By Brandon Davis
Over 15, 000 Cardinal fans got their first look of the 2009 football team Friday night, as the University of Louisville held its annual spring game at Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium.
On a night where most spectators gathered to get a glimpse of the offense (red-team), the defense (white team) stole the show. The first team offense’s two opening drives were stopped by the first team defense, to go along with the second teams first drive went in favor of the defense as well.
The white team finished with 11 stops, including the game winner to give the defense the win 37-28 over the red team.
The scoring system for the offense highlighted points for touchdowns (6), field goals (3) and PAT (1), while the defense collected points from scoring defensive touchdowns (7), forcing turnovers (6), three and out’s (3), fourth down stops (3) and stops (2).
The defense finished with 10 tackles for a loss and a scored a touchdown when redshirt freshman Drew Davis recovered a fumble in the end zone. Senior safety Richard Raglin led the team with 10 tackles.
“I thought both teams played hard and I saw a lot of good things on both sides of the football,” said U of L head Coach Steve Kragthorpe said. “The defense was very physical and I think Coach Guy has done an excellent job with that group. They have built off what they accomplished last season.”
One of the biggest questions surrounding the Cards during the off-season is the quarterback position. After losing last year’s starter Hunter Cantwell to graduation, Kragthorpe must decide on one of his four inexperienced QB’s on the roster to take the snaps.
The four passers combined for 274 yards through the air and two touchdowns during the scrimmage.
“I was very pleased with the way the quarterbacks played and managed the football game,” said Kragthorpe. “I want to go back and watch all 15 practices and really start to evaluate the quarterback race.”
The passing attack was led by freshman Zach Stoudt, who completed five of his seven passes for 84 yard and a touchdown. Tyler Wolfe, a junior who spent last season as Cantwell’s backup, went 4-11 for 52 yards and a score.
North Carolina State transfer Justin Burke completed 6-of-10 for 69 yards; while JUCO transfer Adam Froman completed half of his six attempts for 58 yards including a 41-yard completion to wide-out Josh Chichester.
Though Kragthorpe said a starter wouldn’t likely be named until 10 days before the Cards open up the season, Burke and Froman took the majority of the snaps with the first team offense.
“We all know that it’s competitive and the good thing about spring is that when you have a lot of great quarterbacks like we do, the competition is stiff and it makes us that much better,” Burke said.
While the effectiveness of the passing game in the upcoming season may be in question, the ground game looks to build upon last season’s success by adding even more depth behind standout sophomore Victor Anderson.
The red team rushed for a combined 230 yards on 50 carries. Junior Blayne Donnell carried the ball 13 times for 57 yards and redshirt freshman Darius Ashley gained 43 yards on his 12 carries to go along with Anderson’s 26 yards on eight carries.
With the development of Donnell and Ashley, along with the return of junior Bilal Powell, who sat out the scrimmage with an injury, but is expected to be back by fall camp, the Cards look to again have a stable of talented ball carriers to complement Anderson and take some of the pressure of the young QB’s.
