2008 Louisville NCAA Football Betting Preview

[Qbins Missile Crisis]

College Preview – Louisville Cardinals

After Bobby Petrino took off for the NFL betting last year, Louisville fell back to the rest of the Big East pack after being a perennial powerhouse.



The season just didn’t play out as expected. Brian Brohn had a mediocre season after he was expected to be a Heisman candidate. The defense completely flopped and Steve Krathorpe found himself on the hot seat only a few weeks into his first year. This program looks like it is going to drop a bit further as it regroups.

Offense

Louisville’s offense went sour last year and with Brohm, Harry Douglas and Mario Urutia off in the NFL, it likely won’t be better.

The losses don’t end there for the offense as they’ll have to replace two starting tight ends as well.

Brohm’s replacing will be Hunter Cantwell, who has some playing experience despite sitting behind Brohm for three years. Cantwell has NFL potential and could shoot up the rankings with a great season.

Although the Cardinals lost five weapons from their passing game, the offense might be as hurt so much if they can find some balance. Last year, the focus was solely on the passing game and the offense became far too predictable.

Cantwell has a strong arm to go downfield when necessary, but expect him to be handing it off quite a bit. The focus has been to make the offense physical upfront with a power-running game.

Bilal Powell and Brock Bolen will bring the power while Victor Anderson should be the chance of pace back.

Overall, the offense should be fine but not as potent as it was in Petrino’s final season.

Defense

The key losses weren’t only limited to the offense: Louisville needs to replace three starting and their top cornernback. So far, not so good.

Between graduations, injuries and dismissals, the Cardinals defense is extremely depleted.

Linebacker is a position which is still wide open with no real legitimate starters vying for jobs. Compelling the problems is a secondary that is very raw. They lack speed, playmakers and athleticism.

The shred of light is the fact that the Cardinals picked up former Michigan defensive coordinator Ron English to run their unit. English did well in Michigan but even he isn’t a miracle work of these proportions.

It’s unlikely that Louisville will be able to compete for a Big East title with a defense like this.

Overview

The common perception is that Louisville’s defense can’t get any worse than last year, but so far there isn’t any indication that it will get better. If that’s the case, the Cardinals are again headed for disappointment.

There are also too many assumptions being made on offense, the biggest one being that it should be able to score as much as last year’s unit, even though there are a number of key losses.

The Cardinals have an easy schedule, which might help them out, but they aren’t on the same level as the top-tier teams in the Big East and could be very vulnerable this year.

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