By Charlie Leffler
Cards are looking to capture the moment in C-USA
By Charlie Leffler
Sports Editor
Now that it is midway through the college football season, one would expect Louisville to be in midseason form. However, Tuesday night’s performance against Memphis was a perfect demonstration of just how the Cardinal’s season has gone so far. There were; moments of brilliance, moments of blunders, and moments of wondering what was going to go wrong next.
Louisville’s greatest dilemma this season seems to be capturing the right moment so that they can come away with their third consecutive Conference USA title.
After the Memphis game, Louisville head coach John L. Smith laughed at the idea of being in midseason form. “Tell me what midseason form is,” he said. “It’s pretty crappy form right now. We’ve got a long way to go. We’re definitely not there yet, so we’d better start working to be in midseason form.”
This week the Cardinals will begin a three-game home stretch with a three-game winning streak and an undefeated conference record. With four of their final six games in Papa John’s Stadium Louisville would appear to be in the driver’s seat for the championship. “If we can come out of this deal undefeated at home then we’ll be in pretty good shape,” said Smith.
However, a single loss could make the difference between first place and being and also-ran. “I don’t think you’re going to win it with more than one,” said Smith. “I think you have a chance with one to win it or tie it, but if you have more than that you are definitely out.”
With the erratic performances around C-USA, it is hard to determine just how difficult their remaining games will be.
After wanting to create a conference with great parity, C-USA is now looking like a conference that is a parody. East Carolina kicked off the season with a humiliating loss to Duke, Louisville was beaten by Kentucky, UAB fell to Louisiana Lafayette, Cincinnati stumbled against Miami… Ohio, and Southern Miss lost to South Florida. All games that make critics around the country laugh at C-USA’s claim that they should be in the BSC. (In defense of both Louisville and Southern Miss, both South Florida and Kentucky are much better teams than anyone expected.)
However, that can not be too much of a positive. South Florida has only had a football program for five years and has been in division I since 2000. It says a lot about C-USA that the five-year-old program’s entrance into the conference next season will actually lift the league. In fact, South Florida could end up with the best record in Conference USA this season without even being an official member of the league. The Bulls defeated USM and play ECU this weekend, Memphis on November 9 and at Houston on the 23rd.
Going into this week, there are only four teams in Conference USA with winning records: Louisville, Southern Miss, Tulane and TCU.
Everyone expected Louisville and Southern Miss to be the leaders in the battle for the conference crown this year. And so far, they have been proven right; however, looks can be deceptive.
Southern Miss began the season with an eye-opening win over last year’s co-Big Ten champion Illinois. At the time the victory looked impressive, but this past weekend, the Illini finally picked up only their second win on the season.
Likewise, Louisville’s close loss to Colorado St. was so dismal to the national audience that the Rams actually dropped out of the polls after picking up the win. However, the Cards got a boost this past weekend when Florida State nearly knocked off No. 1 ranked Miami on the Hurricane’s home field. After falling to Louisville, many people believed that the Seminoles were overrated. Now people are looking at the Cardinals in a different light. “Everybody watched it. Everybody’s excited about it,” said Smith. “Hopefully they’re looking at us in a little different vein than they have in the past.”
The greatest disappointment in the conference falls to Cincinnati. The Bearcats were expected to be in the hunt for the conference title; however, they have gone steadily downhill since narrowly falling to Ohio State. UC has now lost four of their last five games, three of which were at home. The future doesn’t look any better for UC because their next four games are at USM, Memphis, then at both ECU and Louisville.
East Carolina was expected to be in a rebuilding stage, but you can rarely count head coach Steve Logan out. However, losses to Duke, Wake Forest and West Virginia got ECU off to a 1-3 start. On the other hand, the Pirates’ are undefeated since entering conference play, but the misleading factor is that ECU played both Army and Tulane at home. “ECU’s kind of been a shock,” said Smith, “you kind of expected them to win more than they have to this point.”
Houston and Army have not been a disappointment to anyone. No one expected them to be any good, and they aren’t, going for a combined 2-10, with the Cougars getting both wins.
The hottest team in C-USA has to be TCU. After falling in an overtime comeback bid against Cincinnati in the season opener, the Horned Frogs have gone 5-0. However, the deceptive factor is that the wins have come against North Texas, SMU, Houston, Army and a dismal Northwestern team.
The biggest surprises in the conference have to belong to Tulane and UAB. As unbelievable as it may seem, the Green Wave has actually been playing better without quarterback Patrick Ramsey who is now starting for the Washington Redskins. “Tulane has gradually been putting up much better numbers,” said Smith. “They do some great things offensively. It’s not a total shocker that they would turn around and beat Cincinnati like they did last week.”
No one thought that UAB would be competitive this season after having lost virtually its entire starting defense from last year. But after impressive wins over Memphis and Houston, the Blazers are sitting near the top of the conference and are unbeaten in C-USA play. “UAB’s a good football team,” said Smith. “I said that a week ago when they had beaten Memphis. Better not take those guys lightly.”
While it appears that once again C-USA will be making no waves on the national scene, on a conference level it will once again be a year where it can be anybody’s race for the crown.
