BIG EAST FOOTBALL PREVIEW: GAME #9 LOUISVILLE

November 7, 2008


Led by Lesean McCoy's 169 yards rushing and Conor Lee's five fields goals, Pittsburgh earned a huge road victory by upending Notre Dame in South Bend, 36-33. Lee was clutch all afternoon and into the early evening, hitting four of four fields goals in each overtime 'session', including a 22-yarder that followed Brandon Walker's miss in the Irish offensive series of the fourth OT to give the Panthers the win.

Pittsburgh used the win as a bounceback from their previous game, a 54-34 home loss to Rutgers. Now they need to gain some momentum again in the conference as the host Louisville this weekend. The Panthers are 6-2 overall and 2-1 in the conference. For the first time in Dave Wannstedt's four years as the Pitt head coach, the college bowls are in his site and the conference's BCS berth is a legitimate chance for his team.

Louisville on the other hand continues to struggle with inconsistency. The Cards could have put themselves into the conference mix, but a 28-21 loss to Syracuse last weekend was just another reminder of the problems the Cards have. The Orange had yet to beat a 1-A team this season, but Louisville allowed the anemic Orange to roll up over 200 yards rushing to earn their first Big East win since their upset of Louisville in September of 2007.

Victor Anderson continues to be a bright spot for the Cards as he piled up another 100-yard game last week. On the year, he is averaging over 6 yards a carry and 100 yards a game.

The NCAA Odds currently show the Panthers a 6 1/2-pt favorites on their home field. It definitely has the makings of a Pitt win as Lesean McCoy will be the best player in the game, once again, and if SU could rack up over 200 yards against the UL defense last week on the ground, expect Pitt to find success as well.

Dealing with success does seem to be something the Panthers struggle with. Home losses to Bowling Green and Rutgers offer a reminder not to go too heavy into falling for Pitt quite yet. While I fully expect the Panther ground atatck to have a lot of success and their solid defense to keep UL at bay, this does has the makings of a game Pitt allows Louisville to hang around. Once again, I think Pitt will be glad to hve Conor Lee and his foot will be the difference.

Prediction:

Pittsburgh 27
Louisville 24

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BIG EAST FOOTBALL PREVIEW: GAME #7 LOUISVILLE

October 24, 2008


Louisville gets back into Big East conference action this weekend when they welcome the Bulls of South Florida to town. After a season opening loss to Kentucky, the Cards have won four of five, inlcuding last week's 42-23 victory over Middle Tennessee State. The lone loss was to Connecticut, their lone conference contest, meaning UL is still looking for their first Big East win of the season.

The Bulls got back into the win column last weekend by trouncing Syracuse 45-13 with a big second half effort, breaking wide open a close game at the half. USF is 6-1 on the season, and their win over SU evened their record in the Big East at 1-1 following their first loss of the season to Pitt.

NCAA Football Betting lines have the Bulls as 3 1/2 point favorites on the road to keep Louisville winless in conference play.

USF outscored Syracuse 24-0 int he second half last week and rolled up 487 yards of offense, limiting SU to just 230 last week. The Bulls showed balance, piling up 239 of their yards on the ground and the other 248 through the air. Matt Grothe accounted for 320 of their yards (rushing + receiving) and four touchdowns, showing he might be back in the comfort zone as the Bulls continue to round into shape. South Florida ranks among the top 25% of the NCAA in most offensive categories, but their rush defense has been among the best in the nation so far this season and could be a big key on the road.

Jury is still out with Louisville, despite a solid 4-2 record. Their most impressive win of the year was a home victory over Kansas State, all other contests have come against lesser opponents since the opening week loss to rival Kentucky. The strength offensively for Louisville this season has been their ground game, but that will be tested by the speed of the USF defense.

The Bulls have been on the road several times this season, while they have not been dominant in their wins against lesser opponents on the road, their experience and improvement shown last week should carry then to victory this weekend, but it might be tougher than expected.

Prediction:

South Florida 30
Louisville 27

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BIG EAST FOOTBALL PREVIEW: GAME #6 LOUISVILLE

October 17, 2008


The College Football Lines have Louisville as a 14 and a half point favorite when they host Middle Tennessee State this Saturday afternoon. The Blue Raiders own a win against Maryland this season, but still enter the contest at just 2-4.

