I hadn’t seen this Louisville team on a football field since last November. The only thing colder than the seats at Cardinal Stadium that night were the player’s hearts towards the program.

That along with the clowns dancing around on our logo at the 50 yard line with their L’s down was the low point for me. My beloved program had hit rock bottom.

Things were really dark on 2800 S. Floyd Street when Coach Satterfield and his staff rolled in. Coach Satterfield said that goal #1 was to put his arms around the team and love on them. During the spring, thru the summer and this fall, we witnessed that.

Crazy what a little love can do…

I had never seen a player more isolated and disconnected than Jawon Pass was at the end of last season. Monday night I saw a player out on that field giving it his best for his team and for the name on the front of the jersey. He never hung his head. More importantly, I saw a player who had confidence in the name on the back of the jersey again. Jawon led a few great drives down the field rushing for touchdowns of 8 and 17 yards in the first quarter. There was a Puma sighting.

The Cardinals had the worst defense in the country last season. I hadn’t seen any real pop out of a Louisville defense since 2014. The clickity-clack is back. Those big stops on third down were awesome. It was that stop on 4th and 1 that really stood out. The D line/linebackers shut those gaps down. LB Rodjay Burns second in tackles with 6. And the secondary was on skates. My son kept hearing Russ Yeast name and smiling. He’d say. ”Dad that’s ur name”. Russ led the team with 6.5 tackles. You couldn’t even hear the third-down music because the crowd was so loud. Been a long time since the D had the place rocking like that.