By Andrew Hornback

After falling to 2-5 on the season, following a 41-10 loss over the weekend to the University of Cincinnati, the University of Louisville football team will face a difficult road to making a bowl game.
NCAA bowl rules require a team to win at least 6 games to become eligible to participate in a bowl, and the Cardinals will be facing some very solid competition the rest of the way.
The Cards’ remaining opponents have a combined 21-14 record, and the potentially toughest game, against No. 20 West Virginia University, will be on the road.
“I’ll tell you one thing, no one on this team is going to give up,” said junior quarterback Adam Froman. “If we can win out the rest of our games we can [make a bowl game]. And we believe we can do that.”
The Cards will face Arkansas State University for the first time in school history this Saturday, Oct. 31. The remaining games will be against Big East opponents West Virginia, Syracuse University, the University of South Florida and Rutgers University. The Cards are 2-6 the last two seasons against those four conference opponents.
“Absolutely, we can [make a bowl game],” said head coach Steve Kragthorpe. “We have to win out from here, but we believe we can do that. Every team is beatable. West Virginia struggled today against Connecticut, and Pittsburgh beat South Florida pretty bad. So we feel we can do it.”
In addition to the away game against West Virginia, the South Florida game will also be on the road. The Cards have never won at South Florida, and haven’t won in West Virginia since 1990.
West Virginia also does one thing very well that the Cards consistently struggle to defend: running the ball. West Virginia leads the Big East, with 191.7 rushing yards per game, and is led by the seventh leading rusher in the country, junior running back Noel Devine.
Devine lead the Mountaineers to a win over the Cards in Louisville last year, by rushing for 154 yards on only 11 carries. He is having his best collegiate season this year, statistically. If the Cards continue to struggle defending the run, their long-shot hopes of making a bowl game will most likely end in Morgantown, West Virginia.
 In addition to a difficult remaining schedule for the Cards, recent injuries could also hinder the team. Sophomore starting running back Victor Anderson suffered a shoulder injury against Cincinnati, his second injury in two games.
“We’ll look at him, and hope he’s ready to play next week,” said Kragthorpe. “We didn’t want to put him back in there, down 38-10. But we’re hoping he can play next week.”
Anderson’s injury problems opened the door for redshirt freshman running back Darius Ashley to get playing time against Cincinnati. Ashley finished with a team high of 67 rushing yards on 13 carries.
“I’ve got two great [running] backs in front of me,” said Ashley. “So I just have to wait my turn. But we definitely can make it to a bowl game. We just have to win out from here, which we can do if we play hard.”
Starting quarterback Adam Froman injured his left arm in the Cincinnati loss as well, and didn’t return, but will likely start the next game for the Cards.
For the Cardinals, the quest to become bowl-eligible continues on Saturday, Oct. 31, against the 2-5 Arkansas State Red Wolves, at Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium.