Strong’s eye in the spring of 2010, 40 football players were named to the athletic director’s academic honor roll for achieving at least a 3.0 grade-point average, 13 were named to the dean’s list (requires semester GPA of 3.5-3.999 and no grades of “C” or below) and, collec-tively, the team secured a 2.7 grade-point average.

The following semester, the fall of 2010, the Cardinals’ football team had 37 stu-dent-athletes recognized on the athletic di-rector’s academic honor roll, with 11 earn-ing dean’s list status and one capturing a dean’s scholar award.

In the spring of 2011, two student-ath-letes were named dean’s scholars, 12 at-tained the dean’s list and 36 were named to the athletic director’s academic honor roll. The team recorded a 2.65 grade-point average. With the completion of summer courses, the Cardinals’ freshman recruiting class posted its second-straight above-3.0 grade-point average. In 2010 the group earned a 3.44 GPA, and this summer the newcomers fi nished with a 3.185 mark.

LOUISVILLE EXTENDS CHARLIE’S CONTRACT TO 2018

STRONG’S NEW DEAL

Page 16: Louisville SportsReport: Oct. 26, 2011 issue

By Russ BrownIt was easy to see that the gathering in

the New York Athletic Club near Central Park last Wednesday was Big East Confer-ence Basketball Media Day because there were 16 hoops coaches scattered around the room.

Otherwise, though, it would have been diffi cult to tell because there was little of the basketball talk that annually overfl ows that preseason event because most of the questions and comments revolved around conference realignment, football, the future of the Big East and the recent defections of Pittsburgh and Syracuse to the ACC.

Louisville coach Rick Pitino, for example, got only a few queries about his team in nearly an hour, answering instead repeated questions about the above subjects. Here, though, we’re going to keep things on the basketball court, with a few exceptions lat-er.

Let’s start with the preseason poll, where Connecticut and Syracuse tied for fi rst in the coaches’ vote, followed by UofL just eight points behind. The defending national champion Huskies received seven fi rst-place votes, while the Orange got fi ve and the Cardinals three, with the only other No. 1 vote going to Pitt.

Last year UConn was picked 10th and fi n-ished ninth, then went on to win an incredi-ble 11 straight elimination games, fi ve in the Big East Tournament in fi ve days -- including a 69-66 thriller over UofL in the title game -- and six in the NCAA Tournament.

“I like being picked 1 or 2,” UConn coach Jim Calhoun said. “It means people think you’re good.”

Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim, who was his usual cranky self, said simply, “They don’t mean much,” referring to the preseason rankings.

UConn lost its heart and soul in guard Kemba Walker but returns the remainder of its key players intact and added a standout recruit in 6-11 Andre Drummond, who was voted the Preseason Rookie of the Year. Jer-emy Lamb is on the Big East fi rst team, Alex Oriakhi is on the second team and Drum-mond and Shabazz Napier got honorable mention.

“I voted for Syracuse No. 1, but that was before Drummond committed,” Pitino said. “I’d call them co-favorites now.”

The pairing of Drummond and the 6-9 Oriakhi is enough to cause conference coaches to start losing sleep already, and to start planning adjustments.

“A nightmare,” said Villanova’s Jay Wright. “Nobody does that any more. It’s become a perimeter game. But Jim uses his frontcourt players better than anyone. Just by doing what he’s always done, it’s become unique. Last year, when they had Oriakhi and (Charles) Okwandu playing together, it created matchup problems.”

Said West Virginia coach Bob Huggins: “I’m sure Drummond will be a force defen-

sively, but I thought Oriakhi was last year.” With Drummond at center, Oriakhi thinks

he will play more power forward, shoot more and probably see less double-teaming.

“If they double-team, it’s going to be bad news,” he said, “because I can pass the ball and so can Andre.”

Calhoun, naturally, is trying to downplay

any talk about repeating as national cham-pion after becoming the oldest coach everto guide a team to the title at 68 (he turned69 in May).

“We’re not all about Kemba Walker any more,” Calhoun said. “In fact, we’re notabout Kemba at all. And we’re not defend-ing anything. We’re on a different pursuitwith a new team.”

Maybe so, but that’s not the way UConn’s opponents will look at it.

“It’s kind of cool that we’re going to get to play the defending national champions,”Notre Dame’s Tim Abromaitis said. “Whenyou play a team that’s so highly ranked, youknow it’s going to be a different environ-ment.”

UConn was unbeaten outside the Big East last year but struggled to a 9-9 conferencerecord that included two losses to Louisville.This season, of course, the Huskies will havebig targets on their backs.

“What we have on our back is expecta-tions,” Calhoun said. “And we’re going tohave to see how we carry that.... If Andredevelops the way we think he will, can weget the ball to him? Can Jeremy Lamb stepup and be the man? Can Shabazz run theteam the way we think he can? Will Alexhave the year we think he’s going to have?Those would be the questions I’d have.”

Napier, who will take over at point guard, said UConn must keep the same mindset ithad last year, whether it is favored or an un-derdog.

“The standings don’t mean much, it’s just a piece of paper,” he said. “When you dowhat we did, when you’re nobody and youbecome somebody, you just have to keepplaying good basketball. We just have toplay UConn basketball.”

Oriakhi says Calhoun, who seriously con-sidered retirement this year, is the same ashe’s always been.

“He’s coaching us like we didn’t win any-thing,” Oriakhi said.

UofL will face UConn only once this sea-son -- on Monday, Feb. 6, in the KFC Yum!Center in an ESPN game.

BOEHEIM LIKES ‘CUSEAs for the other co-favorite, Syracuse also

returns nearly intact -- except for inside forceRick Jackson -- from last year’s 27-8 (12-6Big East) club, and Boeheim is comparingthe Orange’s depth and potential favorablyto his 2003 national championship team.

“We’ve got more weapons than we’ve had since 2003,” said Boeheim, who isstarting his 36th season at Syracuse. “Wehave more weapons. Now, whether we’ll beas good as that, we’ll have to fi nd out.”

Senior forward Kris Joseph goes even fur-ther than his coach. Syracuse has 85 wins inJoseph’s three seasons, reaching the Sweet16 twice.

“We’ve had great teams since I’ve been here but, honestly, I think this is a team thatcould really make a push in the NCAA Tour-nament,” he said. “I think from 1 to 12 (on

PAGE 16 LOUISVILLE SPORTSREPORT OCTOBER 26, 2011

BIG EAST NOTEBOOK

HUSKIES, ORANGE LOOK LIKE BIG EAST BEASTS FOR 2012

Rick Pitino offered some instructions during the second Red-White scrimmage last Saturday. Below, sophomore Gorgui Dieng displayed his defensive abilities. Right, he closely guarded freshman Zach Price, and (left) he altered a shot by Elisha Justice. - photos by Gail Kamenish

Page 17: Louisville SportsReport: Oct. 26, 2011 issue

OCTOBER 26, 2011 LOUISVILLE SPORTSREPORT PAGE 17

BIG EAST NOTEBOOK

the roster), everyone can really help. And I think, if everyone buys into that and listens to Coach, we’ll be great.”

Joseph was the Orange’s leading scorer (14.3 points a game) and second-leading rebounder (5.2) a season ago, despite a nagging, sore left knee that sometimes hampered his game. There were good days and bad days with the knee, he says, so he decided that minor offseason surgery was in order.

“It needed to be done; it was an ongo-ing problem,” he said. “I consulted with Coach and with the training staff, and it was a collective decision to be at my best for my senior year and 100 percent healthy. It was a high school injury, but things got rougher and tougher on my body in college, and the wear and tear on it over time made it worse.

“The patella tendon was repaired; that was the major thing. They stitched it back up, and it’s feeling good now. I was here all summer working out and doing rehab and getting treatment. So, it’s 100 percent now.”

Joseph will be joined by veteran guards Scoop Jardine and Brandon Triche as start-ers. Sophomore center Baye Moussa Keita, who started 10 games last season, is back, as are backup center Fab Melo, forwards C.J. Fair and James Southerland and guard Dion Waiters.

Freshman forward Rakeem Christmas could be a major factor at power forward, Boeheim says, and he is high on fi rst-year guard Michael Carter-Williams.

But, Boeheim says, the key to the team being better probably will involve how much the two sophomore centers improve. Keita and Melo were often non-factors last sea-son, leaving Jackson as the only real inside threat.

“To be the best team in the league, we had to have those centers contribute,” Boe-heim says. “Some games when they did contribute, we won. When they didn’t con-tribute, we struggled. Baye was doing OK, then his hand got broken. He played, but he couldn’t (do much). And Fab lost his con-fi dence as the year went along and wasn’t really ready.

“So I think you still look at the same ques-tion. Are these centers going to be better? In my experience, sophomore centers are always a lot better. Freshman centers often struggle. So based on the track record, these guys will be better, and if they’re better, we should be better as a team.”

The Cards will face Syracuse twice -- on Feb. 13 in the KFC Yum! Center and in the season fi nale on March 3 in the Carrier Dome which, who knows, could decide the league championship.

LAVIN ON RECOVERY ROADSt. John’s was represented by two coach-

es, neither of them Steve Lavin, 46, who un-derwent surgery for prostate cancer on Oct. 6. Assistants Gene Keady and Mike Dunlap handled questions about the Red Storm, who were picked to fi nish 12th with just one returning scholarship player and three

of the team’s key recruits declared academi-cally ineligible.

Each morning after 6 o’clock practice Dunlap reviews the session with Lavin over the phone, and Lavin also receives a DVD of the workouts and tells Dunlap what to focus on in the next day’s practice.

“His improvement has been remarkable,” Dunlap said. “So that’s very positive. If he’s smart over the next 3-6 weeks with his re-covery, he’ll fl y through.”

Said Keady: “He’s in high spirits. He can’t wait to get back. He needs us and we need him.”

But, along with his health problems, Lavin also faces a rough season on the court because so many inexperienced players is a recipe for disaster in a loaded conference like the Big East.

“He has a lot of young guys coming in,” Boeheim said. “It’s tough to win like that in the Big East. He’s going to have to fi nd roles for his guys as fast as he can. It’s not going to be easy for him to win in the Big East at all.”

POPE READY FOR BIG YEARSeton Hall’s 6-8 Herb Pope got an extra

year of eligibility and returns this season about 20 pounds lighter and in remarkable shape, according to Kevin Willard, the for-mer UofL assistant who is starting his sec-ond season with the Pirates.

“It’s night and day compared to the end of last season,” Willard said. “He wasn’t even 50 percent last year.”

Pope suffered a heart attack during the previous off-season and had to be resus-citated. He spent considerable time in the hospital and when he returned was not in shape. He spent three weeks this summer training with John Lucas in Houston along-side pros,draft picks and top collegians.

“It was a working summer,” Pope said. “We went from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and then did a two-mile run at night. I felt hor-rible last year. There were times I had a good fi rst half and couldn’t do the same in the second. Now I’m not really tired. I have a little chip on my shoulder because I know there are naysayers this year and they didn’t see this coming.”

Even not being at full strength, Pope still led the Hall in rebounding at 7.9 per game and also averaged 9.8 points while playing 27 minutes per game.

Pope and the team’s only other senior, point guard Jordan Theodore, will be asked to lead a team with fi ve freshmen and three sophomores. After going 13-18 last season the Hall was picked to fi nish 13th this year.

Seton Hall has taken a foreign turn with Czech Republic native Patrik Auda and Lat-vian guard Heralds Karlis in the fold. “It’s fun,” Theodore said. “I’m trying new foods, trying to teach them slang.”

Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said it’s going to be diffi cult for teams near the bottom of the league like Seton Hall, Rutgers, DePaul and South Florida to move up into the next tier.

“It’s really hard,” Dixon said. “Often-times, teams that do better or maybe take a step up, it’s more because of what hap-

pens to the other teams -- they take a step backwards. The problem with our league is that those teams haven’t taken those drop-backs.

“Yeah, a couple of teams got better last year -- like Rutgers -- but where were they going to move up? St. John’s moved up only a couple of spots from the prior year, and that was with nine or 10 seniors. You have 10 seniors and you can only move up a cou-ple of spots? I mean, it’s so hard.”

SIX LEAGUE TEAMS RANKEDThe Big East sent a record 11 teams to the

NCAA Tournament last season, and judg-ing from the preseason polls, this could be another banner year. Six league teams are ranked in the top 25 in the USA Today/ESPN coaches’ poll, three of them in the top 10 -- UConn at No. 4, Syracuse No. 5 and UofL No. 8. Also, Pitt is 11th, Marquette No. 21 and Cincinnati No. 22.

The USA TODAY/ESPN Board of Coaches is made up of 31 head coaches at Division I institutions. All are members of the Na-tional Association of Basketball Coaches. The members of the board for the 2011-12 season are:

Mike Adras, Northern Arizona; Tommy Amaker, Harvard; Tevester Anderson, Jack-son State; Ronnie Arrow, South Alabama; Randy Bennett, Saint Mary’s; Eddie Bieden-bach, North Carolina-Asheville; Jim Boe-heim, Syracuse; Rick Byrd, Belmont; Tim Cluess, Iona; Charlie Coles, Miami (Ohio); Steve Donahue, Boston College; Scott Drew, Baylor; Steve Fisher, San Diego State; Mark Fox, Georgia; Don Friday, St. Francis (Pa.); Bill Herrion, New Hampshire; Ben Jacobson, Northern Iowa; Rob Jeter, Wisconsin-Mil-waukee; Mike McConathy, Northwestern State; Bob McKillop, Davidson; Phil Martelli, Saint Joseph’s; Ron “Fang” Mitchell, Coppin State; Matt Painter, Purdue; Dave Paulsen, Bucknell; Herb Sendek, Arizona State; Shaka Smart, Virginia Commonwealth; Scott Sut-ton, Oral Roberts; Donnie Tyndall, More-head State; Don Verlin, Idaho; Bob Williams, UC-Santa Barbara; Doug Wojcik, Tulsa.

CONFERENCE REALIGNMENTNow, here are some of the most interest-

ing comments from the coaches regarding conference upheaval:

Rick Pitino, UofL: “Double the $5 million penalty for leaving the conference and each coach who stays gets a million each.”

Pitino: “As soon as there’s speculation about Missouri leaving, everybody thinks we’re taking Missouri’s place (in the Big 12). Whether that’s true or not, I have no clue.”

Bob Huggins, West Virginia: “I think it sucks like everyone else does. It’s a shame. It’s got to stop somewhere.”

Mike Brey, Notre Dame: “Syracuse and Pittsburgh can still come back. C’mon back. You can have a do-over. C’mon back. Cra-zier things have happened.”

Jim Calhoun, UConn: “Everybody’s world in the past two months has been turned upside down. Line them up and whoever’s there, we’ll play them.”

Oliver Purnell, DePaul: “What’s clear to me is it’s not over.”

2011 BIG EAST FOOTBALL SCHEDULES

CINCINNATIThu., Sept. 1 Austin Peay W, 72-10Sat., Sept. 10 at Tennessee L, 45-23Sat., Sept. 17 Akron W, 59-14Thu., Sept. 22 North Carolina State W, 44-14Sat., Oct. 1 at Miami (Ohio) W, 27-0Sat., Oct. 15 LOUISVILLE W, 25-16Sat., Oct. 22 at USF W, 37-34Sat., Nov. 5 at PITTSBURGHSat., Nov. 12 WEST VIRGINIASat., Nov. 19 at RUTGERSSat., Nov. 26 at SYRACUSESat., Dec. 3 CONNECTICUT

CONNECTICUTThu., Sept. 1 Fordham W, 35-3Sat., Sept. 10 at Vanderbilt L, 24-21Fri., Sept. 16 Iowa State L, 24-20Sat., Sept. 24 at Buffalo W, 17-3Sat., Oct. 1 Western Michigan L, 38-31Sat., Oct. 8 at WEST VIRGINIA L, 43-16Sat., Oct. 15 USF W, 16-10Wed., Oct. 26 at PITTSBURGHSat., Nov. 5 SYRACUSESat., Nov. 19 LOUISVILLESat., Nov. 26 RUTGERSSat., Dec. 3 at CINCINNATI

LOUISVILLEThu., Sept. 1 Murray State W, 21-9Fri., Sept. 9 Florida International L, 24-17Sat., Sept. 17 at Kentucky W, 24-17Sat., Oct. 1 Marshall L, 17-13Sat., Oct. 8 at North Carolina L, 14-7Sat., Oct. 15 at CINCINNATI L, 25-16Fri., Oct. 21 RUTGERS W, 16-14Sat., Oct. 29 SYRACUSESat., Nov. 5 at WEST VIRGINIASat., Nov. 12 PITTSBURGHSat., Nov. 19 at CONNECTICUTFri., Nov. 25 at USF

PITTSBURGHSat., Sept. 3 Buffalo W, 35-16Sat., Sept. 10 Maine W, 35-29Sat., Sept. 17 at Iowa L, 31-27Sat., Sept. 24 Notre Dame L, 15-12Thu., Sept. 29 USF W, 44-17 Sat., Oct. 8 at RUTGERS L, 34-10Sat., Oct. 15 Utah L, 26-14Wed., Oct. 26 CONNECTICUTSat., Nov. 5 CINCINNATISat., Nov. 12 at LOUISVILLEFri., Nov. 25 at WEST VIRGINIASat., Dec. 3 SYRACUSE

RUTGERSThu., Sept. 1 North Carolina Central W, 48-0Sat., Sept. 10 at North Carolina L, 24-22Sat., Sept. 24 Ohio W, 38-26 Sat., Oct. 1 at SYRACUSE W, 19-16 2OTSat., Oct. 8 PITTSBURGH W, 34-10Sat., Oct. 15 Navy W, 21-20Fri., Oct. 21 at LOUISVILLE L, 16-14Sat., Oct. 29 WEST VIRGINIASat., Nov. 5 USFSat., Nov. 12 at ArmySat., Nov. 19 CINCINNATISat., Nov. 26 at CONNECTICUT

USFSat., Sept. 3 at Notre Dame W, 23-20Sat., Sept. 10 Ball State W, 37-7Sat., Sept. 17 Florida A&M W, 70-17Sat., Sept. 24 UTEP W, 52-24Thu., Sept. 29 at PITTSBURGH L, 44-17Sat., Oct. 15 at CONNECTICUT L, 16-10Sat., Oct. 22 CINCINNATI L, 37-34Sat., Nov. 5 at RUTGERSFri., Nov. 11 at SYRACUSESat., Nov. 19 Miami (Fla.)Fri., Nov. 25 LOUISVILLEThu., Dec. 1 WEST VIRGINIA

SYRACUSESat., Sept. 3 Wake Forest W, 36-29 OTSat., Sept. 10 Rhode Island W, 21-14Sat., Sept. 17 at Southern California L, 38-17Sat., Sept. 24 Toledo W, 33-30 OTSat., Oct. 1 RUTGERS L, 19-16 2OTSat., Oct. 8 at Tulane W, 37-34Fri., Oct. 21 WEST VIRGINIA W, 49-23Sat., Oct. 29 at LOUISVILLESat., Nov. 5 at CONNECTICUTFri., Nov. 11 USF Sat., Nov. 26 CINCINNATISat., Dec. 3 at PITTSBURGH

WEST VIRGINIASat., Sept. 3 Marshall W, 34-13Sat., Sept. 10 Norfolk State W, 55-12Sat., Sept. 17 at Maryland W, 37-31Sat., Sept. 24 LSU L, 47-21Sat., Oct. 1 Bowling Green W, 55-10Sat., Oct. 8 CONNECTICUT W, 43-16Fri., Oct. 21 at SYRACUSE L, 49-23Sat., Oct. 29 at RUTGERSSat., Nov. 5 LOUISVILLESat., Nov. 12 at CINCINNATIFri., Nov. 25 PITTSBURGHThu., Dec. 1 at USF

Page 18: Louisville SportsReport: Oct. 26, 2011 issue

PAGE 18 LOUISVILLE SPORTSREPORT OCTOBER 26, 2011

FALL/WINTER SPORTS SCHEDULES

2011-12 MEN’S SCHEDULE DATE OPPONENT SITE TIME OCTOBER10/14/11 Red-White Scrimmage KFC YUM! CENTER White, 86-8510/22/11 Red-White Scrimmage KFC YUM! CENTER Red, 105-6010/26/11 vs. PIKEVILLE * KFC YUM! CENTER 7:00 p.m.NOVEMBER 11/03/11 vs. BELLARMINE * KFC YUM! CENTER 7:00 p.m.GLOBAL SPORTS INVITATIONAL11/11/11 vs. TENNESSEE-MARTIN KFC YUM! CENTER TBA11/13/11 vs. LAMAR KFC YUM! CENTER TBA11/22/11 vs. ARKANSAS STATE KFC YUM! CENTER TBA11/25/11 vs. OHIO KFC YUM! CENTER TBA11/28/11 vs. LONG BEACH STATE KFC YUM! CENTER TBA11/19/11 at Butler Indianapolis, Ind. TBADECEMBERBIG EAST / SEC CHALLENGE12/02/11 vs. VANDERBILT TV KFC YUM! CENTER 8:30 p.m.12/07/11 vs. IUPUI KFC YUM! CENTER TBA12/10/11 vs. FAIR. DICKINSON KFC YUM! CENTER TBABASKETBALL HALL OF FAME SHOOTOUT12/17/11 vs. MEMPHIS TV KFC YUM! CENTER 4:00 p.m.12/20/11 vs. C. OF CHARLESTON KFC YUM! CENTER TBABILLY MINARDI CLASSIC12/23/11 vs. WESTERN KENTUCKY KFC YUM! CENTER 7:00 p.m.12/28/11 vs. GEORGETOWN # TV KFC YUM! CENTER 7:00 p.m.12/31/11 at Kentucky TV Lexington, Ky. 12:00 p.m.JANUARY01/03/12 at St. John’s # TV New York, N.Y. 7:00 p.m.01/07/12 vs. NOTRE DAME # TV KFC YUM! CENTER 4:00 p.m.01/10/12 at Providence # TV Providence, R.I. 7:00 p.m.01/14/12 vs. DE PAUL # KFC YUM! CENTER TBA01/16/12 at Marquette # TV Milwaukee, Wis. TBA01/21/12 at Pittsburgh # TV Pittsburgh, Pa. 9:00 p.m.01/25/12 vs. VILLANOVA # TV KFC YUM! CENTER 7:00 p.m.01/28/12 at Seton Hall # Newark, N.J. TBAFEBRUARY02/04/12 vs. RUTGERS # KFC YUM! CENTER TBA02/06/12 vs. CONNECTICUT # TV KFC YUM! CENTER 7:00 p.m.02/11/12 at West Virginia # TV Morgantown, W.Va. 12:00 p.m.02/13/12 vs. SYRACUSE # TV KFC YUM! CENTER 7:00 p.m.02/18/12 at DePaul # Chicago, Ill. TBA02/23/12 at Cincinnati # TV Cincinnati, Ohio 9:00 p.m.02/26/12 vs. PITTSBURGH # TV KFC YUM! CENTER 2:00 p.m.02/29/12 vs. USF # KFC YUM! CENTER TBAMARCH03/03/12 at Syracuse # TV Syracuse, N.Y. 4:00 p.m.BIG EAST CHAMPIONSHIP: New York, N.Y. (Madison Square Garden) 03/06-10/12 TBD TBA * - Exhibition game, # - Big East Conference game

2011-12 WOMEN’S SCHEDULE

DATE OPPONENT SITE TIME

OCTOBER

10/30/11 VS. LINDSEY WILSON * KFC YUM! CENTER 2:00 P.M. ET

NOVEMBER

11/13/11 at Missouri State Springfi eld, Mo. 3:05 p.m. ET

11/15/11 at Texas A&M TV College Station, Texas 4:00 p.m. ET

11/17/11 at Eastern Kentucky Richmond, Ky. 7:00 p.m. ET

11/20/11 vs. XAVIER KFC YUM! CENTER 2:00 p.m. ET

11/22/11 vs. AUSTIN PEAY KFC YUM! CENTER 12:00 p.m. ET

11/25/11 at Florida State Tallahassee, Fla. 7:00 p.m. ET

11/26/11 at Florida A&M Tallahassee, Fla. 4:00 p.m. ET

11/29/11 vs. MURRAY STATE KFC YUM! CENTER 7:00 p.m. ET

DECEMBER

12/04/11 at Kentucky Lexington, Ky. TBA

12/10/11 vs. GARDNER-WEBB KFC YUM! CENTER 12:00 p.m. ET

12/14/11 at Cincinnati # Cincinnati, Ohio 7:00 p.m. ET

12/17/11 at Portland Portland, Ore. 5:00 p.m. ET

12/19/11 at Washington State Pullman, Wash. 10:00 p.m. ET

12/28/11 vs. UT-MARTIN KFC YUM! CENTER 12:00 p.m. ET

JANUARY

01/03/12 vs. MARQUETTE # KFC YUM! CENTER 7:00 p.m. ET

01/08/12 at St. John’s # TV Queens, N.Y. 1:30 p.m. ET

01/11/12 vs. SOUTH FLORIDA # KFC YUM! CENTER 7:00 p.m. ET

01/14/12 at Rutgers # Piscataway, N.J. 2:00 p.m. ET

01/18/12 vs. PROVIDENCE # KFC YUM! CENTER 7:00 p.m. ET

01/22/12 at Georgetown # TV Washington D.C. 5:00 p.m. ET

01/28/12 vs. VILLANOVA # KFC YUM! CENTER 2:00 p.m. ET

01/31/12 at DePaul # TV Chicago, Ill. 9:00 p.m. ET

FEBRUARY

02/04/12 at West Virginia # Morgantown, W.Va. 4:00 p.m. ET

02/07/12 vs. CONNECTICUT # TV KFC YUM! CENTER 7:00 p.m. ET

02/11/12 vs. SYRACUSE # KFC YUM! CENTER 2:00 p.m. ET

02/14/12 at Pittsburgh # Pittsburgh, Pa. 7:00 p.m. ET

02/20/12 vs. NOTRE DAME # TV KFC YUM! CENTER 2:00 p.m. ET

02/25/12 vs. DEPAUL # TV KFC YUM! CENTER 12:00 p.m. ET

02/27/12 at Seton Hall # South Orange, N.J. 7:00 p.m. ET

MARCH

BIG EAST CHAMPIONSHIP: Hartford, Conn.

03/02-8/12 TBD TBA

Page 19: Louisville SportsReport: Oct. 26, 2011 issue

OCTOBER 26, 2011 LOUISVILLE SPORTSREPORT PAGE 19

LOUISVILLE BASKETBALL

B U C K L E S , V A N T R E E S E O N D E C K

BLACKSHEAR ARRIVES TO GIVE CARDS’ DEPTH A BOOSTBy Russ BrownWith the regular season fast approach-

ing, Rick Pitino doesn’t like the depth of his Louisville basketball team at this point, but one reinforcement arrived Monday and others are on their way, so he doesn’t ex-pect it to be a long-term problem.

The depth factor was on clear display to a crowd of 9,463 in the KFC Yum! Center Saturday night for the second, and fi nal, Red-White scrimmage. The Red team, con-sisting of the players most likely to start the season opener against Tennessee Martin on Nov. 11, breezed to a 105-60 victory.

Before the offi cial opener, UofL will play a pair of exhibition games -- against Pikev-ille College Wednesday night and defend-ing Division II national champion Bellarmine Nov. 1.

The Reds -- with Peyton Siva, Kyle Kurich, Chris Smith, Gorgui Dieng and Chane Be-hanan -- showed why they’re the projected starters by shooting 53.9 percent, holding the White team to 25.9 percent and out-rebounding the losers 59-46.

Pitino compared it to a game between the Harlem Globetrotters and their long-time foils, the Washington Generals, who basically put up little resistance and let the Globetrotters entertain crowds during their barnstorming exhibitions.

“Well, we sort of knew it was going to happen like this,” Pitino said. “We knew it would be a non-competitive game, but we had to work on it to get ready for Pikeville, give the fi rst unit time to work together, and they did a good job. They were play-ing against a team that was not playing very good defense, so it was very diffi cult to tell.”

Kuric savored the opportunity for the starters to play together, saying: “We ran through some plays -- offensive and de-fensive stuff -- got some conditioning in. I think we got a lot out of it.”

The White team -- opening with Jared Swopshire, Mike Marra, Zach Price, Russ Smith and Elisha Justice -- was unable to put up much resistance, falling behind 25-4, 50-22 and 67-24.

“We knew our bench was weak,” Pitino said. “What we thought was a strength coming into the season has turned into a weakness.”

