Louisville fans prove yet again how they are among the best in the country in supporting their basketball programs. According to the official NCAA numbers just released The Louisville men’s Basketball program finished 3rd in the nation in college basketball attendance, averaging 20,846 fans per game. The Louisville women’s Basketball program finished fifth with 8,256 fans per game. The two programs combined had a total average attendance of 29,102 and that puts Louisville at #1 in the country. Our attendance for women’s basketball was better than five ACC men’s programs Notre Dame, Florida State, Virginia Tech, Clemson, and Miami.
U of L spent most of the 2000s fourth or fifth in average attendance until the KFC Yum Center, with a 22,090 capacity, opened in 2010. The Cardinals have finished third every year since. Freedom Hall officially seated 18,865.
Louisville ranked 5th and was one of the schools that had the most people watch them with 554,803 in 36 games last season in home-away-neutral settings and was one of just three schools to average at least 20,000 fans per game.
The ACC ranked #2 in conference attendance figures with a total of 3,005,685 fans that attended games and an average of 11,257. In Division I, attendance totaled 24,407,410 for the year. Although it was down slightly from a season ago, the attendance is the ninth highest total in history. However, the NCAA tournament total attendance increased. The tournament earned its third-highest attendance in history with 739,798 fans. The record-setting total of 800,377 came in 2012-13.
Kudos to the Cardinal Nation for showing up last season. Let’s do it again this season. Go Cards!
Media Day is a signal that our sports dry spell is almost over Cardinal Fans. Another exciting Louisville Football season is now only weeks away. It’s always great to hear from Coach Petrino, his staff and the players during this time of the year. Especially since the end of last season left most of us with more questions than answers. Talking with these guys on Saturday morning I felt the anticipation and excitement from them to get to Indy and open up the season. Everyone seems very optimistic but did not undersell the hard work they still had ahead of them to get ready.
Raise your hand if you thought that the Cardinal’s offense became too one dimensional at the end of last season. That’s one of the main things that Coach Petrino addressed in the off season. He went out and hired Coach Lonnie Galloway and Mike Summers to be co-offensive coordinators. With the help of Coach Summers the 2006 Cardinals were ranked 2nd in the nation in total offense. He is a mastermind of manufacturing and establishing a run game. Add that with Coach Galloway’s track record of recruiting and producing NFL talent at the wide receiver position the Cardinals could quickly develop into one of the nation’s most versatile offenses this season. It doesn’t hurt that they will have guys like Lamar Jackson and Reggie Bonnafon in the huddle.
Last season also left me wanting to see improvement on the Offensive Line and on the defensive side of the ball. Both units have new coaches and a new look. Both Coach Summers and Coach Sirmon know football and both know how to teach it. You can’t help but not get excited hearing these guys talk about their groups Saturday. And talking with their players you can see how they have bought in.
Much has been said about the performance last year by the Offensive Line… statistically Louisville had one of the worst last season. That criticism didn’t fall on deaf ears and both the players and the coaching staff seem motivated to get things turned around.
Coach Petrino went out and brought back Coach Mike Summers to help improve things on the O-Line. I got a chance to raise my question about the O-Line with Coach Summers yesterday. I feel like we’ve had size and ability but have lacked the intensity and nastiness at times up front. My question got a chuckle from Coach. But I want guys that want to line up and go hit the other team in the mouth.
Coach Summers has a great football mind and knows that it all starts with fundamentals. In listening to him yesterday It seems that he will use that philosophy to bring much needed improvement to his group this season. I think he will have those guys ready to be more physical and playing harder. We will see improvement.
I’ve written a lot and talked a lot about the Cardinals new defensive coordinator Peter Sirmon. This morning at Media Day I could talk to coach and ask him about some of those talking points.
Back during Spring Ball and again when I watched practice on Monday I noticed a buzz about the defensive unit; guys bouncing around more, having fun and keeping it simple. The thing I loved about the Vance Bedford years was how they had guys flying all over the field making plays and just hitting people. And they had fun doing it. Over the last two seasons I feel like the defense got too mechanical and there wasn’t enough freedom within the scheme to just go out and make a play.
Enter Coach Sirmon a guy I think can bring some of that excitement back. Watching his drills, you can see the way he wants his group to be active and by how he instructs you can tell he wants to keep it simple. Sirmon is blue collar football guy like Vance… these guys take Football and make it easy. Go hit somebody, make a play and have fun. You’ll hear me ask Coach Sirmon about this in the video.
