ericcrawford

[ericcrawford]

At Louisville, Brohm's QB reputation draws a crowd

You don’t always have to rifle the stat sheets to determine a coach’s reputation as a quarterback guru. At Louisville, you just need to look at the crowd in the quarterback room. In an age when few players seem willing to sit for any length of time, no fewer than 9 would-be gunslingers are taking QB reps during Jeff Brohm’s first preseason in Louisville, even after he added a presumptive starter in veteran Jack Plummer.

It speaks not only to his ability to put together high-octane passing attacks, but to the success he’s had preparing players to make the most of NFL opportunities when they have gotten them. Brohm’s offenses have ranked in the Top 25 in FBS in passing in 8 of his 9 seasons as a head coach, often without household names throwing or catching the passes. He has molded guys like Mike White (WKU) into QBs who could make the most of NFL starting chances. David Blough (Purdue) has a chance to be the opening week starter in Arizona, and 2023 Las Vegas Raiders draftee Aidan O’Connell (Purdue) has turned heads in his first preseason games.

For Plummer, familiarity was just one of the reasons he transferred from California to rejoin Brohm at Louisville. He played 4 seasons for Brohm at Purdue, appearing in 21 games with 13 starts over the final 3.

“Well, a lot of it is the system and it's a great system,” Plummer said. “The plan is very quarterback-friendly. I mean every quarterback he's had back to Western Kentucky has played in the NFL and some are still playing in the NFL. That's something that's drawn me. My goals are to play at the next level and I think that this a this place will help me do that. Being at California was good for me, just getting a lot of game experience, starting all 12 games and learning that way, now coming back to a system that I know and like playing in, with familiarity with the coaches. I think it was a good decision.“ Jeff’s younger brother Brian, Louisville’s QB coach and co-offensive coordinator, says they’re glad to have someone who is deeply familiar with the system in their first year at Louisville. “It's showtime for Jack,” Brohm said. “It's his sixth year. He's been a starter in multiple programs, done a really good job, both Purdue and at Cal. He's a veteran guy and I think he's kind of earned that right. . . . He's really smart. He understands football, understands coverages defenses, fronts, blitzes -- to the point where he can correct us coaches sometimes where he sees something. . . . He's got good athleticism. He's got good size, good pocket awareness and he throws a good football. So, he has a lot of the traits that you're looking for in your quarterback. We're always working on being consistently accurate. That's one thing we're always trying to improve.”

Brohm's system: "Quarterback friendly"

If you’re looking for how Jeff Brohm differs as a quarterback-friendly coach than, say, Scott Satterfield, who left Louisville for Cincinnati after last season, there’s no one better to ask than Brock Domann. He started 4 games for the Cardinals last season, and is back in the club’s crowded QB room this year.

“There’s a lot more reading involved,” Domann said. “Last year in Satt’s offense, it was very strict. Like, 1-2-3 to 4, where in this offense we still have reads, but there’s a little more flexibility of like, ‘Hey, make a play. Get the first down.’ There’s a little more allowing you to see it differently. Because, both (Brohms) being quarterbacks they understand that my vantage point is different from anyone else’s. You know, one’s in the booth and one’s on the sideline, but you’re on the field and they just want you to take over. I really love that. I think you’re going to see a really high level of quarterback play because of that freedom.”

Dohman said he got very comfortable with Satterfield’s more structured system, but is re-settling into Brohm’s allowing QBs to “play more free.”

Brady Allen is another quarterback who followed Brohm to Louisville from Purdue. The 6-5, 215-pound redshirt freshman from Fort Branch, Ind., says Brohm asks a lot of his quarterbacks.

“You’ve got to have toughness, you know, you’ve got to be smart,” Allen said. “I think his big three things are, smart, tough and accurate. And I think, you know, you look at everybody in NFL and those, those traits are very, very common. And they’re the three big traits he demands of us.”

The Brohm Playbook: "An answer for everything"

His playbook also is demanding. That lone was a shock for returning players, and for those who transfered in. Harrison Bailey, a 6-5, 225 transfer from UNLV who also played at Tennessee said that Brohm’s reputation, and some ties to players on the roster, brought him to Louisville.

“I would say coach Jeff and coach Brian are masterminds of college football,” Bailey said. “There’s an answer for everything. We have so many plays, it’s ridiculous – more than I’ve ever even learned in my time. But we literally have an answer for everything, so whatever they throw at us, we should have an answer for.”

Brian Brohm said the complexity of the playbook can play dividends.

“We’re an NFL-style system” he said. “When I say that, I mean we’re going to be multiple. We’re going to have different formations, different personnel, and we’re going to change things up week to week. And our guys have to learn that – why we’re doing it, how we’re attacking a defense. There are systems out there that aren’t as complex. Everyone has their own way of doing it. But we like to have a lot of different ways that we can attack a defense. So we have a lot of different stuff; therefore our guys have to learn a lot of football.”

Jeff Brohm played for Dennis Lampley at Trinity, then Howard Schnellenberger at Louisville. He went to the NFL and played for Bobby Ross in San Diego, and went to a Super Bowl. With Washington a year later, he played for Norv Turner. In San Francisco he played for George Seifert and Steve Mariucci. A year later he went to Tampa Bay and played behind Trent Dilfer for head coach Tony Dungy. In 1999, he played for Mike Shanahan in Denver.

Those are some high powered mentors, and some great offensive minds. In the college game, he learned from Bobby Petrino.

“You take a little from every stop, and you mold it to make it your own,” Brohm said. “And you try to take a guy with some ability, and put a system around him that can make him successful.”

That’s what he’s hoping to do with Plummer this season.

The closest thing Brohm has likely ever had to a young phenom was his brother, Brian, who now is Louisville’s quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator. Brian was drafted by the Green Bay Packers. He has the advantage of having played for his brother, so he knows the demands on the quarterbacks he’s coaching.

And the pair might have something of a phenom in 4-star prospect Pierce Clarkson, who missed most of spring with a foot injury but has shown some impressive flashes in preseason camp.

“Pierce was here in the spring but didn't get the reps,” Brohm said. “So now he's getting the reps to go along with that. He's done a really good job in the meeting rooms of knowing what to do answering questions. So, he's very in tune that way and now we just need to get him on the field and let him go out there and execute.”

As the season approaches, the quarterback room brings an impressive comfort level to Louisville coaches. In a first season – at any school – that’s a luxury.

[ericcrawford]

March Madness Diary: Day 1

As March began in 2019, I was still editing photos from the last Day of February -- which was a perfect prelude to the rush of excitement, travel and memories that this time of year can bring in these parts -- especially if you’re a basketball fan.

Asia Durr scored 47 points to lead Louisville past the No. 10-ranked team in the nation -- North Carolina State, in a 30-point victory. I’d say they’re ready for March, though I suspect they carry more pressure than just about any other team around here, having returned all but one key player from a Final Four team, and in a conference that likely will place four Top 10 caliber teams in its conference tournament semifinals.

This time of year is a high-point every year, no matter who does what locally. It’s the culmination of a lot of work, and has its own rites of passage.

The flurry of end-of-season and conference tournaments, followed quickly by Selection Sunday, then the scramble of travel plans and quick getaways for the tournament.

My goal this year is to bring a little bit of this to you on a daily basis. Not so much what happens in front of the cameras, what you all may see on TV or read about, but what i experience or notice off to the side.

I’m not sure how long the Louisville women’s basketball team stayed in the KFC Yum! Center Thursday night to sign autographs for the thousands of people who waited in the concourse, but they probably came pretty close to ringing in the month of March doing just that.

It was a fitting start.

[ericcrawford]

Bring on UConn: Louisville women look ahead after routing Pitt without Durr

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- With Jeff Walz resting Asia Durr and his No. 4-ranked University of Louisville women’s basketball team facing No. 3 Connecticut on Thursday, a Sunday afternoon game against rebuilding Pittsburgh had all the makings of one that the Cardinals might overlook.

They didn’t. After falling behind 2-0 in the first minute of the game, Louisville would not give up another basket for 15:33. They outscored Pitt 39-4 in that stretch, led 41-12 at half and, after losing interest during parts of the second half, walked away with a 70-42 victory.

On the sidelines, Walz was anything but happy for much of the second half, shuttling subs in and out at just about every mistake.

“The first half was fantastic,” Walz said. “I was really impressed with us. We gave up zero second-chance points and two offensive rebounds, because we tried. . . . It was really impressive. . . . And then in the second I guess our players just decided to do what they thought was good. And that didn’t work out very well. . . . (Pitt) had seven second-chance points in the third quarter and scored four of their first five possessions.”

At one point, in a classic Walz pose, the coach sat with his head buried in his hands, his team up 25 midway through the third quarter. But Walz wasn’t thinking about the score or opponent. He was thinking about the kind of execution and discipline that will required Thursday against UConn – and beyond.

“If you want to be great, you can’t play the scoreboard,” he said. “You have to keep grinding and battling for 40 minutes. Now that’s tough. But that’s what the great teams do, and that’s what I’m challenging our group to do. . . . I told the players they’re going to watch the game, and they’re going to give us the breakdown of how they played and what they think they need to work on.”

They’re also going to need Durr at 100 percent and playing well. But Walz foresees no problem in that department. She sat as a precaution. She had complained of a sore knee last week, and Walz just wanted to give her time to rest a bit. Because of this week’s UConn game, Louisville will have only one bye week in conference play. He had the luxury of resting her, and took advantage of it.

“She warmed up,” Walz said. “If we had needed her, she would have played. But I just thought it was the best thing. . . . She’s been playing a ton of minutes for us.”

Before a KFC Yum! Center crowd of 10,067, Louisville got 16 points and seven rebounds from Dana Evans and 12 points and seven boards from Kylee Shook.

Louisville overwhelmed Pitt with defensive pressure for the entire first half, gave up only three field goals, and rebounded all but two of the Panthers’ misses. Turnovers helped stall the Cardinals in the second half, but the ACC door was cracked open a bit by Notre Dame’s loss to North Carolina. Now, N.C. State sits alone and unbeaten in league play.

But for now, all eyes turn to a non-conference test for the Cardinals, who are 1-17 against the Huskies, and haven’t beaten them in Walz’z tenure. A year ago, they lost 69-59 in Storrs, Conn.

Walz said his players will be up for the game, but he doesn’t think they’ve spent much time thinking about it up to now.

“I don’t think they’ve thought about it until today, because we’ve had so many games to worry about, you just play them one at a time,” Walz said. “But we’ll be excited, no question about it. UConn’s going to be excited. It’s going to be a big game for both of us. I’m hoping to be able to get 16,000-18,000 in this place and have a great environment and hopefully we play well and they play well and it’s a great game for women’s basketball. It’s a team we’re like, 0-62 against, since I’ve been here. There’s a lot of excitement about it, but at the same time no matter what happens on Thursday, we’ve got to turn around in a quick turnaround to go play at Clemson on Saturday.”

Copyright 2019 WDRB Media. All Rights Reserved.

[ericcrawford]

Calipari says Pitino and UK fans should bury the Big Blue hatchet

Rick Pitino has moved on with life, to some degree. He still wants to coach. You’d better believe, he still can coach. More than a year after his firing by the University of Louisville, no smoking gun has been discovered, no witness to say he orchestrated many of the things for which he is being punished.

If anything, he is in basketball exile because a program imploded – off the court – on his watch. That’s enough for most athletics directors and general managers to be wary. And that's quite understandable.

Maybe time will ease that reluctance. In the meantime, he is doing a podcast (latest guest, Lesley Visser), he is visiting programs that invite him to come in, meeting with coaches and players, and waiting for lifelines back into the game.

Who would have thought, one such overture would come from Kentucky? The school honored the 1993 Final Four team during Saturday’s victory over Utah. Two key people from that group, however, were missing. Jamal Mashburn couldn’t come. And Rick Pitino had some family things going on and couldn’t come. But there’s also been some concern in the past over whether he should.

It’s a tough decision. Do you go back, knowing that whatever the crowd’s response is – good or bad – is going to be the story, your return will be the story, swallowing up what the event was supposed to be about in the first place.

Nonetheless, UK coach John Calipari reached out to Pitino and encouraged him to come back. And Pitino, on Saturday, Tweeted out his support of the 1993 team and thanked Calipari for his offer.

After Kentucky beat Utah 88-61, Calipari was asked about the whole thing, and said he thinks Pitino should come back, and that he thinks fans will react with appreciation.

“He was with family and he had things going on. But you know, I just said, ‘Look, you need to get up here.’ They will be respectful here, and you know, what that program did to change this back, you know, I mean, we should recognize it,” Calipari said. “They may be mad he went to coach at Louisville. So what? When he was here and when we needed this program on a different track, he put it, and that (1993) group -- and I thanked that group last night: ‘You guys got this thing back going, you guys did.’

“You know, I just, like I said, I'd like him to come back and let him -- you know, one of the happiest things for me is when I see how Coach (Joe B.) Hall is treated here. He's treated like royalty. I love it when he goes out on the court. I love to see him in practice and I love how our fans treat him.”

Calipari said he thinks time will heal any wounds between Pitino and the fan base. His thought on that isn’t without merit. Who would have thought Hall and Crum would’ve wound up with a radio show together and become such good friends.

Maybe things with Pitino are different, but Calipari said he still thinks it’s worth considering a thaw.

“My guess is, back in the day, they probably weren't as friendly, okay, (to Hall),” Calipari said. “But now they look at it and say, you know what, who would have followed Adolph Rupp? Who is stupid enough to do that? He was. He went to Final Fours, won national titles. Think about it. And now, what Rick did, you know, like I said, he deserves to be able to, you know, get the respect from what he did here, and I think our fans would be great. You know, he may not think that, but I'm convinced that if he came back, that the fans would be great to him.”

[ericcrawford]

IMAGE GALLERY | Indiana-Butler in the Crossroads Classic, Dec. 15, 2018.

[ericcrawford]

Phantastic Phinish: Phinisee’s buzzer-beater leads IU past Butler

INDIANAPOLIS – In this young season, the scouting report on the Indiana University basketball team should have this nugget in bold print, all caps, underlined (twice): When you have the Hoosiers down, you’d better not rest.

The heart-attack Hoosiers attacked again in the late going against in-state rival Butler, erasing an nine-point deficit in the final nine minutes and prevailing on a 35-foot buzzer-beater by point guard Rob Phinisee to stun the Bulldogs 71-68.

As Phinisee’s shot swished through, teammates mobbed him at midcourt and swallowed him up, dragged him in a scrum to the opposite free-throw lane, dogpiled on him in a corner, and smiled all the way back to Bloomington with their fourth consecutive win of three points or less.

“Our guys, for whatever reason, keep finding ways to muddy it up,” Indiana coach Archie Miller said. “We keep feeling the same ways in these huddles late in games. Some days it’s the same guys, sometimes it’s different. . . . Rob obviously will be the hero, but Juwan Morgan had as good a game as I’ve been involved in in a long time.”

Morgan was unstoppable inside and out. He finished with a career-high 35 points, was 12-14 from the field, 4-6 from three-point range and 7-7 from the line. He was the main reason Indiana was in the game after being outscored 14-3 off turnovers through the first 34 minutes. Oh, and he also became the 53rd IU player to cross the 1,000-point threshold.

Butler coach LaVall Jordan, asked about Morgan, decided understatement was the way to go.

“If he’s hitting threes, he’s a real problem,” Jordan said. “We know how good he is inside. He got a lot of work done in there. But if he’s hitting free throws, and then he stepped out and hit some threes. I think it was just his competitive will, and you love to have guys like that.”

Indiana came up short on three straight chances to take the lead with around six minutes to play, and finally went ahead on a Morgan layup, the last of six straight points he scored, to go up 66-64 with 3:05 to play.

Still, it came down once again to the final possession. In a timeout with 18 seconds left, Miller drew up a play to set a screen and get freshman Romeo Langford the ball. Butler wasn’t about to allow it.

“They definitely blew the play up,” Miller said. “We weren’t strong enough to execute it and couldn’t get the ball where we wanted to, and that’s something we’ll have to keep working on.”

From his standpoint on the court, Phinisee’s analysis was a bit more blunt.

“Obviously, it wasn’t drawn up like that,” he said. “ . . . Just threw it up, and prayed to God it went in.”

Prayers do sometimes get answered. In fact, they’ve been answered quite a bit lately where the Hoosiers are concerned.

“We’d like to get some that don’t come down to the last 10 seconds,” Morgan said. “Gut at the same time it’s these that you grind out that feel the best.”

Langford finished with 13 points and a team-best seven rebounds in the game. Phinisee finished with nine.

Butler was led by Sean McDermott with 20 points and Kamar Baldwin added 16.

[ericcrawford]

Remembering Louisville’s 2009 women’s hoops NCAA finalists

It was late March, 2009, and it wasn’t just any March. Most of us thought we’d be covering the University of Louisville men heading to the Final Four. Instead, Michigan State had other plans. And then there was a bit of news at Kentucky, where John Calipari was being hired as basketball coach.

The last thing I thought I’d ever be focused on that March – or any March, to be honest -- was a Louisville women’s basketball team going to the Final Four. But after the men lost to Michigan State, something in my head said I’d better get down to Raleigh, N.C., where the women were about to play Maryland in an NCAA Regional final.

I’m not sure what it was. Maybe it was an editor. Or maybe Jeff Walz put something subliminal into my subconscious.

U of L will honor that team at halftime of the No. 4-ranked Cardinals 11:30 a.m. game against Northern Kentucky in the KFC Yum! Center on Saturday. And my thoughts can’t help but go back to that time.

I remember being tired but going, on very little sleep, to Raleigh. I know Jody Demling of The Courier-Journal was down there for the newspaper, too. I don’t know if many other media were. There were maybe 200 fans down there on the night of March 30 to witness history, the Louisville women trouncing top-seeded Maryland 77-60, to earn a berth in the Final Four in St. Louis.

It was heady stuff. Looking at Walz and his program now, it’s easy to forget where it came from, the days of playing home games in the gym at Manual High School – and even more modest beginnings than that. It’s been in my lifetime, the late 1960s, that the U of L women were only allowed to practice three days a week with rest every 15 minutes because it was believed they couldn’t handle a more “rigorous routine.”

So a lot of us were wandering around the court in Raleigh in a state of shock. One of those people was Tom Jurich. I didn’t see him shed too many tears in his tenure as athletic director. But he was emotional in that moment. We had some differences over the football coach about that time, but I congratulated him, because without him, no way that moment ever happens.

He was the guy who insisted the women’s games be moved into Freedom Hall. He went and got coach Tom Collen, who recruited much of that first Final Four team, and then took a chance on Walz after Collen left.

And then there was Walz, in just his second season. Yes, he had the best player in the country in Angel McCoughtry. And he had a player who was better than anyone realized in Candyce Bingham. And he had the nation’s most unorthodox point guard in Des Byrd.

There was Keshia Hines, who played through the death of her grandmother. And Becky Burke, who drove Walz crazy, and now is a coach with players of her own who drive her crazy. Gwen Rucker started for the Cardinals and she was a volleyball player. Walz used to let her start and Hines come in behind her because Hines didn’t want to start. Once, Rucker made it through the first TV timeout of the game and the rest of the team celebrated like it had won a championship.

“They just figured it out,” Walz said. “We used to laugh all the time as a staff. Even at the Final Four in St. Louis, we had colleagues come to the open and closed practices, and they’d ask, ‘How in the world are you guys still playing?’ We would call ourselves the Bad News Bears. But one thing I can say is that when the lights came on, these kids showed up and played.”

Nobody played like McCoughtry. Her jersey hangs in the rafters at the KFC Yum! Center for a reason. She was the No. 1 overall pick in the WNBA Draft. She has won two Olympic Gold Medals. She’s the best player ever to put on a Louisville women’s uniform. She was great offensively, rewriting the program’s record book. But it shouldn’t be forgotten that she also was probably the best defensive player in the nation, too.

Doug Bruno, then the coach at DePaul, told Walz that McCoughtry was the only player of which he would tell his team, “If she’s on the right side of the court, start the offense on the left.”

She was the start of everything, Walz said, and remains a prominent part of the program today. When recruits come in they don’t have to ask whether they can achieve their dreams at Louisville. McCoughtry went first in the WNBA Draft, played for an Olympic team, has built a professional career inside of basketball and out, and has her name in the rafters. She got to play in a national championship game.

“The impact Angel had, not just on the game, but on our team, you can’t overstate it,” Walz said.

Walz told that team that if it got through its early round games in Baton Rouge, La., he would get them the rest of the way to a Final Four. Darned if he didn’t.

“That night we beat Maryland, a place I’ve got a lot of fond memories with, that’s a game and a moment that, when I look back, it’s very vivid in my memory,” Walz said. “Not just because of the win but because of some situations we had that weekend. Des Byrd banged up her knee and came back out and wanted to play. Keisha Hines’ grandmother had passed the night of our Sweet 16 game, and we told her we’d fly her back home, this was just a basketball game. And she said she wanted to remember her grandmother the way she’d seen her two weeks before, and this team was her family now. A lot of these players gave a lot to make that such a special year.

“Candyce Bingham was a player who I never had to run anything for. She would just always figure out a way to score and rebound. And then there was Becky Burke. She just drove me crazy. It was one dribble and pickup. One dribble pickup. And then she started to figure it out, and she made some big shots for us. . . . And that’s why it means so much to have so many of them coming back.

McCoughtry will be back in town for Saturday’s game, as will other members of the team. The ceremony will be at halftime of the game, and Walz said he’ll keep his current team out of the locker room for it. He wants them to see what that team meant.

Beyond the players, I remember so many others who followed that team. Jim Kelch, the radio play-by-play announcer, went on to work with the Cincinnati Reds. Jared Stillman, a manger for that team whose Walz imitation sounded (almost) more like Walz than Walz did himself, hosts a sports talk radio show in Nashville.

“It’s going to be a special day to honor a team that kind of got this thing going. It was a team that allowed people to believe that Louisville women’s basketball could be prominent on a national stage. And there’s no doubt, for the past 10 years, that we’ve been able to do that. . . . I hope we have a good turnout.”

They deserve one.

[ericcrawford]

Leap of Faith: Lolla steps down as Louisville soccer coach

If you’ve followed Ken Lolla and his career as University of Louisville soccer coach at all, you know he’s a different kind of coach and teacher.

You also know that when he arrived in town 13 years ago, he didn’t just have to build a soccer program, he had to build a soccer culture.

Lolla informed Louisville athletic director Vince Tyra on Tuesday that he was stepping down from the job he has held since 2006. There was no dissatisfaction. It was not a move made in protest. There is no other job readily available. Lolla’s contract gave him an out to leave without him owing the university money until Jan. 1, but he says his next step is not known to him at this point.

He’s not burned out. The boosters aren’t on his heels. He’s loved and respected by the community.

He only says that he and his wife, Tina Marie, feel led to step out now. On Tuesday afternoon, during a stop at WDRB, he said that they feel at peace with the decision.

“A quote I heard not too long ago -- and I’ve wrestled with this -- is when you’re called out of your success, for something sacrificial or something different, will you listen?” Lolla said. “I feel very strongly that I’ve been called out of my success because there is something that I need to go to. There is something that I need to participate in that’s going to have even a bigger impact than what I do here. It’s easy to stay here, and quite honestly, sometimes it looks self-serving because of being in this glorified University of Louisville athletics. I want to make sure what we’re doing, Tina and I, is purposeful, and not about ourselves but helping others and making sure that we’re leaving it better than we found it.”

He certainly leaves the Louisville soccer program better than he found it. He left an Akron program that already was a national power for Louisville, which had never been to an NCAA Tournament and had posted only seven winning seasons in its 27 varsity seasons. Hired 13 years ago next week, Lolla couldn’t find a league opportunity for his young kids, so he started his own neighborhood soccer league as a temporary fix.

Within two years, Lolla had the Cardinals in the Top 25 and making their first trip to the NCAA Tournament. In his fifth season, they played for a national championship.

In 13 seasons, Lolla went 155-77-39 and led the Cardinals to 11 NCAA Tournament appearances – five of which reached the national quarterfinals. His last season at Louisville ended with an 11-5-3 record and the program’s first ACC championship.

“Tina and I often talk about our first match when I got here in 2006 and our first game we were playing Memphis at the old Cardinal Park, and we could count the number of people in the stands, and we knew most of them,” Lolla said. “And we remember that first day and how it grew to playing UCLA in the snow and having 7,000 people there, and witnessing now what’s happening with Louisville City FC and the number of people coming out. We’re humbled to have had just a small part in that excitement and that passion for the game that now exists, and that the community of Louisville, we termed it ‘Soccerville,’ is just that.”

At the same time, Lolla has pursued some deeper goals. Using his platform as a successful soccer coach, he has been a motivational speaker, authored a children’s book, and run charitable efforts to benefit special needs children.

It’s no secret, Lolla was very much a partner of former athletic director Tom Jurich. And one of his major benefactors was Dr. Mark Lynn, who made the cornerstone gift for Louisville’s new soccer stadium, and who was one of those dissatisfied with Jurich’s treatment. But Lolla referenced none of that when talking about his reasons for stepping away now – even if he’s not sure what the next step is.

“I don’t know what that is, but I feel strongly that unless we release where we are right now, we won’t be able to receive it,” Lolla said. “Looking back on the last 29 years as a head coach and what we’ve done, and specifically here at Louisville in the last 13 years, we felt like a lot of our mission, a lot of the things that we set out to do, that we had accomplished. We wanted to leave it in a better place, had achieved some things, and then felt looking at where we are in our lives knowing that we have a certain amount of years left, and what do we want those years to look like? We felt strongly about moving in a direction to open up opportunities that would make a difference in people’s lives in maybe other areas, in maybe a more significant way. So we’re open to that, not necessarily knowing exactly what it is, but open to something new.”

It could involve coaching. Lolla said he’d love to stay in Louisville, but will be open to opportunities anywhere they present themselves, whether in coaching, or in something else. At Louisville, Lolla coached 20 Major League Soccer Draft picks and presided over a program that grew from afterthought to headliner.

““I’m not ruling (coaching) out,” he said. “Very likely what I’ll do from here is something development-based, helping people, motivating people, inspiring them, using the gifts that I have, the experience I’ve gained in coaching. I’ll be coaching in some aspect, the question is whether it will be in soccer or sports or in some other area.”

There should be plenty of opportunities. Lolla has been a credit to the city and university. He and his wife, Tina, form the kind of partnership you rarely see in college sports, or out of it for that matter. Lolla stands for the right things. Not too long ago, when Louisville was beset with scandal, its name dragged through the mud in new ways, it seemed, with each passing day, his voice was a reminder that within every bad situation good people exist. He spoke calmly but convincingly for everyone who had nothing to do with the scandals.

If his phone isn’t ringing, it should be. What call he chooses to heed remains to be seen. But his surprise action on Tuesday, taken after a period of careful prayer and consideration, shows that where calling is concerned, Lolla certainly is listening.

[ericcrawford]

Satterfield’s first day on the job at Louisville

In Scott Satterfield’s first day on the job, there was a little of everything. The new University of Louisville football coach sat down to take a look at the roster he will inherit. He began the process of assembling a staff. And he took to the Louisville talk-radio airwaves to take his message to the people.

After a quick tour of the KFC Yum! Center before Wednesday night’s men’s basketball game against Central Arkansas, Satterfield sat down – for just a moment – to talk about his first day on the job.

“Another busy day today. I think seven radio shows today … got into the office and started to look at the roster, started looking at the recruiting board, trying to figure out what our needs are and what direction we need to go into, and also had discussions about staffing,” Satterfield said. “The biggest thing we have to do right now is obviously recruiting and filling out a staff. The filling out a staff part can happen probably in the next couple of weeks and recruiting-wise, we really have probably a couple of weeks before the first signing period, but then obviously there’s the second signing period so we don’t have to fill out the class in this first signing period. We will sign some players in this first one. I think we’ll get some staff in here, hopefully maybe in the middle of next week and let them hit the ground running.”

At least two members of his current staff at Appalachian State, and probably more, will move with him to Louisville. The Winston-Salem Journal cited several sources close to the program saying that App State defensive coordinator Bryan Brown and offensive coordinator Frank Ponce will join Satterfield’s staff at Louisville.

Satterfield talked about his hope to run a similar defensive system at Louisville to the one he’s had success with at App State, and retaining Brown certainly would make sense if that’s the case.

“I think the main thing with us defensively is we want to continue what we’ve been doing defensively the last six years,” Satterfield said. “It’s been very effective. Looking at the stats over particularly the last four season, a top-25 defense in the country every year, one that will create turnovers. I think we were maybe one, two or three in interceptions in the last four seasons combined, and we obviously want to continue to do that. We‘re trying to win the turnover battle. I think for us the last three years, we’ve been one, two or three in the turnover margin. I think that gives you a great chance to win. Defensively, we’re probably doing the very same thing and we’ll fill out that staff. Hopefully middle of next week we’ll fill out that staff.”

Another name that continues to surface in connection with the staff is Cort Dennison, a linebackers coach at Oregon who spent four successful years, including the last two as recruiting coordinator, at Louisville, under former coach Bobby Petrino.

Satterfield’s look at the current roster was not an in-depth look. But he watched enough tape to form some first impressions.

“I think we’ve got some good skill players,” he said. “You look at wide receiver, there’s some guys out there that can make some things happen at wide receiver. I think we have a couple of good running backs that could certainly make some things happen. And I think in the secondary there are some good players. I haven’t really jumped into the full roster, watching film and all that as much as I would like and I will do as we move forward, but there’s certainly some guys that will be able to make plays for us. We have to find what’s the best position for them. Where can they really help, where can they excel at their abilities and their talents in order to make plays. So we may end up looking at guys at different positions and we’ll see that more so probably when we get them, working them out and we’re able to see them face-to-face.”

As far as recruiting, Satterfield is still evaluating. He said he hadn’t yet been in contact with Louisville’s committed recruits yet, but planned to do that soon. A scheduled recruiting weekend on campus this weekend will likely be delayed a week until he can get some assistant coaches onto campus. While he does expect to sign some recruits in the current period, he said he isn’t putting any pressure on himself to complete the class by then.

He’ll contact local coaches, make a few contacts. And he’ll continue to evaluate. He said that quarterback, linebacker, offensive line and tight end are positions of immediate need, and didn’t rule out looking at some junior college quarterbacks or graduate transfers if necessary.

He said some players who had committed to him at App State have reached out to him, but he wouldn’t commit to bringing any of those players to Louisville.

“I think for us, we want to compete in the ACC and win championships and so we’re going to try to get the best talent we can get throughout this blueprint of recruiting,” he said. “There’s a lot of guys out there that have reached out that are interested now in Louisville that are maybe committed to other schools that we’re going to have to play. We’re just trying to find the best fit. I’m trying to find a well-rounded student-athlete, not just somebody who can run fast or hit. We want someone who is going to do well in academics, that’s going to be a strong character in that locker room when we do face adversity. So you’ve got to do your research, you’ve got to really dive deep into what makes them tick. I think so much of it is heart. And that’s just finding about that through their coaches and all that and seeing what they’re saying about these players.”

Not that he’ll have time for leisure or community involvement, but Satterfield says he’s looking forward to getting to know the city. His family remained in town with him on Wednesday and attended the basketball game with him.

“Where I’m coming from is a pretty small community,” Satterfield said. “We had probably 30,000 total people there. Really just hanging out. There’s not really a whole lot to do in Boone, actually. Particularly as I look around this town, there’s a lot to do here. Really there, the big thing to do is outdoors – go hiking and looking at nature and that kind of thing. We had some golf courses, we played some golf, but hanging out at church and the people there. Really it’s more just hanging out and eating dinner and talking I guess. There’s really not a whole lot to do there. What this city has to offer is incredible. The amount of things that you can go out and do and see and I think the people that come here … we’re looking forward to doing that and really immersing ourselves in this city and experiencing all that Louisville has to offer.”

For now, however, Satterfield is immersed in football – one handshake, phone call and interview at a time.

[ericcrawford]

IMAGE GALLERY | Scott Satterfield’s introductory news conference, Dec. 5, 2018.

[ericcrawford]

Satterfield’s start: ‘We’re going to love on these guys’

Disclaimer: I don’t know whether Scott Satterfield is going to win a ton of games at the University of Louisville, whether he’ll be Louisville’s version of Dabo Swinney or exorcise the memory of whatever it was that happened last season.

One thing he said at his first Louisville news conference, one thing he told the Cardinals’ football players, was good enough for me.

“I told them, we’re going to love on them,” Satterfield said. “We want to love on these guys. We’re going to put our arms around them and we’re just going to pull them up and bring them to win football games and championships.”

Obviously, it’s harder than that. But it has to start with that. Now, look. There’s more than one way to do something. I don’t think Nick Saban’s got his arm around all those players at Alabama. But I also think, in his way, he loves them. They trust that he’ll bring something out of them, that he wants what’s best for them.

There’s been talk about discipline and recruiting and talent and fire and all those things, certainly, are needed in this program. But in this day, with these players, and with kids everywhere, it starts with getting eye-to-eye and communicating, relating, loving. Kids in a classroom know if a teacher doesn’t care about them. They know when leaders aren’t authentic. And when they feel that, they check out.

So while Satterfield's message might not be the traditional language of football, it's a language Louisville's players will nonetheless understand. In this day with young people, and people who are not so young, it’s less about what you say than how you make them feel.

“It’s a new start, and that feels good,” Louisville safety C.J. Avery said. “There’s not a player in our locker room that doesn’t believe we’re better than we played. We’re looking forward to seeing what these coaches are about and learning from them.”

I don’t know how many four- or five-star players Satterfield will be able to recruit. And in the end, that’s what determines a lot at this level of college football. It’s amazing how much better a coach you are when you have a T.Y. Hilton (as Satterfield had as offensive coordinator at Florida International) or a Lamar Jackson (as Petrino had here).

But I did sense that the words and sentiments Satterfield laid out on Tuesday were sincere. He didn’t break out a bunch of motivational language. He didn’t roll out with a prepared presentation. It wasn’t slick. He talked about trust. And if he can build that with players, if he can build it with recruits, then he’ll have the beginnings of something.

“It starts with our culture, so that’s what we’re going to work on,” Satterfield said. “The very first thing I told them was that ‘guys, you have to trust me. And I have to trust you. And that’s the way our program’s going to work.’

“There’s a couple core values that we have,” Satterfield went on. “No. 1 is project positive energy. In this world we’re living in, there is so much negativity out there that it drives you crazy. Everybody’s doubting you, everybody’s downing you. That fuels me, and it’s going to fuel our football team. We’re going to pump each other up. We’re going to hit them on the butt and say ‘let’s go,’ when they’re having a bad day we’re going to put that positive energy in there and it’s just going to spread like wildfires, our culture in the locker room.”

There’s another coach at U of L who is big on that message. Jeff Walz, Louisville’s successful women’s basketball coach, said that he knew his program’s culture had reached a high level when he had a locker room full of players and, “I never knew if one of them was having a bad day.”

Why? They showed up, did their jobs, projected a positive energy and expected maximum effort of themselves. It was contagious.

Satterfield, here, is again speaking a familiar language.

“The other thing that we talked about is the other 10,” Satterfield said. “There’s 11 guys on the football field, but I’m playing for the other 10. I’m not thinking about me, I’m thinking about the other 10. When you do that, we’ll have a tremendous amount of success. We had 19 guys out of our starting offensive and defensive players last year make all-conference and get recognized. . . . It’s incredible, because they’re playing for each other. They love each other, and that’s what we’re going to create here. These guys will get big-time recognition when they start loving each other, caring for each other and playing for each other.”

Now, look, I get it. These guys aren’t going to start holding hands and singing folk songs and everything be fixed.

But these guys also deserve someone who will come in and listen to them, talk with them, be honest with them and, yes, understand them.

“He told us he wants us in his office, his door is always open and he wants us to feel like we can talk to him,” wide receiver Dez Fitzpatrick said. “I don’t know if a lot of guys feel that’s how it has always been.”

So this is where it starts. How a coach handles the media or what schemes he uses doesn’t mean much if his players aren’t with him. And if they’re going to be with a coach, they have to believe he has their best interests at heart.

I don’t know that players this season believed that, particularly by the end of the season. Two team sources told me that while Bobby Petrino acknowledged to the media that he made a bad play call to help lose Louisville’s game against Florida State, the message to players in the locker room was quite different, and he might well have lost a good many of them right there. And he lost others along the way.

The program and players at Louisville need a lot of things. I haven’t heard all the stories. We may never hear them all from the season just ended. But it doesn’t hurt to have a coach who comes in and says first and foremost he wants to put his arms around them.

It may sound corny. In fact, let’s just acknowledge that it does sound corny. But this coach has made it work to the tune of 10 wins a year over the past four years at a place whose entire athletic budget ($35 million) is not too much more than what Louisville spends on football alone ($25 million, not counting facilities spending).

He may be onto something. At Louisville, we’re about to find out.

[ericcrawford]

TIMELINE | A long strange trip: A look at Petrino’s Louisville tenure, for old times’ sake

From his arrival as an offensive coordinator, to his second arrival, as an assistant coach, through his departures, his high points, an Orange Bowl win, a Heisman Trophy moment, to his precipitous fall this season, here's a look far, far back through memory lane, start to finish.

Nov. 25, 1997: On the day he is hired as coach, John L. Smith announces he will bring Petrino, then Utah State’s offensive coordinator, with him to Louisville. In Petrino’s one season as coordinator, Louisville led the nation in total offense and scoring, and quarterback Chris Redman set a school record for passing yards. Petrino would leave to join the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars for two seasons, the second as offensive coordinator, before leaving to become the offensive coordinator at Auburn.

PETRINO 1.0

Dec. 23, 2002: Petrino is hired as head coach at Louisville, his first head-coaching position, after Smith departs for Michigan State.

Nov. 18, 2003: Petrino says he had a meeting with his team to tell his players there was nothing to reported rumors that he might be a candidate to replace his old boss, Tommy Tuberville, at Auburn.

Nov. 20, 2003: Petrino meets with Auburn’s president, athletic director and other representatives after they flew to a Southern Indiana airport to weigh his interest in the job, which still was held by Tuberville.

Nov. 24, 2003: Petrino, through football spokesman Rocco Gasparro, tells the media, “There is no coaching job. I have not been contacted.”

Nov. 25, 2003 (afternoon): Louisville athletic director Tom Jurich says, of Petrino: “Bobby is saying all the right things. He says he is happy here. He says he’s not talking to (Auburn).”

Nov. 25, 2003 (evening): News of Petrino’s secret meeting with Auburn breaks.

Nov. 25, 2003 (late night): Petrino says, “I made a mistake in meeting with those people that came in, and for that I apologize.” He said he should have spoken to Jurich and U of L before the meeting, but that he wants to remain at Louisville.

Nov. 26, 2003: Petrino, at a news conference, after the story on his secret meeting broke: “I don’t think I have a lying issue. I can look our team in the eye and all the players I’ve ever coached, and they know what Bobby Petrino is all about. For you (media), you may need to get that back. But I’ll stand on my past and what will happen here in the future.”

Dec. 18, 2003: Petrino’s Louisville team falls to Miami of Ohio and quarterback Ben Roethlesberger 49-28 in the GMAC Bowl to conclude his first season at 9-4.

Oct. 14, 2004: With his team unbeaten and earning BCS bowl speculation, Petrino takes the Cardinals into No. 3-ranked Miami and has the lead but winds up losing 41-38 after quarterback Stefan LeFors suffers a concussion.

Oct. 26, 2004: Amid rumors he’ll be a candidate for the Florida job, Petrino sends a letter to football letterwinners that says, “I want to ensure you that I will be staying in Louisville. . . . I plan for all four of our children to graduate from high school in Louisville.”

Dec. 21, 2004: Petrino signs a new contract with Louisville. Asked if the extension means that he won’t be a candidate for the open LSU job, Petrino chides reporters and asks, “Why do we have to talk about other schools? Why can’t we talk about the University of Louisville.”

Dec. 26, 2004: Petrino meets in Nashville with representatives from LSU. He says no job offer is made.

Dec. 29, 2004: Petrino acknowledges the LSU meeting and calls it “strictly a preliminary meeting” and that “no offer is on the table.”

Dec. 31, 2004: Louisville beats Boise State in the Liberty Bowl to complete an 11-1 season and finish No. 11 in the final AP rankings. Its scoring average of 49.8 points per game leads the nation.

Jan. 1, 2005: Petrino announces, “I have chosen to remain as the football coach at the University of Louisville, withdrawing my name from consideration at LSU.”

Jan. 2, 2006: Louisville falls to Virginia Tech, 35-24, in the Gator Bowl to complete a 9-3 season, its first in the Big East Conference.

Jan. 18, 2006: The Oakland Tribune reports that Petrino was in the city to interview for the Raiders’ NFL job. Petrino issues a statement saying he is committed to U of L.

July 23, 2006: Petrino signs a 10-year extension worth more than $25.5 million, insisting on a $1 million buyout clause, saying, “This is where my family wants to be and where I want to be.”

Sept. 3, 2006: Louisville opens its season with a 59-28 win over Kentucky, but loses running back Michael Bush for the season to a knee injury.

