The 2013-14 Cardinal Football season was one of the most anticipated seasons that I have been involved with. A year of transition that brought high hopes of another BCS Title game and one that some thought could land the Cardinals into the National Title game. Although those things didn’t happen Cardinal fans still had much to cheer for and cheer they did. All seven home games this season were sold out. Fans poured into Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium to watch Teddy throw for over 3500 yards and 28 touchdowns in his last season as a Cardinal and got to see a defense that was one of the best in the country. Once again it’s been a great ride since last spring.

-9/1/13 Louisville vs. Ohio
The 9th ranked Louisville Cardinals and their lofty expectations welcomed the Ohio Bobcats to town to kick things off for the 2013 season. Louisville fans were out in full force for what may have been the biggest Card March in school history. The atmosphere that day in Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium had the feel of a big time program and the Cardinals would perform as such. On this day Ohio learned that big time football had arrived in Louisville. Right out of that gate Teddy was 9 for 9 on his first two drives for 122 yards, and hooked up with Damian Copeland for two 2 touchdowns. The onslaught would continue as Teddy would throw for four touchdowns in the first half. He would finish with five on the day. The key was his ability to connect on 3rd downs as he was 8 for 8 with 7 first downs and two touchdowns on third down. It was toss and catch all day long with Copeland, Parker, Clark, De La Cruz, and Christian against the Ohio D. Teddy said he felt “like a kid in a candy store” with all the weapons. Cards won 49-7.

-9/7/13 Louisville vs. EKU
The atmosphere in Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium was awesome as just over 53,000 fans showed up for the 12:00pm kickoff. It was the 5th largest crowd ever to watch a game. Pretty impressive numbers considering that it was against a FCS opponent. The now ranked 7th ranked Cardinals made took care of business against the Eastern Kentucky Colonels 44-7. They built a huge 37-0 lead behind the play quarterback Teddy Bridgewater who was 23-32 for 397 yards and 4 TD’s. Bridgewater hooked up with DeVante Parker 5 times for 134 yards and 2 TDs and was led in rushing by Senorise Perry who had an average day with only 36 yards, but blocked well and reached the end zone himself. On Defense, the Cardinals dominated up front from the beginning and would have pitched the shutout if not for letting their reserves get some playing time late in the game. The Cardinals finished with 475 yards of offense to Eastern Kentucky’s 206.

-9/14/13 Louisville vs. Kentucky
Heading into the game against Kentucky Louisville fans had high hopes for how the Cardinals would perform in the Governor’s Cup. And although it was a hard fought victory some came away feeling like this team had some work to do. Louisville entered this contest after moving to 2-0 with a convincing win over in-state EKU. The Cardinals high offense racked up 492 yards and was once again led by the play of quarterback Teddy Bridgewater who threw for 250 yards and a TD. It was his lowest statistical outing of the early season. Senorise Perry added 9 yards a carry on his way to 100 yards and two TD’s and DeVante Parker managed a TD despite a low yardage day. It was the strong play of the Louisville defense that shined brightest on this day holding Kentucky to a season low in points and just 376 yards of total offense. The Louisville defense now ranked 4th in the nation in points allowed at 9.0 per game. The Cards keep the Governor’s Cup for the third consecutive year and this game now moves to Thanksgiving Day weekend.

-9/21/13 Louisville vs. FIU
Fresh off another impressive win, the undefeated, 7th ranked Louisville Cardinals played host to the 0-3 Florida International Panthers. This game had over by halftime written all over it, and it played out like that as the Cards demolished Florida International 72-0. It was so bad that the FIU coaching staff asked for the running clock rule, but did deny it later. Bridgewater led the way throwing for 212 yards and 4 TD’s with no picks. He connected with DeVante Parker twice in the first half as the Cardinals built a 38-0 lead at the break. The Louisville defense was dominant as well, locking down FIU to an eye popping 30 total yards. FIU was pretty much three and out all game long and were only able to muster 3 yards on the ground. The Cardinals defense now ranks 1st in the country at 6.8 points per game for opponents. Bridgewater and the high octane offense ranks 8th with a 48 ppg average.

