By David Hamrick
For a very memorable homecoming game at Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium, the Cards delivered a handy 61-10 rout to the visiting Florida Atlantic Owls.
But at least the Owls’ head coach (and former Louisville head coach) Howard Schnellenberger left his mark on the game and his name on the stadium. Louisville officials surprised Schnellenberger by naming the football building in his honor. Schnellenberger coached the Cards from 1985-94 to a 54-56-2 record including the 1990 team that went 10-1-1 and beat Alabama in the Fiesta Bowl.
As in previous games, the Cards got out of the gates slow and led only 20-10 at half time. At one point in the second quarter, the Cardinals led by only three, and the fans started getting a little restless, hoping that a repeat of the 45-14 debacle against South Florida would not happen.
“I wasn’t worried,” U of L Head Coach Bobby Petrino said about the first half. “There wasn’t any yelling in the locker room. I just told them to relax, loosen up, and the plays would happen. It all starts with the running game and Michael Bush already had over 100 yards at the half.”
Bush, a junior running back, quickly added to his rushing total with a 73-yard touchdown run on the first play of the third quarter. Bush went on to rush for a career-high 204 yards and also added three touchdowns. He became the first Louisville running back to go over 200 yards in a single game since Anthony Shelman in 1994 in what was, coincidentally, Schnellenberger’s last game as the Louisville skipper.
“That play was huge,” Petrino said of Bush’s 73-yard scamper. “To come out and make a play like that out of half time set the tone we wanted for the rest of the game.”
“Michael’s run gave us the spark we needed,” said senior defensive end Elvis Dumervil. “Whenever you lose, there’s a nasty taste in your mouth. So once we got going, it felt the way it should have last week [against USF].”
Dumervil continued his march toward the record books by adding two more sacks to his season total of 11, a tally which far-and-away leads the NCAA. Overall, the U of L defense held the Owls to 15 rushing yards and only 202 yards total.
For the ninth time under Coach Petrino, the Cardinals scored over 50 points, and they remain unbeaten when meeting that threshold. The Cardinals racked up 608 yards of total offense, including another strong performance from sophomore quarterback Brian Brohm who threw for 282 yards and one touchdown while completing 15 of 23 passes. Brohm’s favorite target was once again redshirt freshman sensation Mario Urrutia, who hauled in four passes for 138 yards, including a 76-yard touchdown strike towards the end of the third quarter.
The Cardinal rushing attack racked up 326 yards with Bush’s 204 leading the way. Junior Kolby Smith and redshirt freshmen George Stripling and Sergio Spencer combined for the other 128 yards rushing.
Next up for the Cardinals will be ACC foe North Carolina, who Louisville beat 34-0 in Chapel Hill last year.