Sept. 16, 2006: Louisville opens its Big East season with a 31-7 win at home over No. 15-ranked Miami.

Nov. 2, 2006: Louisville beats No. 3-ranked West Virginia 44-34 to move into the No. 3 spot in the national rankings.

Nov. 9, 2006: After a week of discussion about Louisville and the national championship, the undefeated Cardinals lose at No. 15 Rutgers, 28-25.

Jan. 2, 2007: Louisville wins the Orange Bowl, beating Wake Forest 24-13 to cap a 12-1 season.

Jan. 7, 2007: Petrino leaves Louisville to become coach of the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons.

Nov. 26, 2007: Petrino tells reporters that he has not considered leaving the Falcons, who struggled to a 3-8 record after losing quarterback Michael Vick.

Dec. 10, 2007: Petrino resigns from the Falcons after coaching 13 games, leaves a 78-word note in each player’s locker, to notify them of his departure. That night, he is introduced as coach at Arkansas.

Jan. 4, 2011: Arkansas loses to Ohio State 31-26 in the Sugar Bowl to finish 10-2 on the season.

Jan. 6, 2012: Arkansas beats Kansas State 29-16 in the Cotton Bowl to finish the season with an 11-2 record and a No. 5 national ranking, its highest since 1977. It ties a school single-season record for victories.

March 28, 2012: Petrino announces the hiring of former Arkansas volleyball player Jessica Dorrell as student-athlete development coordinator.

April 1, 2012: Petrino is injured in a motorcycle accident, with Dorrell as a passenger. (He later acknowledged having an extramarital relationship with her.) To hide her presence at the scene, Petrino does not call 911, and tells Arkansas officials he was alone at the time of the accident, and Arkansas releases a statement to that effect.

April 10, 2012: Petrino is fired by Arkansas after the facts of the accident and Petrino’s relationship with Dorrell are known.

August 9, 2012: Petrino tells ESPN’s Joe Schad that he feels remorse over his decisions, and that, “I’ve made mistakes and I’m going to be a better person for it. I’m going to keep my life in better balance. And I really feel I’ll be a better coach because this happened, because now I know that I’m going to coach the person as much as much as the player and help the person who has made mistakes, help him understand that he is not going to be defined by the mistakes he has made but how he reacts to it and overcomes it.”

Dec. 20, 2012: Petrino is hired as head coach at Western Kentucky University.

Jan. 6, 2014: Charlie Strong leaves Louisville for Texas after four seasons.

PETRINO 2.0

Jan. 9 2014: After three days of speculation, Jurich hires Petrino to return as coach and lead the program into its first season in the ACC.

Dec. 30, 2014: After compiling a 9-3 record in its first ACC season, Louisville loses to No. 13-Georgia 37-14 in the Belk Bowl, its only game against a ranked opponent all season.

Sept 5, 2015: Louisville loses to Auburn 31-24 in its season-opener in the Georgia Dome, but Petrino finds a quarterback in freshman Lamar Jackson.

Dec 30, 2015: Jackson runs for 226 yards and two touchdowns and passes for 227 and two touchdowns as Louisville beats Texas A&M in the Music City Bowl, setting Jackson up as a Hesiman candidate the following season.

Sept. 17, 2016: With ESPN’s College GameDay originiating from Louisville for the first time ever, Louisville, ranked No. 10 nationally, pounds No. 2 Florida State 62-28 on national television, and Jackson becomes the Heisman front-runner.

Oct 1, 2016: Louisville, ranked No. 3 nationally, loses at No. 5 Clemson 42-36, in what is widely praised as one of the best games of the season in college football.

Nov. 11, 2016: One day before Wake Forest is to play Louisville, a manager for the Demon Deacons finds Wake Forest plays in a stack of play cards Louisville was using in its own game plan. An ensuing investigation found that a disgruntled former assistant coach and radio analyst was leaking detailed game-plan information to opposing teams. Petrino never issued any statement on the subject, allowing Jurich to issue the official university reaction.

Nov. 17, 2016: Having built a 9-1 record, No. 3-ranked Louisville travels to unranked Houston and loses 36-10 on national television. It’s the first of three straight losses to end the season, including a 41-38 loss to rival Kentucky and a 29-9 loss to No. 19 LSU in the Camping World Citrus Bowl on Dec. 31.

Dec. 10, 2016: Lamar Jackson becomes the first Heisman Trophy winner in Louisville history, and the youngest ever to win the award. That same night, Louisville football players James Hearns and Henry Famuweara are shot at a party in an off-campus apartment. The details of the incident were never made public by police. Both players were able to return to the field.

Dec. 16, 2016: Co-offensive coordinator Lonnie Galloway is suspended for the team’s bowl game for receiving Wake Forest’s leaked game-plan information.

Jan. 11, 2017: Defensive coordinator Todd Grantham leaves Louisville after three seasons of reportedly stormy relations with Petrino. He goes to Mississippi State, and the Bulldogs’ defensive coordinator, Peter Sirmons, is hired by Louisville. After finishing 14th in the nation in total defense in 2016, Louisville is 62nd in 2017.

Oct. 18, 2017: Tom Jurich, the athletic director who reached out to Petrino after his firing at Arkansas, helped him get back into the game at WKU, and who hired him back at Louisville, is fired after a second scandal hits the Louisville basketball program.

Dec. 30, 2017: Louisville loses to Mississippi State 31-27 in the TaxSlayer Bowl in Orlando, Fla., in Lamar Jackson’s final game at Louisville.

Jan. 5, 2018: Lamar Jackson declares for the NFL Draft.

Jan 19, 2018: Sirmons announces his resignation as defensive coordinator, moving to the University of California as associate head coach and outside linebackers coach.

Jan. 29, 2018: Petrino announces the hiring of Brian VanGorder as defensive coordinator.

July 24, 2018: Petrino's father, Bobby Petrino Sr., dies in Helena, Mont., at the age of 81. He was a Hall of Fame coach, who raised Bobby and his brother Paul on football fields, and he was a mentor to the coach through his highs and lows in college football. Petrino says his loss hit him hard.

August 17, 2018: At the annual football kickoff luncheon, Petrino says of top-ranked Alabama, Louisville’s season-opening opponent, “I believe we’re going to go beat them.” He also says of his offense, “We’re going to be better. . . . Our expectations on offense, we expect to be the No. 1 offense in the country.” He tells fans at the event that the Cardinals are, “The fastest team we’ve ever had, as far as the stopwatch goes.”

August 18, 2018: Co-offensive coordinator and offensive line coach Chris Klenakis is arrested for reckless driving, wanton endangerment and driving under the influence of alcohol in Shelby County after being pulled over for swerving on I-64. During the arrest, he refused to cooperate and nearly walked in front of a truck during a field sobriety test before deputies grabbed him. He later was sentenced to pay a $728 fine and spend four days in jail. Petrino suspends him from the program and later says he will not return.

Sept. 1, 2018: Louisville loses to No. 1-ranked Alabama 51-14 in the Camping World Kickoff game in Orlando.

Sept. 22, 2018: After escaping a major upset the week before in a 20-17 win over WKU, Louisville loses at Virginia 27-3, starting a seven-game losing streak.

Sept. 29, 2018: Louisville loses a late 3-point lead when Petrino calls a pass play while in field goal range, instead of running the ball and taking, at worst, a field goal that would have put the Cards up by six points with likely under a minute to play. Instead, the pass is intercepted and Florida State escapes with a 28-24 victory. After the game, Petrino concedes, “I made a bad call.”

Oct. 5, 2018: Georgia Tech scored on every one of its possessions and ran for 542 yards – the second-most given up by a Louisville team since 1932 – in a 66-31 victory at Cardinal Stadium. It is the worst home loss for Louisville in the building, and its worst loss at home since 1997.

Oct. 15, 2018: Tight end Kemari Averett, who caught the Cards’ only two TD passes against Alabama, is arrested after police said he held a gun to his girlfriend’s head and threatened to kill her.

Oct. 27, 2018: Louisville falls at home, 56-35, to Wake Forest, in a game where it was favored by three.

Nov. 3, 2018: Louisville falls at No. 2-ranked Clemson, 77-16. It is the second-most points allowed in a game in Louisville’s history. It was Louisville’s largest margin of defeat since 1941. Clemson averaged 13.3 yards per carry and 11.6 yards per play, a record for any Louisville opponent.