-10/5/13 Louisville vs. Temple
The 4-0 and 7th ranked Louisville Cardinals headed to Philadelphia for their first AAC match-up and took care of business in easy fashion with a 30-7 win. The Cardinals went to work early as Teddy Bridgewater threw to Gerald Christian for a TD. The Louisville defense took over from there as the unit forced a first half turnover and routinely gave the offense solid field position on their way to a 24-0 lead at the half. The Owls finished with just 255 total yards of offense and most gained during the garbage time when the game was out of reach. Bridgewater continued his strong play with 348 yards and 2 TDs on the day with no picks. With the Owls focusing their attention on DeVante Parker, Eli Rogers led the Cardinals in receiving with 77 yards and a TD on 5 catches. The Cardinals added 177 yards on the ground by committee with Dominique Brown’s 76 yards leading the way. With the win, the Cardinals now boast a nation’s best scoring defense 6.8 ppg and the 12th ranked scoring offense at 44.4 ppg.

-10/10/13 Louisville vs. Rutgers
This series came to an end on this night and the Cards went out on top winning their 4th straight over the Knights 24-10. The Cardinals were a little sluggish initially before Teddy Bridgewater connected with De La Cruz for a 34 yard TD and Senorise Perry punched one in to give Louisville a commanding 17-7 halftime lead. That is the entire cushion the top ranked Louisville scoring defense would need. Routine pressure and strong coverage by the Cardinals DB’s resulted in 4 Gary Nova interceptions and plenty of good field position for Teddy Bridgewater and company. Teddy finished the game with 310 yards, 2 touchdowns and 1 interception and Senorise Perry had a game high 104 yards on the ground with a touchdown as well. The end of this series for the foreseeable future was kind of bittersweet as there were many great moments.

-10/18/13 Louisville vs. UCF
What was supposed to be and had been up until this game a dream season for the Louisville football program became a Knightmare on Floyd Street as the Cardinals would lose to Central Florida 38-35. Louisville was favored in this contest and looked as though they were going to run away with the game as they built a 28-7 lead early before UCF turned on the gas for a late rally. Louisville gave up 21 points in the final 4:50 of the 3rd quarter as the Knights took advantage of turnovers and rode Storm Johnson to tie the score. A Dominique Brown run made it 35-31 Louisville before the knights marched down the field and scored on a 2 yard pass to win it with :23 remaining. Teddy Bridgewater threw for 241 yards and 2 touchdowns with no picks but the Cardinals were undone by two costly fumbles. Eli Rogers led all receivers with 10 catches and 95 yards and a touchdown. With this loss, Louisville remained in the hunt for the conference title but now would be avid fans of UCF’s opponents week in and week out moving forward.

-10/26/13 Louisville vs. USF
The now 6-1 Cardinals still feeling the effects from a disappointing loss looked to rebound as they traveled to South Beach for this one. They would do so in a big way beating the Bulls 34-3. Louisville broke this one open early and never looked back as Teddy Bridgewater connected with Damian Copeland and Gerald Christian before the half on long touchdowns. Bridgewater finished the night with 344 yards, 3 td’s and no picks. Dominique Brown led all rushers with 126 yards on the ground and the Cardinals offense racked up 483 total yards while smothering South Florida to just 133 total yards for the contest. It was during this game that the Louisville offense started to look slightly different than it had in the early part of the season. It would become more of a methodical approach instead of a wide open one.

-11/8/13 Louisville vs. UCONN
The Cardinals now ranked 19th in the country would travel to face a winless Huskies team in this one. The Cardinals built a 28-3 lead early in the third quarter and were never challenged in this one beating the Huskies 31-10. Louisville limited UConn to just 237 total yards and forced 5 Connecticut turnovers on the night. Additionally, the Cardinals held UConn to just 10 points. This was right on their season average for points per game yielded and a stat that ranked first in all of college football. If there was one negative to work on, the aggressive Louisville defense largely contributed to a whopping 101 penalty yards.

-11/16/13 Louisville vs. Houston
It was a beautiful November evening for the first night game in Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium in 5 years. The Cards started off slow but got things going in the second half to beat the Cougars 20-13. Most thought this one would be a shoot-out but the theme would be the ground and pound. The Cardinals were led by tailback Dominique Brown who rushed for 137 yards and 2 TD’s on 27 carries. Teddy Bridgewater was pretty well contained all day and turned in his most pedestrian performance of the season throwing for just over 200 yards and no touchdowns/interceptions. Louisville’s defense did their part as well, holding John O’Korn and the explosive Houston passing attack to just 121 yards through the air. The Cardinals controlled a 16 minute advantage in time of possession and limited Houston to just 195 total yards.

