– The Beak Preview: Louisville vs. Southern Miss

Last week we had the Golden Panthers and this week we stay on the road to face the Golden Eagles.

There are only 26 teams left in college football who have not lost a game. At least two teams will fall from this list after the weekend. One of those undefeated teams is our Louisville Cardinals. They will put that 4-0 record on the line as they travel to Hattiesburg this weekend to face an old foe Southern Miss. These two teams haven’t done battle since the Cardinals defeated the Golden Eagles 31-28 in the 2010 Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Bowl. The Golden Eagles will be primed and ready for this game as they have already schedule it to be a black out and haven’t beaten the Cards since 1999.

Coach Strong:“We’re going on the road for the second-straight week,” “What’s going to be critical for us is that we maintain our focus, emotions and our confidence – play with confidence and compete.” – UofLsports.com

As mentioned above these teams are very old foes. The Cardinals and Golden Eagles were in Conference USA together from 1996-2005 and they first played each other back in 1949. The Golden Eagles hold an 18-10-1 advantage in the series and the Cards are just 3-11 all-time in Hattiesburg. Needless to say that we have seen our fair share of heartbreak in this battle. I just hope we don’t experience one this weekend.

Things are a lot different than they were back in those days as in this meeting the Cardinals come into the game ranked as the 17th best team in the nation, according to the USA Today poll and the 19th ranked team according to the AP poll. Louisville is 4-0 for the first time since 2006 after beating FIU last Saturday, 28-21. While their performance was underwhelming last weekend the young Cards continue to show quite a bit of character and have a very solid team on both sides of the ball. The 0-3 Golden Eagles are off to a rough and bumpy start this season. They have lost all three of their games by double digits including a big loss against Western Kentucky last Saturday 42-17. Unlike the Cards who had most of their main contributors return for this season the Golden Eagles lost a ton to graduation and are facing a re-build.

Coach Johnson:“I think Larry’s obviously left a challenge on some accomplishments, but we’ve got a good bunch of football players we have to work with. I think we had a good recruiting class. We feel good about it right now. We’ve got a little tougher schedule. It’s going to be a lot harder than the last several years.”

This one will be close early as the Golden Eagles will be primed on pure emotion but in the end over-all talent will win out in this battle. Our Cards are a class above anyone else who has romped Southern Miss this season. I look for the Cardinals to run away with this one and Teddy QB will have a huge bounce back game through the air.

The Beak Prediction:
Louisville 45 Southern Miss 10

– The Beak Preview: Louisville vs. Florida International University

This Saturday is where the rubber meets the road for our Louisville Cardinals. Literally. The Cards leave to comforts of Papa Johns Cardinal Stadium and take to the road for a month. The road has been very good to Coach Strong’s teams as the Cards are 7-4 and were 4-2 last season with a very impressive win on the road at West Virginia. It will be very important for them to continue that success during the next 4 weeks.

Coach Strong: “This next month is going to be a really good challenge for us,” “We are going to see just how strong of a football team we are.”

The Cards have been rolling as they take a 3-0 record down to Florida to face the FIU Golden Panthers Saturday. Ironically, the last time these two teams played FIU beat the Cards 24-17 to go to 3-0 on the season. The Cards will bring in an offense that has had its way over the past three weeks as Teddy Bridgewater is currently leading the nation completing his attempts at a nearly 90 percent rate while Senorise Perry and Jeremy Wright are ranked third and fourth respectively in the Big East in rushing yards, combining for 528 yards this season. FIU enters the game off a road loss and have a 1-2 record. They are lead by senior running back Darian Mallary who has scored a team-best five touchdowns this season, including back-to-back games with two rushing TD’s.

The FIU football program has enjoyed success during Mario Cristobal’s tenure as coach. When he arrived at FIU, he inherited a program that had never posted a winning season and didn’t have a weight room or meeting rooms. Now coming off back-to-back bowl appearances, the Golden Panthers boast solid facilities and will play this season in a newly expanded stadium that seats 28,000.

Coach Cristobal on his team: “I think we have a very well-rounded, motivated, explosive football team that really wants to get things started,” Cristobal said. “They’re a very humble team that knows that this conference is as crazy as it gets. It is anybody’s to win. And we want to make sure that we’re in it, and that we’re in it to win it.”

Even though this will be considered a road game, it will be a homecoming of sorts for some of the Cardinal squad as 34 of the 104-man roster are from the Sunshine State. . 21 of the 34 Floridians hail from the South Florida tri-county Region. Miami Northwestern will be a featured high school as both teams have a combined 12 players from that high school on their rosters. This will add a new dimension to the competition as some of these guys played with each other in high school.

Coach Strong: “It will be nice to have the extra fan support while away but this is a business trip.”

Louisville will have revenge on their minds Saturday as this two game series with FIU ends. No doubt in my mind that Teddy QB and company want to return the favor of that loss they suffered last year on national TV to the Panthers. They will also have that dismal second half performance last weekend fresh on their minds. I look for our Cards to have a big day and they will roll to their first 4-0 start since 2006.

The Beak Prediction:
Louisville 38 FIU 14

– THE BEAK PREVIEW: Louisville vs. North Carolina

Our Louisville Cardinal Football team is on a roll. They are 2-0, ranked 19th in the country with big wins over in-state rival Kentucky and FCS member Missouri State. But the question still remains whether or not this Louisville football team is as good as it has appeared in recent weeks. That question is likely to be answered on Saturday as ACC member North Carolina rolls into town. 