That’s because forward Rakeem Buckles and forward/center Stephan Van Treese are recovering from injuries and unable to play, Swopshire isn’t at full strength and fresh-

man Wayne Blackshear just got declared eligible by the NCAA and started practicing this week.

Pitino said Van Treese should be back in two weeks, Buckles will start practicing in about six weeks and Blackshear, a 6-5 swingman, will provide immediate help, although he won’t be in top condition for a while. Pitino also expects another fresh-man, backup point guard Kevin Ware, to earn his eligibility for the second semester in mid-December.

Blackshear, who has been recovering from a shoulder injury, is likely to make his debut against Pikeville. A McDonald’s All-American from Chicago, Blackshear aver-aged 32.6 points, 14.6 rebounds and 5.6 assists as a senior at Morgan Park High School.

“Understand this,” Pitino said, “This

young man has not touched a basketball in six months, so he’s not going to be the player we saw in high school. He’s going to need two weeks just to get in shape, then he’ll need another month to get back to the level of basketball he once was. You prob-ably won’t see the player we saw in high school until maybe December or January. To his credit, he’s worked on his body real hard and gone from 17 percent body fat to eight percent. He’ll give us a great dimension.”

The dimension Pitino would like to see out of another rookie, 6-6, 250-pound power forward Chane Behanan, is rebound-ing and offensive work under the basket, something he felt Behanan showed little of in the scrimmage.

Behanan led all scorers with 32 points, giving him 52 in the two scrimmages, but he got only six rebounds and had no assists

in 36 minutes. Pitino said Behanan spent too much time on the perimeter -- his nine three-point attempts were second only to Marra’s 10.

“He didn’t play like a power forward tonight,” Pitino said. “People will look at the stat sheet and see 32 points, but this is probably the weakest he’s played. He didn’t have an offensive rebound, he didn’t have an assist. He played on the perimeter too much. That’s what he did in high school.

“We think he’s a gigantic body inside and almost impossible to stop, but he’s the type of guy who should go to the free throw line 9-10 times a game, and he took three. That tells you he didn’t play like a power forward. But the good thing is he’s very talented, very skilled and he can go away from the basket, we want him to cer-tainly. But he didn’t take advantage that Swopshire can’t play him inside, and that’s what you want him to do. There aren’t too many people with that frame.”

Behanan said he is well aware of what Pitino expects and that his style of play will be different once the real games begin.

“I see where he’s coming from,” Be-hanan said. “During the regular season he wants me more around the rim doing stuff to help the team because that’s what it’s re-ally about. Whatever I can do to contribute. If he needs me around the rim more, that’s what I’ll do.

“I didn’t play well tonight at all. Six re-bounds, and people are expecting me to get a lot more because I was recruited as a rebounder. So that’s one thing I need to stick in my mind is rebound more, stay around the rim more instead of the perime-ter. We’ve got people who can do the stuff I was doing today like Kyle, Chris (Smith) and Peyton (Siva). We need rebounding.”

Pitino said he felt Dieng and Kuric played the best. Dieng had his second scrimmage double-double with 23 points and 17 re-bounds after getting 26 and 17 in the fi rst scrimmage. Kuric had 19, points, 12 re-bounds, four assists and a game-high fi ve steals.

“I thought Kyle and Gorgui stood out,” Pitino said. “They understood what we were trying to do offensively and defen-sively and did some very nice things. Those two guys really played the best, a couple other guys played OK, and then the White team was not very good. They weren’t play-ing any defense at all, it was just get out of the way and let the Reds score.”

Freshman Wayne Blackshear was cleared by the NCAA and started practice Monday. - photo by Chuck Feist

ALERT TO ALL SUBSCRIBERS: As part of our transition to faster-access digital

magazines, next week’s Louisville SportsReport will not be mailed, but will be available for download or personal

print on our web site, louisvillesportsnews.com.