-11/23/13 Louisville vs. Memphis
Cardinal Football fans said good-bye to another football season at Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium and said good-bye to another group of seniors. And for the first time since 2007 they got to see them go out on a winning note beating the Tigers 24-17. This game was a bit sluggish and at times wasn’t very exciting to watch but the Cards got it done behind the play of some guys that had stepped up big all year long. Teddy Bridgewater threw for 220 yards and a touchdown in what would be his final home game. Bridgewater targeted 10 receivers in finishing 26 of 36 and his big receivers of the day were senior Damian Copeland and junior DeVante Parker. These guys would combine for 94 yards and Parker had one touchdown grab. Louisville out-gained Memphis 342-279 in total offense with 122 yards of that coming on the ground. Senior Senorise Perry and junior Dominique Brown combined for 105 yards. Brown had one touchdown on the day. The Cardinal Defense had stepped up all season and at this point was the only one in college football that hadn’t allowed a 1st quarter TD and was ranked #2 in the nation.

-12/5/13 Louisville vs. Cincinnati
The final game of the regular season was also the final game in a great rivalry. For the second time in five years, the Cards laid their claws on the Keg of Nails trophy beating the Bearcats in overtime 31-24. Not since October 14, 2006 and October 13, 2007 had UofL beaten the Bearcats in back to back years. The running game with Perry (81 yards) and Brown (79 yards, 1 touchdown) did its part on this night and kept enough pressure on the Bearcats to keep the passing game open and that is where Louisville had several big play moments.
Teddy Bridgewater in what is probably his last game of the regular season as a Louisville Cardinals was part QB and part escape artist last night scrambling and breaking tackles. It was Mr. Clutch, who would throw two touchdowns in the fourth quarter to give Louisville a chance to win in overtime. The play of the night by Teddy was when he escaped three tacklers for a 14 yard scramble on fourth-and-12 to keep one touchdown drive going, and finished it by scrambling away from defenders and throwing an off-balance pass for a 22-yard score to Damian Copeland. Copeland (35 yards, 1 touchdown) and Parker (104 yards, 2 touchdowns) both came up big in the receiving game like they have so many times in big games for the Cardinals. These teams traded blow for blow like great rivals should but it was the Cards who dealt the knock-out punch in overtime when Dominique Brown ran 2 yards for a touchdown. You couldn’t have scripted this last regular season performance as a Louisville Cardinal for Teddy Bridgewater any better. His 255 passing yards put him over 3,500 passing yards (3,523) for the second year in a row. He now has 9,370 career yards.

So here we are Cardinal fans heading into the 13th bowl appearance in the last 16 years. It may not be the National Title game or a BCS Bowl but for the Cardinal Program and the fans it still means a lot. We made it through our transition year and now will embark on what will be a game changer for the Louisville football program. We won’t have to wait until next September to play our first ACC opponent. The Cards will play Miami on Saturday to kick off what will surely be the first of many battles between these teams. This game has so many story-lines. From the Godfather of both programs Howard Schnellenberger who went 41-16 at Miami, winning the ’83 national title and went 54-56-2 at Louisville, winning the ’91 Fiesta Bowl. To what has previously been named one of the top recruiting battles in the country, and the current coaching/player’s connection between these schools this one has got it all. There will be 23 Louisville players from Miami-Dade county featured in this Bowl game.

Coach Strong: “This is a special game from both sides because they all know one another. From Teddy to their players. It’s just special.”

This will be the first game played between these teams since 2006, when the Cards beat the visiting Canes 31-7. The teams also met in 2004, with Miami winning that one 41-38. Miami leads the all-time series, 9-1-1. With this game set Louisville and Miami will end their seasons and start their seasons next year playing each other. The Canes are 9-3 on the season. The Cards will bring in an 11-1 record. The game on December 28th is set up to be a great one.

