By Jesse Welte
The Louisville Cardinals began life without Michael Bush on Saturday and despite a slow start, it appeared the offense did not miss a beat. The Cardinal rushing attack combined for 315 yards and seven touchdowns to pace Louisville to a 62-0 win over Temple.
“I’m looking at it right now, saying there’s no way we could have beaten them. Did we prepare like heck to beat them? Yeah. But if you don’t learn from this, you’re not going to evolve as a program,” said Temple head coach Al Golden.
U of L quarterback Brian Brohm threw for 307 yards and a touchdown while sophomore wide receiver Mario Urrutia had five catches for 110 yards and a touchdown. The lone setback for the Louisville offense was on the second drive of the game when Brohm’s pass bounced off Urrutia into the hands of a Temple defender for an interception.
With Miami looming and the Cards feeling the ill effects of losing their star running back, Saturday’s game against a much weaker Temple team allowed them an excellent opportunity to refine their backfield with backups Kolby Smith and George Stripling.
Both showed their versatility throughout the first half. Brohm hit Stripling for a 34 yard reception, and Stripling later capped the seven play, 94-yard drive with a three yard touchdown run to put the Cards up 35-0.
Junior tailback Sergio Spencer also looked impressive, rushing for 74 yards and two touchdowns for the Cards. Two other players got on the board with rushing touchdowns. Senior offensive lineman Kurt Quarterman had a touchdown in the first quarter and senior fullback Deriontae Taylor picked up a score in the fourth.
Junior Art Carmody finished the scoring on the day with a career-long 51 yard field goal, which made the score 62-0.
Temple had two close scoring chances in the second half. In the third quarter, a fake halfback dive allowed Owls’ receiver Jason Harper to break away from the Louisville secondary for a 68- yard catch; however, Harper fumbled the ball on the next play and the Cards recovered.
Then on Temple’s last offensive drive of the game, backup quarterback Vaughn Charlton led the Owls to the Louisville 19 yard line. On fourth down with one yard to go, Charlton overthrew his receiver in the end zone. Louisville took control and kneeled the ball to end the game.
Louisville outgained Temple 671 to 240 yards. Temple’s losing streak climbed to 14 games as they fell to 0-2 on the season. Louisville improved to 2-0 on the season.
