Louisville Preview
November 04, 2009 11:47 AM | General
November 4, 2009
GAME INFORMATION | GAME NOTES
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Louisville coach Steve Kragthorpe was joking Monday morning on his Big East coaches’ teleconference that he has a full-blown quarterback controversy after his No. 3 quarterback Will Stein led the Cardinals to a 21-13 victory over Arkansas State last Saturday.
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| Noel Devine ran for 154 yards on just 13 carries in last year's 35-21 victory over Louisville.
David Miller photo |
Stein was a late replacement for junior Adam Froman, who was injured in the loss to Cincinnati. Junior Justin Burke was also injured in the Cincinnati game after opening the season as the starter against Indiana State.
“We have a quarterback controversy now,” Kragthorpe chuckled. “We have three guys that have won games. We had one before with two and now we’ve added a third guy to the mix. We’ll just wait and see during the week of practice how much Justin and Adam can do.”
Stein completed 20 of 39 passes for 232 yards in last week’s eight-point victory over Arkansas State.
“Will performed extremely well for us. I was proud with the way he stepped up and played,” said Kragthorpe. “When somebody goes down somebody gets a chance to step up and perform and Will did a great job of performing in his first college start. He is certainly in the mix and all three of those guys, hopefully we’ll have available, and then we’ll just make it a game-day decision in terms of which guy we start.”
West Virginia coach Bill Stewart admitted it’s a problem trying to determine which quarterback to prepare for. Froman and Burke are both taller pocket passers while Stein is a shorter, more mobile quarterback.
Statistically, Froman has had the best season completing 62 of 97 passes for 751 yards and three touchdowns. Froman is also completing a far greater percentage of his passes (63.9 percent) than either Burke or Stein.
“I am worried sick about their passing game,” said West Virginia coach Bill Stewart. “It’s hard to prepare for three people, but if they are preparing three people then they really have a hard task.”
The WVU defense has been vulnerable to the pass of late, giving up 378 yards and a pair of TDs to Connecticut and allowing 232 yards and three touchdowns to USF quarterback B.J. Daniels last Friday night. Daniels completed three passes of 45 yards or longer against West Virginia’s secondary.
“They did give up some big plays but I think a lot of that is because of the fact that USF was running the ball as well as they did,” explained Kragthorpe. ‘They were commanding a little bit more secondary help in the run front and that put those corners out on an island a little bit more.”
Louisville’s offense has been a little more skewed to the pass under Kragthorpe, especially since running back Victor Anderson suffered a knee injury that forced him to miss the Arkansas State game. However, Kragthorpe said Anderson’s condition is improving.
“I think Vic’s closer and it will be how he goes during the week of practice and how much work he can get in terms of the physical part of taking contact,” Kragthorpe said.
Anderson is the team’s top ball carrier with 480 yards and five touchdowns. Last year as a freshman he ran for 1,047 yards and scored eight touchdowns. Kragthorpe believes a healthy Anderson will give Louisville a better opportunity to exploit West Virginia’s pass defense.
“I think one of the keys in being able to take those shots down the field is being able to create a defensive structure where they have to involve those safeties in the running game,” explained Kragthorpe. “If you can’t run the football then they can sit back and play cover two all day.”
On the other side of the ball, Kragthorpe is concerned about containing West Virginia running back Noel Devine, coming off his worst rushing performance of the season at USF when he could manage only 42 yards on 17 carries. Kragthorpe thought South Florida did a great job at the point of attack and also took away Devine’s ability to make cut-back runs.
“They did a nice job of containing him and defending the edge on the defensive front with their linebackers and safeties,” Kragthorpe said. “And they were very disciplined of staying home on the backside and making sure he didn’t get those big cut-back runs like he is famous for.
“He does such a good job of stretching the field and then sticking his foot in the ground and getting back north-south and making some plays that way,” Kragthorpe added.
Kragthrope said in order to keep Devine bottled up, the defensive linemen have to do their job up front as well.
“Penetration is the key to where either the front-side run gets knocked down or when he goes to cut back, the tacklers are there in a position to get him before he gets into an open space,” Kragthorpe said.
Kragthorpe’s biggest concern is the health of his secondary where his defensive coaches have had to make adjustments on the fly at right cornerback. Four different players have made starts there, including safety Chaz Thompson last Saturday against Arkansas State.
“I think (converted wide receiver Andrew Robinson) has got a chance to be available and I hope he is because he really played well for us against Southern Miss,” said Kragthorpe. “I thought Chaz Thompson really did a great job of moving over there and that’s one of the flexibilities that he provides us. He can play both safety and corner.”
Perhaps Louisville’s most versatile defensive player is junior linebacker/safety Brandon Heath. Last week, Heath returned an interception for a touchdown against Arkansas State and he shows 28 tackles, 3 ½ tackles for losses and a pair of picks.
“He’s been a little banged up for us throughout the course of the middle part of this year but I think he’s getting back closer to full strength,” said Kragthorpe. “He’s a guy that kind of plays a hybrid position for us on our linebacker crew and he can also play safety.”
West Virginia has also been battling injury problems on defense. Defensive tackle Scooter Berry played sparingly in the Auburn and Syracuse games after injuring his shoulder against East Carolina. He has since been suspended for violating team rules.
Middle linebacker Reed Williams has been hindered with toe and shoulder ailments and Stewart admitted Tuesday that it is now a matter of how much pain Williams is willing to play with.
“He’s his own best doctor,” Stewart said.
Stewart also indicated Tuesday that safety Sidney Glover got nicked up in the South Florida game and there is some concern if he will be ready to go on Saturday. The same goes for safety Nate Sowers, who missed the USF game with a calf injury suffered during practice leading up to last week’s game.
“Our serious injuries are at a minimum,” said Stewart. “Injury wise we’re in pretty good shape - unless something unforeseen happens this week.”
West Virginia has won two straight against Louisville, including a 35-21 victory at Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium last year. Overall, the Mountaineers are 8-2 against the Cardinals.
Louisville’s last victory against West Virginia came in 2006 in Louisville when the Cardinals were ranked in the Top 10 under former coach Bobby Petrino. Since taking over for Petrino in 2008, Kragthorpe has led Louisville to a 14-18 recording that includes a 3-5 mark this season.
Louisville’s three wins this year have come against Indiana State, Southern Miss and Arkansas State. Louisville is just 1-9 in Big East play under Kragthorpe – the one victory coming against USF last year.
“We have a tough opponent coming in here this week that has everything to gain and nothing to lose,” said Stewart. “Our backs are up against the wall much like our last opponent was last week in their home arena.”
Kickoff is set for noon. The game will be televised as the Big East Game of the Week (Mike Gleason, John Congemi and Quint Kessenich).
Tickets are still available and can be purchased by calling the Mountaineer Ticket Office toll-free at 1-800-WVU GAME or by logging on to wvugame.com.