University of Miami
2013 OVERALL FBS RANKINGS, PASSING YARDS 274.3 29th Overall, RUSHING YARDS 172.5 63rd Overall, POINTS FOR 35.9 26th Overall, POINTS AGAINST 26.0 59th Overall

Miami is 11-3 in its last 14 games under head coach Al Golden and he has them heading out of their dark days. This is a team that has a good run and pass balance on offense and they love to hit teams with the long ball. Their Senior quarterback Stephen Morris is the only QB in the FBS with a pass of 50+ yards in nine different games this season and he also leads the FBS with 3 passes of 80+ yards this season. Throwing for (2868 yards with 21 touchdowns) this season Morris is a QB with all of the physical gifts, but has been prone to the mental mistakes with 12 interceptions.
The Miami passing game doesn’t feature and elite receiver but they offset that by rolling out five or six quality receivers in a deep rotation, giving Morris and this passing game enough weapons to find continued success. The leaders of their receiving corps are Allen Hurns who has (1138 yards with 6 touchdowns), and Stacy Coley who has (559 yards with 7 touchdowns). These guys are followed by Herb Waters (406 yards with 5 touchdowns), Phillip Dorsett (272 yards with 2 touchdowns), and Dallas Crawford (149 yards with 1 touchdown). They also have some good options at TE with Clive Walford (372 yards with 2 touchdowns), and Juco transfer Beau Sandland (94 yards with 1 touchdown).
Their running game hasn’t been the same since losing Duke Johnson, but they still have a couple of solid guys that will carry the load in the Bowl game. Dallas Crawford leads this group with (523 yards with 12 touchdowns) and is followed by Gus Edwards (300 yards with 4 touchdowns), and Eduardo Clements with (194 yards).
Blocking for these skill players is one of the premiere Offensive lines in the country. Their coach Art Kehoe called this group his best, his strongest, deepest, and most talented since the 2001 team, which contained perhaps the most underrated offensive line of the last 25 years of college football. This offensive line features three for sure pro players.

For all of the story-lines in this game one of the most intriguing match-ups and perhaps the battle of this game will happen in the trenches between their great offensive line and the Cardinals #2 ranked defense that is led by a few future pros as well in the #2 sack leader in the country Marcus Smith and the #18 sack leader in Lorenzo Mauldin. The Louisville DB’s will have to be on their toes also as they will be threatened with the long ball all night. Whoever wins that battle in the trenches will more than likely be raising the trophy over their heads at the end of this game.

This Miami defense is much improved from the one they put on the field last year and they are older and a lot wiser. Miami has the speed, talent and athleticism on this side of the ball but it means nothing when your corner-backs are out of position, your defensive ends impotent and your linebackers are quick but frantic which has been the case for them this season at times. This passing defense ranks 72nd allowing 233 yards per game, rushing defense ranks 80th allowing 182 yards per game, and ranking 78th in total defense allowing a total of 415 yards per game. Per ESPN the Hurricanes ranked 15th nationally in turnovers gained (27), but they were otherwise very ineffective on defense. Miami allowed value drives, drives that move into scoring range by crossing the 30-yard line, on 43.6 percent of opponent possessions. That ranked 93rd nationally, and the bottom 40 teams in that metric averaged only 3.3 FBS wins.
We got to see the big plays and got to see the Louisville high octane offense featured in the last game of the season in Cincinnati. I think Teddy and company will be ready to take to the air again in this one. The Cardinals running game should be able to find plenty of room against their rush defense as well.

The most important thing to remember is that the guys on both sides of the field in this game will not only be playing for their respective teams but they will also be playing for that Miami pride. A lot of these guys know each other and each of them have a great deal of pride in their abilities. It will be like playground football on that field Saturday each guy trying to outwork, outdo and out-hustle the other. Both teams will want this game badly and you will see what will be the birth of a great conference rivalry of the future.
This is going to be fun to watch and fun for the players to compete in. Whomever loses this game won’t have to wait very long to get revenge as these teams will open the ACC 2014 season. I think this one is going to be a great ending to what will be an exciting day of sports for Louisville fans. I do think the Cardinal defense has been the story of the 2013 season for our Cards and I really think it will come up big again on Saturday. Our Cards will win this game and Teddy Bridgewater will ride out on a Miami sunset with another MVP and Bowl trophy. Enjoy this one Cardinal fan as it will mark the beginning of a new birth of sorts for the football program and it will also be a game where we will say good-bye to a group of guys that got us there. GO CARDS!