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November 03, 2006

Warning: college football post

News item: Louisville 44, West Virginia 34.

Eric Crawford of the Louisville Courier Journal:

The first time a guy talked about a football national championship in Louisville, people laughed.

Howard Schnellenberger said in 1985 that the University of Louisville "is on a collision course with the national championship. The only variable is time."

After the No. 5-ranked Cardinals beat No. 3 West Virginia, 44-34, last night before a record crowd of 43,217 in Papa John's Cardinal Stadium, time is no longer a variable.

The only variable now is victory.

Collision course? Buckle your seat belts.

Mark Story of the Lexington Herald-Leader:

At long last, the commonwealth of Kentucky got to see what a genuinely big-time college football game looks like.

It was a press box jammed full of the most regal names -- New York Times; Washington Post; Los Angeles Times; Chicago Tribune; Sports Illustrated -- of the traditional media.

On this night, the folks in the garish blazers were scouts from actual BCS bowls -- Sugar, Orange, Fiesta.

U of L marketers declared this "Black Out Thursday" and encouraged Cardinals fans to turn out in all black. By kickoff, the PJCS looked like a convention of Dale Earnhardt followers.

Kentucky Gov. Ernie Fletcher was decked out in a black UofL sweat jacket. Ex-UofL great Tom Jackson -- now better known as an ESPN pro football analyst -- came back to watch his old school.

What they saw was UofL parlay an opportunistic defense and the kind of creative offense Petrino has become known for into a win UofL fans will talk about forever.

Dennis Dodd of CBS Sportsline:

The problem is the winning team gave up 540 yards and a pair of 100-yard rushers. A couple of top 10 scoring defenses combined to give up 78 points and 1,008 yards.

You know what? The man who runs the league doesn't care.

"If we're 12-0 at the end of the year regardless of what happens that's pretty good," Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese said, "considering a year ago they had the coffin out for us and two years ago we played in a limbo league. The year before that we were dead. If you've lived it, these are nice times..."

So to have Louisville and Rutgers as two of the five remaining undefeated teams at this point is not such a bad thing. Neither is having the first Big East game between two top five teams in six years live up to expectations...

And, last but not least, Stewart Mandel of Sports Illustrated:

Name the last national champion that had to beat consecutive undefeated teams in November? If they win, a Thanksgiving-weekend trip to 6-2 Pittsburgh awaits two weeks after that.

Which is why Petrino, though certainly more upbeat than usual, wasn't exactly jumping for joy either in his postgame news conference. "There's no time for partying," he said. "Tomorrow we get ready for Rutgers."

When was the last time a potential national-title participant said that?

The moral of the story is simple: It's fun to talk about a top-flight football team from a non-traditional place. It's a absolute HOOT.

Next Thursday night, it's Louisville-Rutgers with national title implications. If you only watch one college football game this century, make it that one.

Posted by Chuck at November 3, 2006 03:58 PM

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