Goodbye, Charlie Strong and Teddy Bridgewater. Welcome back, Bobby Petrino.
As we continue our tour through Notre Dame’s 2014 schedule, one of the more intriguing games on the slate is Louisville. Now a member of the ACC, the Irish will welcome the Cardinals to South Bend in a game that’ll likely pit two Top 25 teams against each other.
For as much as things are changing for the Cardinals, the constant of good football should remain. And in Petrino, athletic director Tom Jurich brought back the man that essentially put the program on the map in the early-2000s before flying too close to the sun and crashing back down to earth.
While the turmoil of walking away from an NFL franchise midseason and being kicked to the curb at Arkansas after a motorcycle crash revealed some marital (and professional) improprieties, Petrino never forgot how to coach. So after a year of image rehabilitation at Western Kentucky, Petrino jumped at the chance to come home again, returning to Louisville for a second tour of duty.
Helping us get caught up on the state of the Cardinals is Mark Ennis. Mark writes for SB Nation, their Louisville affiliate Card Chronicle, and co-hosts The 2 Man Game on ESPN 680 in Louisville.
Some good stuff here. Hope you enjoy.
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It’s hard to get past the opening question without asking one about Bobby Petrino. After quite a bizarre career detour, on that smashed his reputation to smithereens, Petrino is back at the place that gave him his first head coaching opportunity.
Are there conflicting feelings about this? Has enough water gone under the bridge? Was he the only candidate that could truly replace Charlie Strong?
Among the entire Louisville fan base there is definitely a spectrum of responses to the hiring of Bobby Petrino. On one end, there are the complete diehards that have what amounts to implicit faith in anything athletic director Tom Jurich does and vividly remember the Bobby Petrino years from before. Those people are banking on basically a repeat of his performance from 2003-2006 and don’t give his exit from Louisville, his exit from Atlanta, and his demise at Arkansas, a second thought.
On the other end, there are people who believe that the four years of Charlie Strong where they won at least a share of the Big East twice, won a Sugar Bowl, and wound up in the ACC, elevated the program to a level where they didn’t need to make a risky hire (from a public relations perspective). Those people hoped that the job opening would provide an opportunity to hire an unquestionable candidate to show that the job has legitimacy.
Most people are somewhere in the middle.
I don’t think Petrino was the only guy that could replace Charlie Strong, but I do believe he was one of the better choices if the concern was a coach being able to walk into a locker room with football credibility. There’s no doubting that Charlie Strong was a father figure to many of the players on this team and he was a very big presence in the locker room. I think Jurich’s thinking was there was simply no way to bring in another person to replace that. So, instead, he opted for someone that could walk into a room full of guys and tell them that whatever they think about him as a man, his track record shows they’re going to be exciting and win big. Jurich seems to have gotten the calculation right because there’s been little personnel turnover and the player reception of Petrino has overall been quite positive.
Teddy Bridgewater was one of the elite quarterbacks in college football. Will Gardner threw eight passes last year, but lit up the spring game. What do you expect from Bridgewater’s successor?
I expect Gardner to have a great year. He’s tall, mobile enough, has a very strong arm, and has taken on the leadership responsibilities that go with being a starting quarterback quite well. Petrino has noted several times this summer how encouraged he is by Gardner’s offseason work and the example being set. A good deal of the Gardner optimism is a reflection on Petrino’s track record as well. If he could get Casey Dick to throw for 2,500 yards in the SEC, he’ll do fine with Gardner.
A lot of the offensive success should be predicated on the impressive personnel that’s returning, including four starters up front. Can you walk Notre Dame fans through the stocked skill players that Petrino will have at his disposal?
The other reason to be optimistic about Gardner is that, like you mentioned in the questioned, he’s inheriting a load of offensive weapons. Three offensive line starters have started virtually every game for three straight years. They never settled on the right side of the offensive line last year and that problem persisted into spring. If they find answers there in fall camp, the offense should be quite productive.
In the backfield, Louisville returns Dominique Brown (1,417, 12 touchdowns in his career) and Michael Dyer. Coming out of spring ball, Petrino raved about Brown and said he would likely get the lion’s share of the carries in fall, but people who watched the spring game couldn’t help but notice that Michael Dyer looked quicker and healthier than he did at any time last season. Early enrollee L.J. Scott also got first team reps in the spring game and word is Petrino thinks he could be special down the road. If you look at Petrino’s history at both Louisville and Arkansas, he has always platooned his running backs and I think you’ll see all three get plenty of carries.
Wide receiver is easily the strength of this team and by year’s end I think you’ll see people talk about Louisville as having one of the best receiving groups in the country. It’s certainly one of the best Petrino’s had to work with in his time in college football. DeVante Parker could play his way into being a first round draft pick after catching 12 touchdowns in 12 games last year. Sophomore James Quick only caught six passes as a true-freshman, but the former blue-chip recruit showed in the spring that he’s taking to Petrino’s offense quite well (and he’ll probably benefit a great deal from defenses having to focus on Parker so much). Also emerging in spring was senior tight end Gerald Christian. Not a tremendous run blocker, Christian is a very good receiver and has excellent speed for a tight end. Overall, Louisville returns seven of its leading nine receivers from 2012.
If this team has taken a hit, it’s the depth on the defensive side of the ball. Petrino spent a reported $1 million a year to get Todd Grantham. But with just four starters returning, what do they have to work with?
There’s a lot of potential but some very big questions that didn’t appear to have obvious answers as spring ball ended. Louisville will consistently be a three man defensive line team under Todd Grantham, so that will mitigate some of the losses up front. There are a number of really talented, young linebackers in Keith Brown, James Burgess, Stacy Thomas, Lorenzo Mauldin (moving from a rush defensive position to strictly being an outside linebacker in a 3-4), Keith Kelsey, and James Hearns. Up front, the staff is very excited about defensive end Sheldon Rankins.
In the secondary, Louisville has a really solid pair of starting cornerbacks in Charles Gaines and Terell Floyd. It has virtually no answers at safety where multi-year starters Clavin Pryor and Hakeem Smith are gone. The coaching staff was so concerned about the safety position, they added three additional junior college signees after signing day in hopes of at least having some depth at both safety spots.
It feels like Charlie Strong raised the bar at Louisville to place that it just hasn’t been. What are the expectations awaiting Petrino, and do you see the move to the ACC helping or hurting to achieve those goals?
The move to the ACC is a two-edged sword, really. It’s great for the exposure, and in little things. You don’t always realize all the ways being in the AAC made Louisville invisible last year. From the outright dismissal of good performances to things like your games just not being mentioned on ESPN’s College Gameday or on SportsCenter. You’d like to think that with the move to the ACC, Louisville will at least be more visible and if somewhat successful, will benefit from that visibility.
On the other hand, Louisville has never been in a conference, much less a division, with teams like Florida State and Clemson. Those are traditional powers that recruit at completely different levels than anyone Louisville has played on a regular basis. So it will really be a challenge for Louisville to be able to get over those humps and compete for conference titles going forward. Louisville has rarely been in a position, in the past 15 to 20 years, where a conference title would probably be out of the question going into the season no matter how good the team might be.
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Thanks to Mark for taking the time to get us up to speed. Give him a follow on Twitter @MarkEnnis.