Nov. 9, 2018: In what will be Petrino’s final game at Louisville, the Cardinals have 10 penalties and four turnovers in the first half of a 54-23 loss. It’s the fifth time the team has given up 50 or more points this season, a school record, and twice more than any other Power 5 team in the nation has done it this season.

Nov. 11, 2018: Citing a lack of confidence that Petrino could work a turnaround in the program, athletic director Vince Tyra announces that he had fired Petrino, along with his son Nick (quarterbacks coach) and two sons-in-law on the staff, as well as Petrino’s executive assistant Andy Wagner. Petrino, per a buyout clause in his contract, will be paid $14 million over a three-year period.

[ericcrawford]

CRAWFORD | Five thoughts on the firing of Bobby Petrino

Five thoughts on the firing of University of Louisville football coach Bobby Petrino:

1). THERE'S A NEW GODFATHER IN LOUISVILLE. Consider Vince Tyra’s Sunday. He woke up, put on a “Louisville football” hooded sweatshirt and a pair of sweatpants. He met with Petrino after the coach taped his weekly TV coaches’ show, and fired him and his son and two sons-in-law, plus his executive assistant.

He then met with U of L’s football players and the remaining coaches. He named Lorenzo Ward as the interim coach. He then watched Louisville win the ACC soccer championship on television. From there, a few minutes late, he rolled into to the Yum! Center basketball practice facility (not, as you might think, in a Brinks truck) and held his news conference.

Later in the afternoon, he was scheduled to have dinner with the team.

Hat tip to Yahoo! Sports' Pat Forde, who noted a quote from Don Corleone that came to his mind: “Today, I settled all family business.”

Any questions?

2). THE MONEY? DON'T WORRY ABOUT THE MONEY. Tyra says he expects U of L to pay Petrino the full amount of his buyout, or approximately $14 million. How in the world will Louisville afford this?

Tyra noted several resources. He said he set aside contingency funds for a rainy day in the current athletic budget. He didn’t expect that it would be spent on Petrino’s buyout, but said it would account for about $2 million of the approximately $4.66 annual total in the first year.

Beyond that, Tyra said Louisville would further draw down some reserve funds, the largest fund being the Hickman-Camp Fund, which now stands at around $8 million after a $4.5 million withdrawal to pay the Xavier buyout for Chris Mack and $4 million to settle with former athletic director Tom Jurich already this year.

Tyra also alluded to other sources of revenue that could come online in the future. One of those is a naming rights deal for Cardinal Stadium, whenever it happens. One source many people don’t mention when talking about U of L’s liabilities is increased revenue from the ACC Network, to go online next season in a partnership with ESPN. While estimates of revenue haven’t been released for ACC schools, an increase of $6-8 million per year per school wouldn’t be outlandish.

Moreover, a new adidas deal (negotiated by former athletic director Tom Jurich) worth $130 million over 10 years is kicking in with a $5 million payment early in 2019.

Regardless, Tyra said it was less about the money than making the right call.

“I know that you’re going to quickly jump to the financials,” Tyra said. “But in my life, there’s been plenty of financial decisions that I’ve made, but you’ve got to make the right decision. And I think that today we’ve made the right decision on behalf of the program. . . . Dollar signs or not, it was time to make a decision.”

3). TYRA HOPES TO SEE IMMEDIATE CHANGE IN THE TEAM. In his meeting with the players, Tyra said that he hoped that they would take advantage of this dramatic change to re-write the ending of their season.

“I met with the players, we met in the auditorium,” he said. “I was clear about the decisions that were made, why they were made, and my expectations of coaches, what Louisville football means to the community, my expectations of them as players, and my concerns … around effort, cohesiveness, communication, etc.”

Tyra said he thought the meeting went well, that players greeted him, some with hugs, and that he planned to have dinner with the team on Sunday night to talk to players further. He also said that he met with the remaining coaches.

“My expectations (are) on a turnaround immediately with this team, with this talented team,” Tyra said. “They need to get focused immediately on North Carolina State this week. We’ve provided the pathway for the student athletes to have a great week, work their butt off but have a great time. There’s two weeks to do that to really make a name for themselves. It doesn’t have to end on a bad note. We’re 2-8. We don’t have to be 2-10. It doesn’t have to end that way. Even though people are writing that script for us, they can change that story.”

4). WHO IS THE INTERIM COACH? Lorenzo “Whammy” Ward is a veteran defensive coach. He played defensive back at Alabama. He was defensive coordinator at Fresno State in 2016 and was at South Carolina before that. He also worked under Frank Beamer as secondary coach for seven seasons at Virginia Tech.

“I chose him because he has great respect from the players, of all positions,” Tyra said. “I felt like he was the one at this point who could step in and take over the administrative role as well as the leadership role.”

Tyra said he’s not sure why the effort from the football team has been lacking, but didn’t mince words in saying that it has.

“When you have 10 penalties and 4 turnovers in the first half, against a (Syracuse) team that we’ve handled pretty well . . . I don’t think our talent has slipped that far and theirs has slipped up that much," he said. “If you want to say culture equals effort, then something screwy was going on. Because the effort wasn’t what it has been historically. . . . The players can’t hide from that. It shows up on film."

5). THE JOB GOES THROUGH JEFF BROHM. Before anyone asks, I don’t know if the Purdue coach and former Louisville quarterback is coming. I hate that he has to go through the next two weeks with this hanging over his season at Purdue. But that’s what college football has become.

Should he be offered the job? Yes. In my opinion, which is what you get here, he’s as important a hire as Howard Schnellenberger was. Failing to land him would be like Schnellenberger’s alma mater, the University of Kentucky, being unable to land him. It could have decades of repercussions.

It was a remarkable moment when Tyra actually mentioned Brohm by name, because why beat around the bush about it? (Another extraordinary fact about Tyra’s news conference Sunday.)

When WAVE TV’s Kent Taylor asked Tyra if he’d be open to the new coach hiring members of his family here (knowing that Jeff’s brother Greg is director of football operations at Purdue and his brother Brian is a quarterbacks coach), Tyra responded, “Nice bait, Kent.”

Later, Tyra took the speculation head on.

“I know all the tie-ins that Jeff has with Louisville,” Tyra said. “I know all the tie-ins that he and I have with Trinity. I’ve heard it all. But still, that doesn’t mean he wants to be here. I just don’t think it’s worth speculating, until we get to the season and see who wants to be here. I have a great opportunity to sell a great program. But I want to be clear, this is not a hire out of convenience. This is one we need to have that really wants to be here and is going to win here.”

There are other candidates. Dino Babers at Syracuse. Joe Whitt Jr., currently the defensive passing game coordinator for the Green Bay Packers and a former Louisville assistant, has interest. University of Cincinnati coach Luke Fickell and Ryan Day, the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Ohio State, are among the early names receiving serious consideration.

But Brohm likely is the starting point. And if he has interest and Louisville can afford him, he might be where the discussion ends.

[ericcrawford]

CRAWFORD | Logging out: Petrino 2.0 could not sustain success in second Louisville stint

The University of Louisville is parting ways with head football coach Bobby Petrino, effective immediately.

Five years into his second Louisville tenure, the coach who built much of the modern program could not climb out of the hole that this season had become. After arriving on campus to fans chanting his name in 2014, Petrino was fired by Tyra and told he would not be permitted back into the football complex without a security escort.

The move comes after a series of lopsided losses in what has been a much more difficult season than was expected for the Cardinals, who have struggled to replace Heisman winner Lamar Jackson, and recently have shown little spirit in a three-game stretch in which they have given up 187 points, including a 77-16 loss at No. 2 Clemson.

The Cardinals are 2-8, and have lost seven straight games this season, and expect to be heavy underdogs in their two remaining games. The program also is 10-16 since moving into position to threaten for a College Football Playoff berth before losing 36-10 at Houston on Nov. 26, 2016.

“We want to thank Bobby for guiding our football program to some of the better seasons we have had historically at U of L during his two separate tenures here,” Louisville athletic director Vince Tyra said in a statement released by the school. “However, at this time we feel the program needs different leadership and we owe it to our student-athletes and fans to get this turned around.”

“I did not have the confidence that it was going to happen next season without a change and it needs to start happening now. We expect to determine a new head coach soon to restore our football program to national prominence.”

Petrino's contract provided for a buyout estimated at $14 million due to the coach in the event it should be terminated, to be paid in four installments with no time limit specified. Tyra's statement provided no details of the financial arrangements of the firing.'

Tyra is expected to name an interim coach at a 2 p.m. news conference Sunday.

