Louisville Cardinals Football Tickets

Bobby Petrino stepped into a great situation as he took over an underachieving Louisville team from 2002 that finished 7-6 partly due to being -15 in turnovers. His inaugural team was pegged for 5th in CUSA and had zero players on the 1st Tm preseason CUSA and yet nearly won the CUSA crown. Despite an inexperienced QB, they averaged 489 ypg and 34.6 ppg and outgained CUSA foes by 87.6 ypg. In 2004 the Cards had 17 players on my preseason all-conf team, the most in CUSA and had a dream season. They stood at 4-0 and played Miami on ESPN and late in the 3Q were in control 31 -14 but lost. Had they won that game, they would have become the first non-BCS team to play in a BCS bowl and probably would have been favored over Utah, a team that accomplished that goal. They outgained CUSA foes by 250.9 ypg winning by an ayg of 56.6-19.4 and finished #6 in the final poll, their highest finish ever (previous high #13 in 1993). Last year they had to replace six NFL DC's including their top QB, RB, WR and LB. They only had 11 returning starters and had benefited from +11 TO's in 2004. Louisville was the preseason favorite to win the Big East in their inaugural year. The Cards had a streak of nine straight wins when they travelled to USF and were ranked #9. They had a 26-16 FD edge and 493-355 yd edge but were drilled 45-14. Three weeks later, they were dominating WV leading 24-7 when they were stopped on 4th & 1 at the WV 34 in the 4Q (dropped FD pass). Amazingly WV rallied to force OT and won it in "3 OT's. Uville, despite outgaining Big East foes by 174.6 ypg (WV only by 93.1), finished just 5-2. They outscored teams by an average of 55.3-15.5 at home (have won a school record 12 in a row at home) while only outscoring foes by 1.6 ppg on the road. They also had to start backup QB Cantwell in the season finale and the bowl while top RB Bush missed two full games. UL led Virginia Tech 24-13 with 13:17 left and could have easily have finished with a 10 or 11 win season. This year 4 of their Big East games are at home and unlike last year, they return their top QB and RB but do lose the BE Def POY Dumervil. With 6 starters back, the offense will be explosive. The back 7 on D looks much stronger. UL not only has the talent and schedule to win the Big East.

Louisville Cardinals Football 2006 Schedule