By Charlie Leffler
Cards face biggest test yet at CSU
By Charlie Leffler
Sports Editor
After putting a 40-3 pasting on Duke this past weekend, the Louisville Cardinal football team will face its biggest challenge of the year thus far when they travel to Ft. Collins to face Colorado State on Saturday.
Though head coach John L. Smith was pleased with his team’s improvement, he also says that they have a long way to go. The Rams are a far cry better than the Blue Devils. “Overall, it’s a positive,” said Smith, “but we have to realize that’s not a Colorado State team that we played. We’ve got to understand how good this football team coming up this week is going to be.”
After beginning the season with a win over Virginia and the upset of No. 6 ranked Colorado, the Rams narrowly lost this past weekend at UCLA in a game that they led midway through the fourth quarter.
On the other side, the Cards showed significant improvement following their season- opening loss to Kentucky. The offensive line, receivers, and running backs all looked better. “We did some things that we can build on and continue to get better,” said Smith.
The greatest disappointment for Smith was when, after jumping to a 26-3 first half lead, the Cards came out flat in the third quarter. “I was real concerned about our third quarter effort,” said the coach. “I talked to our football team mainly about focus and finish.” Smith says that he plans on altering practice this week in an effort to generate better focus during the entire game. Against Colorado State, the Cards will need to be focused for the entire 60 minutes.
Though the Cards’ defense has yet to come up with a turnover this season, that does not concern him. “Turnovers are going to come,” said Smith. “The ones that concern me are the ones we’re giving up, not the ones that we’re not generating. We can’t afford to drop punts. We can’t afford to give up fumbles. And David’s going to have to be more secure with the ball. I think maybe he’s trying to do just a little bit more than he should.”
Last season, the Cardinals squeaked out a 7-2 victory over the Rams, but the game came down to Louisville deflecting a CSU pass in the endzone on the final play of the game to secure the win.
This season, the Cards will have not only face the Rams on their homefield, but also have to battle the Colorado altitude.
U of L quarterback Dave Ragone feels that he has something to prove against CSU. After only scoring a single touchdown against the Rams last season, Ragone said he wants to see a score that will not look as if it came from a baseball game.
“We’re going to have a test,” said Smith. “Colorado State is an awful good football team.”
CSU returns starting quarterback Bradlee Van Pelt, who is a known scrambler. But this season Van Pelt has also improved his throwing accuracy. “He can run,” said Smith, “but he’s thrown the ball much better than he did a year ago.”
Another dangerous weapon in the Colorado State lineup is running back Cecil Sapp. Louisville should remember Sapp well after he ran all over them in the 2000 Liberty Bowl. Last year Sapp was diagnosed with a benign tumor in his right heel which required surgery, forcing him to sit out the season. Without Sapp, Louisville barely won last season. “Sapp is back this year, and he makes a world of difference to those guys.”
One area that Louisville has shown a lot of strength in so far this season is on opponents’ third down conversions. U of L’s opponents have gone 6-34 on third downs for 17.9%.
