 "Photo: Associated Press")
Louisville football has used the last three seasons to build its national reputation. It took just five games for that reputation to vanish.
Since 2004, the Cardinals have gone 32-5 and have become one of college football's elite programs. However, much of that had to do with current Atlanta Falcons and former Cardinal head coach Bobby Petrino and not with current Cardinal coach Steve Kragthorpe.
Petrino left Louisville last season after a conference championship and No. 6 ranking in the final polls. More importantly, he left a potential Heisman trophy-winning quarterback in Brian Brohm and a cupboard full of enough talent to help the Cardinals garner a Top 10 pre-season ranking. Those talks ended abruptly when Kragthorpe's Cardinals dropped early games to Kentucky and Syracuse.
The loss to Kentucky was damaging to their national title hopes, and the loss to Syracuse not only ended thoughts of a BCS bout, it also forced Louisville out of the national picture entirely. Syracuse snapped the Cardinals' 20-game home-winning streak and exposed the Cardinal defense.
Five games into the 2007 season, the Cardinals have lost half the number of games lost in the previous three seasons combined. This was supposed to be the year the Cardinals made the national championship picture their own portrait, but instead they have spilled paint all over their football program.
Sitting at 3-2, the Cardinals will try to salvage the rest of their season against Utah this Friday at Papa John's Cardinal Stadium.
"We have got to hang together and continue to fight," Kragthorpe said. "We have to continue to stare adversity in the face and knock it down."
Louisville will be bringing one of the best offenses in the nation to the field. Nationally, the Cardinals rank second in total offense and seventh in scoring offense and are capable of scoring points in bunches. Big bunches.
"They have weapons throughout -- they are very explosive," said Utah defensive coordinator Gary Andersen.
The Cardinal offensive unit has depth and talent at all skill positions, but the offense is truly based on the continuous development of superstar quarterback Brian Brohm. The senior signal caller could have left for the NFL as a junior and been a first round pick. It is a good thing for Louisville fans that he chose to stay. Nationally, Brohm currently ranks third in total offense and third in passing yards per game. Brohm has been the sparkplug for the limited success the Cardinals have had this season.
"He has got a fantastic arm -- he can make every throw on the football field, and he is extremely smart," Andersen said.
Although Louisville is not the national power the Utes expected to be playing at the beginning of the year, they are not taking the Cardinals' offensive firepower or their win-loss record lightly.
"They are a very good football team," Andersen said. "They are the second-rated offense in the nation and score 50 points a game. It speaks for itself."
The Cardinals enter Friday's game after coming off an important road win against N.C. State and look to begin a new home-winning streak against Utah. The Cardinals have not lost back-to-back home games since 1999. Louisville has never beaten Utah, with losses in 1997 and 1998, but that was before its ascent to national prominence and entry into the Big East.
m.gill@chronicle.utah.edu