Page 20: Louisville SportsReport: Oct. 26, 2011 issue

PAGE 20 LOUISVILLE SPORTSREPORT OCTOBER 26, 2011

CARDINAL FOOTBALL

NO NAME HT Wt EXP HT/WT HOMETOWN (PREVIOUS SCHOOL) 1 Josh Bellamy 6-0 206 WR SR St. Petersburg, Fla. (Butte CC)2 Michaelee Harris 6-2 198 WR RS FR Miami, Fla. (Northwestern)2 Preston Brown 6-0 258 LB SO Cincinnati, Ohio (Northwest)3 Charles Gaines 5-11 176 CB FR Miami, Fla. (Central)4 Will Stein 5-10 185 QB JR Louisville, Ky. (Trinity)5 Teddy Bridgewater 6-3 205 QB FR Miami, Fla. (Northwestern)6 Greg Scruggs 6-4 285 DT SR Cincinnati, Ohio (St. Xavier)7 Damian Copeland 6-1 186 WR SO Bradenton, Fla. (Palmetto)8 Darius Ashley 5-8 186 CB JR Cincinnati, Ohio (St. Xavier)9 DeVante Parker 6-3 196 WR FR Louisville, Ky. (Ballard)10 Dominique Brown 6-2 221 QB SO Cincinnati, Ohio (Winton Woods)11 Josh Chichester 6-8 240 TE SR West Chester, Ohio (Lakota West)12 Chris Philpott 6-0 198 K SR Atlanta, Ga. (St. Pius X Catholic)13 Preston Pace 6-1 199 CB SR St. Petersburg, Fla. (Butte)14 Andrell Smith 6-3 210 WR JR Miami, Fla. (Palmetto)15 Andrew Johnson 5-9 174 CB FR Miami, Fla. (Southridge)17 Marcus Smith 6-3 251 DE SO Columbus, Ga. (Hardaway)18 Matthew Nakatani 5-8 160 K RS FR Shelbyville, Ky. (Shelby County)18 Titus Teague 5-11 170 CB SO Pomona, Calif. (Pomona)19 Terell Floyd 5-10 170 CB FR Port Pierce, Fla. (Port St. Lucie)19 Joe Castaneda 5-10 186 DB FR Covington, Ky. (Covington Catholic)19 Jerry Arlinghaus 6-4 197 QB FR Louisville, Ky. (Holy Cross)20 Victor Anderson 5-9 188 RB SR Louisville, Ky. (St. Xavier)21 Adrian Bushell 5-11 190 CB JR DeSoto, Texas (Cedar Valley CC) 22 Jordon Paschal 5-8 180 CB RS FR Trotwood, Ohio (Trotwood-Madison)22 Corvin Lamb 5-9 203 RB FR Miami, Fla. (Northwestern)23 Terence Simien 6-3 218 S SR Sacramento, Calif. (San Mateo)24 Daniel Brown 6-1 221 LB JR Atlanta, Ga. (Douglass)25 Calvin Pryor 6-2 200 S FR Port St. Joe, Fla. (Port St. Joe)26 Zed Evans 5-11 173 CB SO Seagoville, Texas (Seagoville)27 Mike Addesa 5-11 200 LB FR Bradenburg, Ky. (Meade County)27 Jermaine Reve 6-0 180 S FR Miami, Fla. (Northwest)28 Jeremy Wright 5-11 199 RB SO Clermont, Fla. (East Ridge)29 Stephen Goodwin 6-0 190 WR SO Louisville, Ky. (St. Xavier)29 Hakeem Smith 6-1 183 S SO Jonesboro, Ga. (Riverdale)30 Kamal Hogan 6-0 209 RB RS FR Montvale, N.J. (St. Joseph’s Regional)31 DeMarcus Topp 5-10 180 WR JR Paducah, Ky. (Paducah-Tilghman)32 Senorise Perry 6-0 192 RB SO Summerville, Ga. (Chattooga)33 Grant Donovan 6-1 213 LS RS FR Louisville, Ky. (Male)33 Mike Evans 5-10 187 S SR Los Angeles, Calif. (Nevada)34 George Durant 6-0 231 LB SO St. Petersburg, Fla. (Boca Ciega)35 Andrew Fletcher 5-8 162 K RS FR Nashville, Tenn. (Montgomery Bell)35 Anthony Conner 5-11 190 CB SR Houston, Texas (Butte CC)36 Shenard Holton 6-1 190 S JR Bowling Green, Ky. (Warren East)37 Lincoln Carr 5-9 158 WR JR Crestwood, Ky. (Oldham County)37 Tyon Dixon 5-11 208 LB SO Cincinnati, Ohio (Colerain)38 Rashad Stewart 6-0 183 DB SO Marietta, Ga. (Drake)38 Ryan Johnson 5-11 175 P RS FR Louisville, Ky. (DeSales)39 Kenneth Jaboin 6-1 203 DB SR Miami, Fla. (NIACC)39 Chris Zelli 5-11 201 LB FR Jeffersonville, Ind. (Jeffersonville)40 Agyei Williams 5-11 184 S JR Louisville, Ky. (Trinity)40 Josh Bleser 6-1 213 P SR Park Hills, Ky. (Covington Catholic)41 Stephan Robinson 5-10 170 CB RS FR Louisville, Ky. (Central)42 Champ Lee 6-0 204 LB SO Lakeland, Fla. (Lake Gibson)42 Jalen Harrington 6-2 205 LB FR Fern Creek, Ky. (Fern Creek)43 Deon Rogers 6-2 200 LB SO Port St. Lucie, Fla. (Treasure Coast)44 B.J. Butler 6-2 276 DE SO Kissimmee, Fla. (Osceola)45 John Wallace 6-0 180 P/K FR Cecilia, Ky. (Central Hardin)46 Dexter Heyman 6-3 238 LB SR Louisville, Ky. (Male)47 Malcolm Mitchell 6-2 230 DE SO Stone Mountain, Ga. (Dunwoody)48 Deiontrez Mount 6-5 219 DE FR Fort Walton Beach, Fla. (Fort Walton Beach)49 Patrick Grant 6-4 236 DL JR Sunrise, Fla. (Boyd Anderson)49 Jarel McGriff-Culver 5-11 190 RB RS FR Downers Grove, Ill. (Downers Grove North)51 Mike Privott 6-0 224 LB SO Norfolk, Va. (Lake Taylor)53 Jake Smith 6-4 315 OL RS FR Jacksonville, Ala. (Jacksonville)54 Mike Romano 6-4 275 C FR Port St. Lucie, Fla. (Treasure Coast)55 Mario Benavides 6-4 300 C JR Los Fresnos, Texas (Los Fresnos)56 Tarik Rollins 6-2 223 LB SO Hollywood, Fla. (Clemson)57 Nick Heuser 6-0 229 LB JR Louisville, Ky. (St. Xavier)59 Zach Perkins 6-4 290 OL SO Shepherdsville, Ky. (North Bullitt)62 John Clark 6-2 305 OL SR Louisville, Ky. (St. Xavier)65 Dylan Kupper 6-5 265 OL FR Louisville, Ky. (Trinity)66 Alex Kupper 6-3 285 OL JR Louisville, Ky. (Trinity)68 Kamran Joyer 6-3 292 OL SO Tampa, Fla. (Wesley Chapel)69 Chris Walker 6-3 306 OL SO Louisville, Ky. (Ballard)70 John Miller 6-2 304 OL FR Miami, Fla. (Central)71 Chris Acosta 6-3 279 OL RS FR Miami, Fla. (Hileah)72 Hunter Stout 6-4 291 OL SO Tampa, Fla. (Wharton)73 Hector Hernandez 6-5 294 OL SR Naples, Fla. (Naples)74 Ryan Mack 6-5 316 OL FR Memphis, Tenn. (Wooddale)75 Ryan Kessling 6-5 314 OT SR Tallahassee, Fla. (Chiles)76 Chase Petersen 6-4 291 OL FR Bentonville, Ark. (Bentonville)78 Aaron Epps 6-7 250 OT FR Tucker, Ga. (Tucker)79 Jamon Brown 6-6 325 DT FR Fern Creek, Ky. (Fern Creek) 80 Stephon Ball 6-4 228 TE JR Cincinnati, Ohio (St. Xavier)81 Chris White 6-4 243 TE SO Elizabethtown, Ky. (John Hardin)82 Eli Rogers 5-10 185 WR FR Miami, Fla. (Northwestern)83 Jerrell Moore 5-10 169 WR FR Fern Creek, Ky. (Fern Creek)84 Aaron Nance 6-3 197 WR SO Louisville, Ky. (Seneca)85 Nate Nord 6-5 230 TE JR Boca Raton, Fla. (West Boca Raton)87 Kai Dominguez 6-0 172 WR SO Montvale, N.J. (St. Joseph’s Regional)88 Jarrett Davis 5-9 171 WR SO Tyrone, Ga. (Sandy Creek)89 Scott Radcliff 5-10 183 WR JR Louisville, Ky. (Trinity)90 B.J. Dubose 6-5 238 DE FR Oakland Park, Fla. (Northeast)91 William Savoy 6-1 246 DE SR Elizabethtown, Ky. (John Hardin)92 Brandon Dunn 6-3 308 DT SO Louisville, Ky. (Pleasure Ridge Park)93 Roy Philon 6-3 272 DT SO Lexington, Ky. (Bryan Station)94 Lorenzo Mauldin 6-4 225 DE FR Atlanta, Ga. (Maynard Jackson)95 Randy Salmon 6-3 291 DT JR Atlanta, Ga. (Hutchinson CC)99 Jamaine Brooks 6-4 329 DL RS FR Miami, Fla. (Palmetto)

2011 LOUISVILLE ROSTEROFFENSE

X WR 82 Van Chew (6-1, 175, Sr.)10 Dorian Graham (5-10, 185, Sr.)

LT 67 Justin Pugh (6-6, 292, Jr.) 62 Andrew Phillips (6-6, 279, Jr.) LG 75 Zack Chibane (6-5, 293, Jr.) 77 Lou Alexander (6-4, 331, Jr.) C 59 Macky MacPherson (6-2, 269, So.) 55 Rob Trudo (6-3, 300, Fr.) RG 66 Andrew Tiller (6-5, 334, Sr.) 71 Ivan Foy (6-5, 318, Fr.) RT 74 Michael Hay (6-5, 283, Sr.) 77 Lou Alexander (6-4, 331, Jr.) Y-TE 80 Nick Provo (6-4, 249, R-Sr.) 85 Beckett Wales (6-3, 253, So.) QB 12 Ryan Nassib (6-2, 229, Sr.) 17 Charley Loeb (6-4, 212, Jr.) H 29 Antwon Bailey (5-7, 201, Sr.) 30 Steven Rene (5-7, 176, So.) FB 49 Adam Harris (6-2, 248, Sr.) 34 Tombe Kose (5-9, 240, Sr.)