Coach Strong: “You look at it, it’s an ACC opponent coming in here that just has some tradition about them. It’s a big football team and they’re going to look good. It has to be a physical game for us.” “This is great test for our program,” “I think this weekend we will find exactly where we are as a football program.”

North Carolina is 1-1 after beating up on Elon in their opener and getting beat by Wake Forest last week. The Tarheels are lead by first year coach Larry Fedora who used to be the head man at Southern Mississippi. Fedora took over the job at UNC after they were hit with a one-year bowl ban and a reduction of 15 scholarships over the next three years for violations involving illegal agent activity, improper benefits and academic fraud. He was able to convince 19 seniors on the roster to stay, even though they were eligible to transfer and play right away under NCAA rules. 

Fedora on his team:  “All we’ve done is come in and try to implement a philosophy, basically, a whole new offense, a whole new defense and a whole new special teams unit,” “We’ve worked hard at doing that. We’re not anywhere close at this time. But I think our guys have an understanding of what we’re trying to get to.”

This is the seventh meeting with UNC in a series tied at three. Last season, the TarHeels defeated Louisville 14-7 in Chapel Hill. The TarHeel defense limited the Cardinals to 273 yards to win a defensive struggle. Louisville missed a pair of field goals in the first half. This is the 11th straight season UNC has faced a Big East opponent. Since 2002, Carolina has played 16 games against Big East teams and is 7-9 in those contests with three consecutive victories.

Strong and Fedora were the defensive and offensive coordinators at Florida from 2003-04. In 2010, with Fedora coaching Southern Mississippi and Strong in his first season at Louisville, the two met in the Beef O’Brady’s Bowl with the Cardinals rallying for a 31-28 win.

UNC will come into Papa Johns Saturday energized by their high-octane new coach with his aggressive new offensive and defensive schemes. And the Cardinals will be fired up bringing in the momentum of a 2-0 record and a 19th ranking in the AP poll. This should be a great game and a great battle.

The Beak Prediction:
UofL 24 UNC 17

– THE BEAK PREVIEW: Louisville vs. Missouri St

Our Cardinals had no trouble in the home opener last weekend against instate rival Kentucky. And now its time to move on to the next opponent Missouri St. Missouri St gave Kansas St all they wanted last weekend for 3 quarters of football. They appeared primed to pull off a major upset tied 9-9 midway through the third quarter at then No. 22 Kansas State. However, the Bears gave up 35 points in the fourth en route to a 51-9 loss.

Here are a few things to consider:

The Bears and Cardinals have never met on the football field; Saturday’s meeting will also be the first for Missouri State against a Big East foe. I will play devils advocate and say that anything can happen Saturday, and we all know that Louisville had their share of difficulties against lesser opponents last season. However, a sign of growth and maturity for this team would be to handle the teams it should, particularly with a game against North Carolina looming. I think this Cardinal team is destine for greatness and will get the job done.

Score Prediction:
Louisville 55 Missouri St 7

– THE BEAK Governor’s Cup Preview: Louisville is back at home and looking for 2 in a row over Kentucky

This Sunday our Louisville Cardinals  will square off against the Kentucky Wildcats in the classic instate rivalry game in Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium. The game starts at 3:30 p.m. ET on ESPN. With a 24-17 win last year the Cardinals will be looking for their 2nd in a row over the Cats. The last time UofL won two in a row in this series was in 05 and 06.

Since the inception of the Governor’s Cup in 1994, each team has recorded a maximum of a four-game winning streak with Louisville winning from 2003-06 and Kentucky taking the Cup home from 2007-10. The Cardinals’ win last year prevented Kentucky from winning the Governor’s Cup for a record fifth-straight year. Kentucky leads the all-time series with a record of 14-10. U of L has lead the series since 1994 with a record of 10-8. The Cards go into this game listed as a double-digit favorite by many of the Las Vegas sports books.

(QUARTERBACKS)

(RUNNING BACKS & O-LINE)

(RECEIVERS)

(DEFENSE)

(SPECIAL TEAMS)

On paper, it looks to me like Louisville has an advantage with linebackers, offensive line, defensive backs, wide receivers, and running backs. Louisville also has the advantage at the quarterback position with home field. These are two big ones.The only advantage that I would give to Kentucky in this game is on the defensive line and in the kicking game. These are slight advantages in my opinion.

The Battle of the Bluegrass really shouldn’t be that much of a battle at all. These are two programs going in very different directions. But in these rivalry games you never really know for sure as UK found out last year.

The Beak’s Prediction:
Louisville 27 Kentucky 10
Louisville will win the Governor’s Cup for the second straight year

The Beak’s Pediction for the
Howard Schnellenberger Award:

My prediction for the award this year is QB Teddy Bridgewater who will finish 17 of 24 for 198 yards with one rushing TD. I believe he will win this award due to his game management.

The 2010 game was the inaugural year for the award. The award is given to the Most Valuable Player of the game. It is named for Howard Schnellenberger, who played under Bear Bryant for Kentucky and coached at Louisville.
Previous winners:
-(9-04-2010) Derrick Locke, RB@ Kentucky had 23 Carries, 104 Yards, for 2 TD’s
-(9-17-2011) Dexter Heyman, LB@ Louisville had 12 Tackles & 1 Forced Fumbles