Louisville lost its final three games of the 2016 season, which didn’t prevent Jackson from winning the Heisman Trophy, but the program has not regained the heights it experienced that season since.

Far from it. On the night Jackson won the Heisman, two Louisville players were shot in an altercation at an off-campus apartment, the first of several off-the-field controversies to hit the program over the last two years.

Last season, Louisville played host to ESPN’s College GameDay for a second time in a 12-month period when Clemson visited on Sept. 16, but the Cardinals never threatened in that game, losing 47-21, and the team has gone 8-12 in games since, with only half those victories coming against Football Bowl Subdivision opponents.

Two years ago today, coaches from Wake Forest discovered some of their own plays amid a stack of game-plan documents a Louisville coach had left in the stadium, and the resulting scandal – of a disgruntled radio analyst leaking info from Wake Forest to other schools – which led to more embarrassment for the program.

Petrino was recognized as one of the top play-callers in the game when he was originally hired by Louisville in 2003. He also had a wandering eye. He was involved in a controversial flirtation with Auburn during his first season in Louisville, in which he met with a plane full of Auburn officials to discuss that job, despite Tommy Tuberville still being in place at Auburn. Compounding matters was that he lied to then-Louisville athletic director Tom Jurich and the media about it.

Petrino weathered that storm, and took Louisville to new heights. In 2006 he led the Cardinals to an 11-1 season and a Liberty Bowl win. But five days after signing a contract extension and chastising reporters who asked him about rumors linking him to an opening at LSU, Petrino met with LSU officials to talk about that job.

He weathered that storm, too, and led Louisville to the Gator Bowl the following season. In July of 2006 he signed a $25-million plus extension. The following January, he was gone. After leading Louisville to its first BCS Bowl – a victory over Wake Forest in the Orange Bowl – Petrino left to become coach of the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons.

He would leave that job, too, after just 13 games, informing Falcons’ players of his departure with a 78-word note left in their lockers. The night he left, he took the head coaching job at Arkansas.

He led the Razorbacks to their first BCS bowl, but his success there was cut short when he was involved in a motorcycle accident. Later, it was discovered that a former Arkansas volleyball player with whom he was having an affair was a passenger on the motorcycle, and Petrino failed to notify his bosses at Arkansas. He was fired, and it looked as if his career might be over, until Western Kentucky hired him as coach eight months later.

When Charlie Strong left Louisville after that season, Tom Jurich brought Petrino back to Louisville, to lead the program into the Atlantic Coast Conference. He said Petrino was a “changed man.”

After stabilizing the program in his first season, Petrino and the Cardinals rode Jackson’s success to great notoriety.

But nobody foresaw the fall that was to come. Having hired his son and two sons-in-law as assistant coaches, Petrino came under fierce criticism as the wheels began to fall off this season. In the end, Tyra looked at plummeting attendance figures and decided his best alternative was immediate action.

After going 41-9 in his first Louisville stint, Petrino finishes his second with a record of 36-26.

Attention now turns to a possible replace. Discussion will begin with former Cardinal great Jeff Brohm, now the head coach at Purdue, but also includes Syracuse coach Dino Babers and others.

[ericcrawford]

CRAWFORD | From Lamar Leap to Petrino Plunge, it’s time for a change at Louisville

The outcome was about as expected. The University of Louisville football team actually looked decent for one quarter in Friday night’s 54-23 loss to Syracuse in the Carrier Dome Friday night.

Then the Cardinals gave up a 67-yard touchdown run up the middle. Then they fumbled an exchange to give away three points. Then they threw an interception to give away seven more.

Then Puma Pass, bless his heart, fumbled the ball without even being touched. A Syracuse field goal made it 30-7. Then, some Louisville kid I’ve never heard of threw an interception, and Syracuse scored. Louisville had 11 penalties and 4 turnovers before halftime.

You’ve seen the movie before. I’ll spare you the Rotten Tomatoes recitation.

It’s Rotten Football. It’s zero percent rating, right down there with “Jaws: The Revenge,” “Death Wish 5” and “The Ridiculous 6.” (Google them.) It’s come to this. Bobby Petrino and Louisville football vs. a bad Adam Sandler movie. Who ya got?

But with Louisville, the games on the field no longer are the games that capture people. They are not the fodder for sports talk radio or social media chatter.

The game everyone is watching – or would like to watch – is behind the scenes. It’s a game of watch the clock. Place your bets, legally where lawful, on when Vince Tyra hits Ctrl-Alt-Delete on Bobby 2.0.

It is inevitable, now. The only questions are how and when.

Maybe Tyra leaves a note and a check on Petrino’s locker. More likely, and hopefully, the sides come to a private resolution before the end of the season, to carry out at the end of the season. Tyra continues to stand by his assertion that he will wait until the season is over to make a determination.

But you get the feeling that Petrino has to know. You don’t have one of the pictures on your sideline play cards be Jim Carrey from “Dumb and Dumber” if you don’t have some kind of idea.

I’m not saying Petrino is driving around the parking lot at Cardinal Stadium dragging the Heisman Trophy behind his car while wearing one of Johnny Unitas’ old uniforms, but Louisville’s whole performance now has a Costanza-esque feel to it.

All right, let’s cut the silliness. There’s a game going on.

P.J. Blue hits the quarterback, who already is on the ground, late, then pushes a Syracuse player in the face after being flagged, and then is flagged again. At that point, I had zero interest in what was happening on the field. ESPN could sell a thousand subscriptions to whatever streaming service it wants if it would just put an isolation camera on Petrino and the Louisville sidelines.

So, really, what happens now? Somebody still has to coach this team. You have to go through the motions for a couple more weeks. But if I were Tyra, I’d be darned if I would watch another game of Brian Van Gorder defense. I’d hire those Louisville City Football Club player-coaches to finish out the final two games before watching another minute of jogging down the field.

Speed City? No, but the name I’m thinking rhymes with it.

The shame of all this is how demoralized the players on the field look. Puma Pass looks utterly discouraged. I hate it for them.

I even, and I do mean this, hate it for Petrino. I don’t believe he’s forgotten how to coach. I don’t know what happened this season, but it’s not indicative of his ability or even his career.

But it’s more than just a bad season. The magnitude of the losses – giving up 50 points in three straight games for the first time in school history -- the decommitments, the plummeting attendance, the apathy, the 10-16 record since the Houston loss, some off-the-field embarrassment, this is more than a bad season. It’s a historically bad season.

It’s a season that demands action. Dramatic and decisive.

Just two seasons ago, Louisville leaped into the national picture at Syracuse with the Lamar Leap. Friday night, a second straight national TV audience was witness, in the same stadium, to this Petrino plunge.

Alex Kupper, a former Cardinal offensive lineman and the current Louisville radio color analyst, summed it up this way: “They’ve been so beat down, they’re going to have to learn and compete all over again.”

It’s not quite back to Square One, not with ACC membership and that stadium and those facilities. But emotionally and technically, it’s going to take a heck of a job to get this thing back to where it needs to be.

Which brings up one more question, in addition to the how and the when? And that question is, Who?

It seems the program has reached a crossroads. It may (and I emphasize, may) have a chance to hire a coach with historic ties to the program and city, a coach from the line of Schnellenberger, a coach who may not be available for long, if he’s even available now.

It’s as much about the next guy as the last guy.

Midway through the fourth quarter of Friday night’s game, with Louisville trailing 54-14, ESPN pulled the plug, dumped the Cardinals from ESPN2 and moved them to ESPN News.

It’s not the only plug that needs to be pulled.

[ericcrawford]

These days, it’s good to be Mark Stoops

From a $250,000 bonus to an additional contract year to a team that is 7-1 and preparing to win a shot in the SEC Championship game, Kentucky coach Mark Stoops is enjoying some good times -- after some years that were plenty tough.

Read more: http://www.wdrb.com/story/39378702/crawford-or-surfin-sec-these-days-its-good-to-be-mark-stoops

[ericcrawford]

Bellarmine has all the pieces for a deep Division II run

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – They said all the right things publicly, but if you think the Bellarmine basketball players were at all satisfied to have played the University of Louisville basketball team close on Sunday, you don’t know them very well.

Bellarmine coach Scott Davenport knew his team missed an opportunity in its 71-60 loss to the Cardinals in the KFC Yum! Center. But he preferred to look at the bright side: The Knights show every indication of being a force when they begin NCAA Division II competition.

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