Dispatch
Lovin? it in Louisville
Cardinals make statement in win over Mountaineers to stay in chase for title
Friday, November 03, 2006
NEAL C . LAURON DISPATCH Louisville defenders celebrate after Malik Jackson (11) returned a West Virginia fumble for a touchdown in the third quarter. The Cardinals? Trent Guy returned a punt for a score four plays later for a 30-16 lead.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. ? If you weren?t too busy fretting about Ohio State?s inability to grow grass or sticking pins in your Lloyd Carr voodoo doll, you might have noticed a college football game was played last night in this old river town.
Go ahead and dismiss the affair ? as wildly entertaining as advertised ? by noting with sarcasm that nothing says tradition quite like a Thursday night game in an eight-year-old stadium named after a pizza company.
Scoff at Louisville and West Virginia hailing from a Big East Conference that nearly died a couple of years ago because its most powerful members were fleeing to greener (as in money) pastures in other conferences.
Smirk all you want about how the opponents last night, both ranked in the top five, have played creampuff schedules this season or how the sellout crowd of 43,217 was a stadium record and still 20,000 less than attended OSU?s spring game.
None of that matters, at least to Louisville because its 44-34 victory over West Virginia gave the Cardinals a realistic chance for a berth in the BCS championship game.
That?s the same Louisville school known previously for its basketball team in the same Louisville town known previously for horse racing.
And that?s the same BCS championship game everyone in Big Ten country assumes will go to the survivor of the Nov. 18 grudge game between those programs of lore, Ohio State and Michigan.
While Columbus is fixated on a game to be played in 15 days, Louisville showed last night how far it has come in nine years since Tom Jurich had to ask Adidas to let him buy gear for his team at retail prices when he became the school?s athletic director.
Louisville, 8-0 and No. 5 in the BCS, won its biggest regular-season game in school history by mixing its usual offensive power with unexpected thirdquarter touchdowns scored on a fumble recovery and a punt return.
Somehow, that was enough of a potion to hold off the game Mountaineers ? led by the dynamic speed of quarterback Pat White and running back Steve Slaton ? who came to town undefeated but left with their own national title hopes dashed.
It?s way too premature to put Louisville in the BCS title game. The Cardinals still must play four regularseason games, including next week at undefeated Rutgers ? an intriguing matchup this season but not exactly a rivalry rich with 100-plus years of tradition.
Tradition, however, doesn?t matter, and rightfully so, in the BCS system. Talent and victories rule the day.
Louisville has enough of both to now be a legitimate contender in November, as it displayed to an ESPN national TV audience and a Papa John?s Cardinal Stadium press box stuffed with media representatives from coast to coast.
The Cardinals also have enough flaws, most notably a soft defense against the run, to make me wonder how much they?d lose by ? 10 points? 14 points? ? in a BCS championship game against an undefeated Ohio State or Michigan.
Of course that?s what Georgia thought, too, before West Virginia upset the Southeastern Conference power in its own back yard last season in the Sugar Bowl. They play the games on the field for a reason.
Don?t expect anyone from the Cardinals or the Big East to apologize for their perceived warts.
"I just want to get there (to the BCS title game)," Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese said. "It?s hard to get there."
Even if Louisville finishes the regular season undefeated, there?s a mathematical chance in the Byzantine world of the BCS that the Cardinals could be bypassed in the ratings by a one-loss team from a more prestigious conference.
"We don?t think about it a lot," Louisville coach Bobby Petrino said. "I personally feel the rules have been set, the BCS works. I have no complaints with it. We teach our players to go by the rules and not to complain."
The folks in Louisville, already jumping about the Breeders? Cup being held this weekend at nearby Churchill Downs, are just happy to be in a race for a football national championship.
They don?t care if history says it?s a strange idea.
Todd Jones is a sports colum nist for The Dispatch
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