Z WR 15 Alec Lemon (6-2, 202, Jr.) 88 Jarrod West (6-2, 204, S0.) DEFENSE

DE 54 Mikhail Marinovich (6-5, 253, Sr.) 91 Brandon Sharpe (6-2, 245, Jr.) DT 96 Jay Bromley (6-3, 280, So.) 56 Cory Boatman (6-1, 281, Sr.) NT 13 Deon Goggins (6-1, 272, Sr.) 51 Eric Crume (6-0, 332, Fr.) DE 99 Chandler Jones (6-5, 265, Sr.) 95 Torrey Ball (6-4, 253, Sr.) SLB 33 Dan Vaughan (6-2, 219, Sr.) 38 Cameron Lynch (5-11, 223, Fr.) MLB 11 Marquis Spruill (6-1, 216, So.) 18 Siriki Diabate (5-10, 210, Jr.) WLB 35 Dyshawn Davis (6-3, 213, Fr.) 39 Dom Anene (6-1, 224, Jr.) H CB 26 Kevyn Scott (5-11, 208, R-Sr.) 4 Brandon Reddish (5-10, 179, Fr.)

FS 1 Phillip Thomas (5-11, 190, Jr.) 28 Jeremi Wilkes (5-9, 189, So.)

SS 21 Shamarko Thomas (5-10, 208, So.) 28 Jeremi Wilkes (5-9, 189, So.)

CB 8 Keon Lyn (6-1, 190, So.) 9 Ri’Shard Anderson (6-1, 189, Jr.)

SPECIAL TEAMS

KOR 25 Jeremiah Kobena (6-0, 180, Fr.) 10 Dorian Graham (5-10, 185, Sr.)

PR 30 Steven Rene (5-7, 176, So.) FG/PAT 37 Ross Krautman (5-7, 155, So.) 19 Ryan Lichtenstein (5-11, 161, Jr.)

P 41 Shane Raupers (5-9, 184, Jr.)

OR46 Jonathan Fisher (6-1, 209, Fr.) LS 47 Sam Rodgers (6-1, 215, Fr.) 61 Eric Morris (5-9, 227, Jr.)

SS 61 Eric Morris (5-9, 227, Jr.) 47 Sam Rodgers (6-1, 215, Fr.)

SYRACUSE DEPTH CHART

Page 21: Louisville SportsReport: Oct. 26, 2011 issue

OCTOBER 26, 2011 LOUISVILLE SPORTSREPORT PAGE 21

USPS STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP

CARDINAL STARSERIN CONRAD - FIELD HOCKEYThe goalkeeper from Wilkes-Barre, Pa., was tabbed Big East Field Hockey Defensive Player of the Week for the week ending Oct. 23. This is Conrad’s second league honor of the season. The redshirt junior posted a combined six saves in two shutout wins. She collected three saves in a 6-0 victory over Providence last Friday as the Cardinals secured a spot in the Big East Tournament, then followed with three stops in a 1-0 victory over No. 19 Indiana on Sunday. She has six shutouts on the season, tying her for sixth on the school’s single-season list. She has 11 career shutouts, placing her fi fth on Louisville’s all-time list. UofL (10-7, 3-3) will travel to No. 20 Northwestern for its regular-season fi nale on Friday.

AMBER THOMAS - FIELD HOCKEYThe junior forward from Duncan, British Columbia, scored the game’s only goal as UofL (10-7) beat Indiana 1-0 on Senior Day last Sunday. The Hoosiers fell to 9-6. After a scoreless fi rst half, the Cards fi nally broke through at the 56:11 mark when junior Haley Jurich collected the ball inside the 50-yard line and dribbled down the fi eld and into the right side of the circle, where she sent a cross to Thomas, who was waiting near the left post to tap it in. As a sophomore Thomas played in 18 games with 12 starts, tied for second on the team with eight goals, including game-winners against Georgetown and Rutgers, and was named to the Big East Conference honor roll on Oct. 11.

ANDREW CARTER - MEN’S TENNISThe senior from Greensboro, N.C., made the quarterfi nals of the United States Tennis Association Ohio Valley Regional Championship Saturday by defeating Tennessee’s Hunter Reese 6-4, 6-4 in the round of 16. Carter won four matches to get to the quarterfi nals, improving his singles record to 8-4. On Sunday, Carter fell 6-3, 6-4 to nationally No. 3 ranked Eric Quigley from Kentucky. “I’m so proud of Andrew for making the fi nal eight of the 128 best players in the Ohio Valley Region, which consists of many conferences,” UofL coach Rex Ecarma said. “He is playing mentally tough and closing out matches in a textbook way. The development of his all-court game has been critical to his success. His attitude has been positive and emotions balanced.”

LOLA ARSLANBEKOVA - VOLLEYBALLThe junior outside hitter from Tashkent, Uzbekistan, had 20 kills and 11 digs to lead the Cards to a 3-1 victory over West Virginia Saturday afternoon at Cardinal Arena. UofL improved to 16-5, 8-0 and dropped West Virginia to 5-14, 3-5. Despite 19 kills and 12 digs by Arslanbekova on Sunday, Louisville lost 3-1 to Pittsburgh (14-10, 4-5), the Cards’ fi rst Big East loss of the season. The Cardinals were outhit .229 to .194. Arslanbekova had a tough match, hitting just .167 with 10 errors. She leads Louisville with 397 kills and is second on the team in hitting percentage at .297.

ANDRE BOUDREAUX - MEN’S SOCCERIn a rough game with seven yellow cards and a red card, Boudreaux kept his team focused for 110 minutes to secure a tie with visiting Rutgers Saturday night. The senior keeper from New Orleans had a late save just before halftime to keep Louisville ahead 1-0. Rutgers scored 11 minutes into the second half, but Boudreaux and the Louisville defense held the Scarlet Knights scoreless for the remaining 34 minutes in regulation and two 10-minute overtimes. Boudreaux is allowing just 0.87 goals per game this season. He has played every minute of every game and has 40 saves and seven shutouts.

JEREMY WRIGHT - FOOTBALLThe sophomore from Clermont, Fla., became Louisville’s fi rst 100-yard rusher this season with his 11-carry, 108-yard performance against Rutgers Friday night. Wright had a long run of 29 yards and appeared to be on the verge of a couple of breakout runs, but a trip here and a push there prevented an even bigger day. Wright averaged 9.8 yards per carry. So far this season he has 284 yards on 60 carries for an average per carry of 4.7 yards, a team best for players with more than three carries.

HANNAH GADD - WOMEN’S DIVINGThe junior from Ft. Thomas, Ky., won the 1-meter diving event at the SMU Swim Classic over the weekend in Dallas. Gadd’s score of 327.56 was just 2.35 points off her school record 329.95 set in February at the Big East Swimming and Diving Championships. Gadd’s winning SMU score was 17 points higher than her best freshman mark of 310.60 which was then a school and conference record. The SMU event pitted Louisville swimmers and divers against No. 6 Texas, No. 7 Florida, No. 11 Wisconsin, No. 13 Virginia and No. 36 SMU. The Cards fi nished fourth.