Coach Klenakis is an offensive mastermind in his own right. So much so that he has his own three DVD set about the Pistol Offense. Coach Klenakis will use some of that knowledge this season coaching the tight ends. I think his knowledge will help that unit with their blocking assignments in run game and help them with their run after contact ability. Coach Klenakis is a program first, team first kind of guy.
I got to talk with Linebacker James Hearns, DB’s Jaire Alexander and Chucky Williams on Saturday. These guys are the backbone of what will be a very solid defensive group for the Cardinals this season. These three guys have a lot of swagger and they are ready to line up and get after it.
I love Reggie. He is my favorite player on the Louisville Football team and will be one of my favorite players of all-time. A genuine all-American kid. He understands the value of where he grew up, has a strong work ethic and takes pride in the program and himself. I had the opportunity to give him a hug and walk off the field with Reggie after the victory at Notre Dame (https://youtu.be/qCN8yvDDhGk).
I’ll think about that moment in my final days. As a long time, college football fan to have the opportunity to walk off that field and up that ramp after a big victory was surreal. And to watch a freshman QB get that program defining win for his city and his school shortly after losing his father was poetic. Could be a 30 for 30… Reggie Bonnafon is a winner and there isn’t a football program in the country who could’t use a guy like this.
What else is there left to say about Lamar Jackson. He is an elite athlete that has added both size and speed during the off-season. He has also worked on becoming a more complete QB. Having a more versatile offense around him with an established run game and that should make Jackson more dangerous this season than he was during his Heisman campaign. That should scare college football but it hasn’t. There hasn’t been a more disregarded Heisman Trophy winner ever. But that hasn’t fazed this young man and he is determined once again to prove his detractors wrong. This young man impresses me in so many ways but it’s his humble nature that I most admire. He’s not worried about the praise or the spotlight and just wants to help his team win games.
With the sports ultimate individual prize already in his possession there’s only one trophy that is on his mind this season. Talking with Lamar on Saturday morning he thinks that the Cardinals have the team to win a national championship. I’m not ready to make my travel plans just yet but I wouldn’t bet against Lamar Jackson.
The offensive line really did take the brunt of the fault for last seasons failures. And they do deserve a certain level of criticism. But these guys seem to have handled that criticism well and talk like they have really bought into what Coach Summers is trying to teach them. Lukayus McNeil, and Geron Christian are a couple of great young men and big young men. They will be the backbone of a new and improved offensive line this season.
I had a great time out at the first practice of the fall camp today. The first thing I noticed was how the guys seem to have put on a lot of muscle. They say championships are won in the weight room. It was obvious on that practice field today that this team has hit the weight room hard. Reggie Bonnafon’s muscles have muscles… he is a physical specimen folks. It is also obvious that this football team has a lot of athletes. Athletes at the skill positions and on both sides of the football.
There is going to be a lot of beef on the offensive line this season, but we’ve had size. We just haven’t had that nasty size. Our offensive line came off as very soft in several games last season. That should all change with the addition of Coach Summers. This is the guy that will implement that nasty streak. It is fun to watch him interact with his guys in practice. The Louisville offensive line was statistically one of the worst in college football last season. That will change this season.
Have a guy like Lamar Jackson on your team and you are going to win football games. Have a guy like Lamar Jackson on your team with talent and athleticism around him and you are going to win championships. Last season Lamar provided a smoke screen for a team with a lot of problems. Biggest being the offensive line and a defense that was lost. This season instead of having to worry about winning games for his team he will just have to help his team win games. Lamar has also transformed himself physically and has added bulk to his freakishly athletic frame. Get ready for Lamar 2.0 folks…
Driving a car is easy, but when you took your driver’s test and were worrying about all the little details it wasn’t that easy. Coach Grantham was a very good defensive coach but his defense was very detail oriented. Guys were more worried about where they were supposed to be under instead of just making the play. Enter the genius of Coach Sirmon. He is teaching his guys to make plays instead of just being in the position to make plays. His defense is very active and this year’s defense will be on skates flying around all over the field. You can already see the transformation. His defense is going to be less worried about the details and more focused on just kicking tail. More active and less reactive. And his guys are having fun. Another important part in all of this. I didn’t see a defense las season that was having fun.
I could talk about this team for days. I’ve only been excited about a few Louisville Football teams like I am with this one. We are going to enjoy cheering for these guys. After today I wish I was loading up the family and heading to Indy next weekend. Go Cards!
