Louisville Preview
November 19, 2008 12:04 PM | General
November 19, 2008
GAME NOTES
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Two teams searching for victories will meet at Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium Saturday afternoon when West Virginia takes on Louisville on senior day for Cardinal players.
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| Dorrell Jalloh shows 21 catches for 256 yards and four touchdowns in nine games this season.
Greg Kepner photo |
November has not been kind to Louisville, at one time 5-2 after a 24-20 home victory over South Florida. The Cardinals have dropped three straight to Syracuse, Pitt and Cincinnati and need to win their final two games against West Virginia and Rutgers to post a winning record.
Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium used to be an albatross for opposing teams. During a 3 ½ year stretch from 2003 to 2007 Louisville won 19 straight games at home. Since then, however, the Cardinals are just 6-5 in their last 11 home games including a 4-3 record this year. Louisville’s home losses this season have come against Kentucky (27-2), Connecticut (26-21) and Cincinnati (28-20).
Coach Steve Kragthorpe owns an 11-11 record in his second year at Louisville after replacing the highly successful Bobby Petrino. In his two seasons at Louisville Kragthorpe has had to deal with some player misbehavior left over from the previous coaching regime as well as some rebuilding this year. A pair of losses to end the season would give Louisville its first losing campaign since 1997.
“I have much respect for Coach Kragthorpe and his entire staff,” said West Virginia coach Bill Stewart. “He is a great coach and he has a great group of players.”
Louisville’s once top-ranked passing attack under Petrino and Brian Brohm has slipped to 70th this year under Kragthorpe and Hunter Cantwell, although Cantwell is still considered Louisville’s top NFL prospect. The 6-foot-5-inch senior has thrown for 1,947 yards and 14 touchdowns in 10 games this year. Several dropped passes have kept Cantwell from throwing for even more yards and touchdowns in 2008.
“He’s got a great arm,” said West Virginia safety Sidney Glover. “He’s a gunslinger.”
“We have to keep him out of rhythm,” added Bill Stewart. “If he gets into rhythm he reminds me of Mike Teel at Rutgers. We have to stop the passing game because they love to throw the ball on first and 10 to get into a rhythm.”
Louisville has one of the nation’s most explosive freshmen running backs in Victor Anderson, a one-time West Virginia commitment who changed his mind before signing day. Anderson is being touted for Freshman All-America honors and for good reason. He ran for a career-high 176 yards in a 38-29 victory over Kansas State earlier this year and has topped the 100-yard mark five times this season, most recently in a 28-21 loss to Syracuse in the Carrier Dome on Nov. 1. Anderson needs just 27 yards against West Virginia on Saturday to reach 1,000 for the year.
Complimenting Anderson in the Louisville backfield is senior power back Brock Bolen, a 6-foot, 238-pounder whose five rushing touchdowns and 399 yards ranks second on the team.
“I’m a big Brock Bolen fan,” said Stewart. “He reminds me of Owen Schmitt.”
Sophomore Doug Beaumont is Louisville’s big playmaker in the passing game. The Louisville resident leads the team with 46 catches for 569 yards. Beaumont had back-to-back 100-yard receiving games against Kansas State and UConn earlier this season.
Sophomore Troy Paschley shows just nine catches for the year but a team-leading four of those have gone for touchdowns. Seven Cardinal players have 11 or more catches this season.
Senior center Eric Wood is a three-time all-Big East performer and an Outland Trophy and Rimington Award candidate. Wood has started 47 consecutive games and the Cardinal coaching staff has graded Woods at 85 percent or better in all 10 games this season. Wood is one of two seniors on Louisville’s offensive line – left guard George Bussey is the other.
Strong side linebacker Jon Dempsey leads the Louisville defense with 59 tackles to go with 6 ½ tackles for losses and a sack. The Cardinals have been solid defensively this year under first-year defensive coordinator Ron English, who ran Michigan’s nationally ranked defense in 2006-07. The Cardinals rank eighth in the country against the run allowing just 95.4 yards per game. UofL is 39th in total defense giving up 325.7 yards per game.
