3 good reasons to fear Louisville

Several points to get to, including a preview of a dangerous Louisville game.

1. I created a ruckus. That was pretty cool. My point was that at a college football game, you don't attack guys on your team. At such a large school, you should expect people to come from all over the nation (and in one of my majors, the world). College football is not pro baseball. I had a USF shirt on, and that is all that matters. The discussion is closed, by the way. I win. Why? Because it's my blog.

2. Big East officiating is terrible. There have been 4 awful calls on the first drive of the WVU-Auburn game. Here they are: first, the fumble was not a fumble. Auburn gained 6 yards from it and had an easy 3rd and 1. Second, the dropped pass was readily apparent to everyone in the stadium except the official. Third, Burns was pressured by Andrews, threw it away, and even Lou Holtz figured out that it was intentional grounding. Again, though, the official didn't see it. And the fourth was the spot on a 3rd down where the RB got about 2 yards he never ran over. The only things missing were a blown pass interference call and missing a fair-catch call (my call- it'll happen tonight).

3. Great sports night: I'm watching the WVU game, the Penguins game, and the Rays game.

4. I put this in a comment at the end of my previous post, but I'll repeat it. The Rays will win in 6. I said they would lose to Hamels in game 1, and then lose once in Philly (probably to Hamels again). I love the Rays as a team, I just don't like the bandwagon. But the Rays drafted amazingly well (really, only the Sox compare, and the Rays have brought up more all-star caliber players and one all-timer in Longoria). And they have the core together, sans BJ Upton, for quite some time. Price looked great in the closing role, but I think he's a starter. Wade Davis may be that guy.

5. USF basketball. I'm terribly afraid of the upcoming season. This team will be awful in the Big East without Gilchrist. With him, not sure if they can crack the top-11. In C-USA, this team would make the NIT. But the Big East is just so good that without more on the frontline (and as long as Chris Howard continues to play matador/brick layer), USF can't compete.

OK, so the rest of this post will focus on football, which is what I'm supposed to focus on in the first place. The Louisville game is terrifying. Why? Because USF isn't good against power running teams. That's a fact I've continued to harp on. 5 losses in two years with the same common theme. Here it is in handy list form for future reference:

1. Rutgers: Ray Rice, 181 yards.
2. UCONN: Andre Dixon, 167 yards.
3. Cincy: Ben Mauk, 7 carries for 75 yards. The outlier in the group.
4. Oregon: Johnathan Stewart, 253 yards.
5. Pitt: Lesean McCoy, 142 yards.

Louisville has three good running backs. You see why I fear them. I'm still picking USF to win, but we won't cover. It'll be close, especially given the pressure that Ron English has been able to fabricate out of nothing. Plus, the tackle-for-loss and sack columns are still sorely unbalanced (in the sense that we aren't doubling our opponents).

Papa John's Cardinal Stadium has been a bit of a graveyard for USF, so history isn't exactly on our side. And the demolition last year will serve as motivation for Louisville. And, as always, I have to question the heart of USF when playing unranked opponents. Why? Because this game looks exactly the Rutgers and UCONN games of last year.

So the other thing I was thinking about -- my favorite USF players since 2004:

1. Andre Hall: Singlehandedly carried USF in 2005 (and was the only reason to pay attention in 2004).
2. Matt Grothe: Most exciting QB in college football.
3. George Selvie: Non-stop hustle.
4. Stephen Nicholas: carried the defense the same way Hall carried the offense.
5. Tyrone McKenzie: best tackler in USF history, overcome a lot, and I had a class with him (4000 level econ!)
6. Ben Williams: Who doesn't like a walk-on? Who doesn't like a strong blocking back?
7. Leroy Selmon the younger: Because he was on a poster in my dorm room.
8. Ben Moffitt: would have been higher, but I have a tough time forgiving the paper thing. Because I did all of my school work.
9. Trae Williams: Mr. TAINT (See Bill Simmons)
10. Mike Jenkins: 2 plays in the Cincy game- the kick return and knocking that guy's helmet 15 yards in the air.

Sorry, Nate Allen, SJ Green, Pat St. Louis, Brouce Mompremier, Walt Walker, Santiago Gramatica, and Amarri Jackson. 

Thoughts? It'd be nice to get the same level of comments I got after the Rays thing, but this time, relate it to football.

Comments

[Clarification]

The WVU Auburn game was officiated by a SEC crew, not a Big East crew.

[G.A.]

That was a sick amount of comments. Impressed.

[Jim]

What 4000 Econ class? I graduated from USF with an Econ degree so I am curious.

[Dave W]

Clarification, thanks. But that makes it seem even worse...

It was either Econ of the EU, with Donny B or Int'l Econ (which is 3713) with Herander. I had both in the same semester and they really ran together. I minored in econ.

[702JV]

Lets not forget Chad Barnhardt for the list of favorite USF players. He helped put us on the map!

[Blake]

One last baseball remark, Wade Davis has way too good of stuff to be in the 'pen for any substantial amount of time. It'd be a waste (although expect to see Niemann there next year if he is still with the Rays).

L'ville does worry me, but I still think we win by simply outscoring them. On the favorite players, I'd go Grothe, Selvie, then Hall...and Selmon, Jr., really?

Oh, and I'm watching the beginning of the Cincy-UConn game, and we will definitely need to be stellar on our punting unit, because Cincy is apparently decently prolific at blocking punts.