Louisville still seems to be looking for solid footing under coach Kragthorpe, as they stand 3-2 on the young season. They already own wins over teams from the state of Tennessee such as Tennessee Tech and their latest, a win over Memphis on the road last Friday, so look for them to make it a hat trick this weekend, but expect it to be a little closet than most might anticipate.

Prediction:

Louisville 38
MTSU 24

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BIG EAST FOOTBALL PREVIEW: GAME #5 LOUISVILLE

October 9, 2008


Friday night college football lights will feature the Louisville Cardinals of the Big East as they travel out of conference to visit former Conference USA rival the Memphis Tigers. While this match-up would get all the college basketball fans around the country excited, the sad truth is that it hardly will register much interest during this college football weekend.

The Cards dropped their opening conference match-up with Connecticut in their last outing, another Friday night special, 26-21 on September 26th. The face a Memphis team that has won three in a row, but, in all honesty, has not been very impressive this season.

Louisville is 2-2 on the season, bookending losses to UConn and an opening loss to Kentucky with wins over Kansas State and Tennessee Tech in between. The Kansas State win showed some promise for the Cards, but we are still not exactly sure what we have here. However, we do know, against this Memphis team, bet on Louisville to get the job down in a road victory by double digits.

Prediction:

Louisville 33
Memphis 21

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BIG EAST FOOTBALL PREVIEW: GAME #3 LOUISVILLE

September 16, 2008


It is a Big East buffet this week with all nine teams in action and it starts on Wednesday nigt with the Louisville Cardinals hosting the Wildcats of Kansas State at Papa John Stadium.

This is an important early season for both teams as both are looking to try to get back into the NCAA Bowl Games picture after both missed out on the post-season in 2007.

Kansas State enters into the contest at 2-0 with an average margin of victory of 57-8 in their first two games. Of course, the competition of North Texas (0-3, outscored 142-35) and Montana State (1-2 with a win over Adams St) means they have yet to be tested.

Louisville opened their season with a test...and failed, losing at home to rival Kentucky by the score of 27-2. The Cards bounced back and put a licking on Tennessee Tech 51-10 eleven days ago to even their record at 1-1.

It is hard to put much stock into their numbers from the first two games, but Kansas State QB Josh Freeman has been off the charts, completing 76% of his passes at 11.6 yards an attempt with five TD's (and no picks) in his 45 passing attempts. However, this will be his first test without last year's security blankets in RB James Johnson (1,106 yards in 2007) and WR Jordy Nelson (122 catches and over 1,600 yards in '07).

The Louisville defense has been stellar this season, allowing just 63 yards rushing, 210 overall, in their loss against UK. The numbers were even better in game #2 as they allowed just 33 yards rushing to Tennessee Tech and 176 yards overall.

The College Football Betting odds show Kansas State as a 4-point favorite in their first road game of the season in this match-up. Coming off a 5-7 season, the Wildcats are chomping at the bit to prove they are ready to compete again this season. Winning on the road at Louisville will be a step forward. The difference in the game will be the experience at the quarterback position and look for Freeman to come through in the clutch in a tough win for KSU.

Prediction:

Kansas State 31
Louisville 24

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BIG EAST FOOTBALL PREVIEW: GAME #2 LOUISVILLE

September 5, 2008


it was a pitiful, mistake-filled opening weekend effort for the Louisville Cardinals as they lost at home to in-state rival Kentucky.

The Cards turned the ball over five times, with two of the fumbles being returned for touchdowns, in thier 27-2 loss to UK. Quarteback Hunter Cantwell went to the air 43 times, but managed only 152 yards and their rushing offense only 53 more yards on the ground to complete their poor offensive effort.

Defensively the Cards were pretty good, or Kentucky was just as bad offensively. Despite turning the ball over 5 times, UK only managed one offensive touchdown themselves and a meager 210 yards of total offense.

This match-up is not even showing up as listes in the latest Football Lines, but the Cards woudl likely be a heavy favorite over Tennessee Tech, although they are coming off an opening win, 28-12, over Gardner-Webb.

We look for UL to continue to play good defense and find some offense this weekend, but it is still looking like a tough year for their fans.

Prediction:

Louisville 31
Tennessee tech 14

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