“Their defense is much like Cincinnati’s and Pitt’s from what I’ve seen on film – rough, tough, get-after-it, rock ‘em, sock ‘em guys” said Stewart. “I see them playing more aggressive this year, blitzing more, getting the other team off balance more.”
Senior defensive tackle Earl Heyman has a team-best five sacks to go with 33 tackles and 6 ½ tackles for losses. Heyman shows 10 sacks and 19 tackles for losses for his career.
Louisville’s best defensive back, Woodny Turenne, recorded his fifth interception of the season last week against Cincinnati to go with a pair of tackles. But Kragthorpe said Monday that Turenne’s season is done with a broken clavicle sustained in the loss to the Bearcats. Turenne is one of three Louisville starters in the secondary lost for the season due to injury, joining Richard Raglin and Latarrius Thomas on the sidelines.
Daniel Covington has played the last six games at free safety in place of Raglin. Bobby Buchanan has replaced Thomas at strong safety and true freshman Karldell Dunning is likely to take Turenne’s spot at corner.
West Virginia is in much better shape health wise, having an extra week to get ready for the Cardinals. The Mountaineers dropped to 6-3 overall after a 26-23 overtime loss to Cincinnati, but they are still in contention for the Big East title provided they can take care of business and get some help from either Pitt this weekend or Syracuse next weekend.
West Virginia should have most of its injured offensive players ready for Louisville, including backup quarterback Jarrett Brown who also doubles as WVU’s short yardage back on third downs.
Brown suffered a deep thigh bruise and a shoulder injury against Rutgers that is only now getting better.
“I’m fine,” said Brown on Tuesday. “We have great trainers and I got to know them going in for treatment three times a day. We worked hard to get my body right and I’m ready to go.”
Wide receiver Wes Lyons should also be close to 100 percent after turning his ankle against Cincinnati.
Stewart said center Mike Dent is still “week-to-week” with a neck injury. Dent did not play in West Virginia’s loss to Cincinnati, with sophomore Eric Jobe getting the nod at center.
“(Eric) played pretty darn well for his first time out (against Cincinnati),” said Stewart. “He’s just not a Mike Dent, but Mike Dent wasn’t a Danny Mozes until his second year.”
Quarterback Pat White continues to lead the Big East in passing efficiency with a 140.7 passer rating. The senior has completed 119 of 180 passes for 1,104 yards and a conference-best 15 touchdowns.
White also ranks sixth in the Big East in rushing averaging 73.2 yards per game. White’s 586 yards rushing is slightly behind his rushing pace of the last two years when he reached 1,000 yards both seasons.
“We’re trying to get him through 12 games – that’s my goal,” said Stewart. “If we want to run him, we’ll run him. If we want to throw him, we’ll throw him.”
Sophomore Noel Devine is just 33 yards shy of reaching 1,000 for the campaign. Devine has scored three touchdowns and is averaging 6.4 yards per carry.
Jock Sanders leads West Virginia with 40 receptions for 315 yards and has scored a team-best eight touchdowns. Sanders is averaging 68.4 all-purpose yards per game.
Senior linebacker Mortty Ivy leads a West Virginia defense that ranks 10th in the country in scoring defense giving up just 16 points per game. Ivy shows 68 tackles, four tackles for losses and three interceptions. Sophomore linebacker J.T. Thomas shows a team-best six tackles for losses to go with two sacks.
The Mountaineers are 15th in pass efficiency defense and 20th in total defense.
The last three times these two teams have met the two have combined to average 68 points per game. Saturday’s game will be the 10th meeting between the two schools with West Virginia holding a 7-2 advantage.
Kickoff is set for noon with ESPN (Dave Pasch and Andre Ware) handling the call. MSN radio’s pre-game coverage begins with The Mountaineers Today at 11:30 am. Fans can access the live broadcast via the Internet though MSNsportsNET.com; Sirius satellite radio listeners can access the broadcast on channel 122.