CONRADCONRAD

THOMASTHOMAS

CARTERCARTER

ARSLANBEKOVAARSLANBEKOVA

WRIGHTWRIGHT

HOWIE LINDSEY’SHOWIE LINDSEY’S

OF THE WEEKOF THE WEEK

BOUDREAUXBOUDREAUX

GADDGADD

Page 22: Louisville SportsReport: Oct. 26, 2011 issue

PAGE 22 LOUISVILLE SPORTSREPORT OCTOBER 26, 2011

LOUISVILLE SOCCER

By Howie LindseyThe University of Louisville women’s soc-

cer team clinched its fi rst Big East Conference National Division title with a 1-0 victory at Cincinnati last Saturday night.

UofL not only clinched its fi rst-ever confer-ence title in women’s soccer but established a new benchmark for success in the career of veteran coach Karen Ferguson-Dayes.

“I am incredibly proud of this team,” Ferguson-Dayes said. “Winning a Big East regular-season title is something we’ve never done before, and it doesn’t surprise me that this group did it with the leadership of seniors Kaitie McDonald and Jennifer Jones.... The credit for all of that goes to the kids because they’re the ones who came out of those early games and never wanted to lose again the way we lost early in the season. We continue to push forward, and we have an incredible belief. We have a trust within the team that has put us in a position to win games.”

The Cardinals (10-5-3, 8-1-2) clinched the No. 1 seed in the upcoming Big East Tour-nament and earned a fi rst-round bye in the tournament that starts Thursday on various campus sites. UC, which failed to qualify for the tournament, fell to 6-9-4, 2-7-2.

“It is great to have the bye because you can rest the nicks and bruises, and then we’ll play a team that just played on Thursday,” Ferguson-Dayes said. “We’ll play the winner of Providence and Rutgers. They’ll have to travel to us for a Sunday game. It is always nice to have a home game at Cardinal Park,

and our senior class wants to play as many games as we can at Cardinal Park. We know the fan support will be great and help us move on to West Virginia.”

If the Cards win Sunday’s noon game against the Providence-Rutgers winner, they will head to the fi nal four on West Virginia’s campus for a chance to clinch an NCAA Tour-nament bid with a pair of wins. But Fergu-son-Dayes doesn’t want her players thinking about that yet.

“To be honest, we are just focused on who we will get out of Providence and Rutgers,” she said. “We’d love to get to Morgantown and the fi nal four teams, but if we focus on that we may miss the opportunity to win to get to there.”

Staying focused on the next game has helped Louisville reel off six straight wins to end the regular season. The Cardinals are on a roll, and Ferguson-Dayes is much happier this season than she was at the end of last season, when the Cardinals fi nished 10-9-0 and 4-7-0 in the Big East after starting the season 7-0.

“I don’t really know the statistics,” she said. “But we’ve had teams we’ve taken to the NCAA Tournament before, the year with Monique Gjini and Amy Seng we had 13 wins, but you take a look at last year when we started 7-0 and were ranked 13th in the country and ended miserably, and we did the reverse this year. Obviously, I would much rather do it the way we did this year.”

Ferguson-Dayes admitted she might be a

little uneasy about her team’s six-game win-ning streak.

“I think you have to know your team,” she said. “It makes me a little more nervous, but you have to make sure you don’t get too cocky, too confi dent and too casual. That is something that we continue to talk about. We don’t talk about the outcome of any game, but we talk about process. As long as we continue to focus on attention to details, the process, and the reasons that we are in the position we are in. As long as we con-tinue to do that, focus for 90 or 110 minutes, the result will likely take care of itself.”

That focus has come from strong leader-ship - and toughness - from the senior class.

“Not so much the younger kids, but the older kids,” Ferguson-Dayes said. “The cap-tains, Jennifer Jones and Kaitie McDonald, they have really set forth the mentality of this group. Jennifer Jones had her shoulder subluxed in practice. She stood up, told our trainer to put it back in (socket) and she wanted to play again. Katie McDonald had blood running down her face from her nose. She packed it up and said, ‘Coach, I’m ready to go in again.’ When those are your two seniors, it doesn’t give your younger kids too much latitude to be a wimp. I think our toughness and leadership and our intangibles come from them.”

This could be the best team in Louisville women’s soccer history. Other teams have had more wins, certainly back in the Con-ference USA days, but those wins were not

against this level of competition.“When we have had great teams in the

past we have had great goalkeepers andgreat goal-scorers,” Ferguson-Dayes said.“We have Chloe Keifer and Christine Exeteron this team. Chloe Keifer is a great goal-keeper, and Christine has really proven shecan score goals.”

The performance of Exeter, the sopho-more goal-scorer, can’t be overstated. Shehas 12 goals and three assists and has fi vegame-winners.

“She’s matured tremendously as a player from last year to this year and even from thefi rst fi ve or six games until now,” Ferguson-Dayes said. “When our opponent didn’t dou-ble-team her, she didn’t have a goal. She maydo better with more defense. Players bounceoff of her and refs call a foul on her and shedidn’t do anything, she is just that strong.”

A BIG WINSunday’s win over Cincinnati was big be-

cause it clinched the No. 1 seed for Louisvillein the Big East Tournament, and it also wasbig because it was Ferguson-Dayes’ 100thwin. She said she didn’t know about themilestone prior to the game.

“I had no idea,” she said. “Cincinnati was a big game because my husband coaches thereand I had to beat them. It was big becauseit was our fi nal game. When I found out itwas my 100th, I turned to (sports informa-tion director) Garett (Wall) and said, ‘Wow,that took way too long to get to 100.’”

WOMEN’S SOCCER NETS FIRST LEAGUE TITLE

Page 23: Louisville SportsReport: Oct. 26, 2011 issue

OCTOBER 26, 2011 LOUISVILLE SPORTSREPORT PAGE 23

2007 CARDINAL CARAVAN

Page 24: Louisville SportsReport: Oct. 26, 2011 issue

PAGE 24 LOUISVILLE SPORTSREPORT OCTOBER 26, 2011

2007 CARDINAL CARAVAN L

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LOUISVILLE SPORTSREPORT’S CARDINAL KIDS

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Austin Stacey, 9 year-old grandson of Judy and Howard Stacey, fl ew solo from McKinney, Texas

to see last year’s UofL-UK football game. An added plus was meeting T-Will (Terrence

Williams) in the airport on his fl ight home.

Allen Northcutt joined his son, Ryan, on the fi eld. Ryan was the Kickoff Kid for the fi rst quarter of the Louisville-Rutgers game.

Two-year-old Olivia Rae in her

Cardinal gear. Photo submitted

by Jason Autry.

Evan Stone, the 2-year-old grandson of Pat and Raymond Stone, thinks the Cards are “out of this world.” He celebrated his older brother’s birthday at the Rauch Planetarium. Evan’s parents are Larry and Carrie Stone.

The grandchildren of Mike and Robin Fischer, Hayden Tedford, Hanna Tedford, Sam Fischer and Layla Fischer, posed with a Louisville fl ag on the 4th of July 2011 at Hanalei Bay on Kauai, Hawaii.

Michael and Terri Cosby sent this picture

of their 6-year-old grandson, Baxter Baker,

at the Yum center.