Tag Archives: ACC

ACCess ACClimation ACCentuation

Basketball, College Sports, Football, , ,

This is the time of year when I should be obsessing about M Cunningham’s durability (while wondering about those $900 kicks he wore the other day), whether Monty Montgomery will be fully back, and will the secondary stabilize?

And beyond those contemplations, how much will really tall Josie Williams add to Jeff Walz’s phalanx of bigs, can KP coach as well as he can win the room, and, of course, will that rising senior from Jersey play for his dad’s coach or his grandpappy’s  teammate? Or shake up the hoops universe and take his talents elsewhere?

But . . .. but . . . but instead of thinking Xs and Os and out of bounds plays, instead of focusing on the guys in pads and cleats and sneakers, about that three game obstacle course to open the gridiron campaign, I’m obsessed with the guys in suits, what they’re conjuring up with their cash flow charts and TV stats.

Oy!!!

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The other day the Professor and I were lamenting the pickle many/most wags seem to believe U of L and its league seem to be in, given the Cards middle of the road stature  and its positioning in regards to the accelerating shift in college sports.

At one point, I began reminiscing about how it was when we were in high school. Continue reading ACCess ACClimation ACCentuation →

Can We Talk Some Pigskin?

College Sports, Football, ,

Yes, it is the apex of summer. More or less.

The Temperature/ Humidity Index — that’s what we called it in the days of my yout as Cousin Vinnie would call them — is going to reach 106 this week. Not exactly outlined against the gray blue sky the Four Horsemen rode again weather.

Still I’m ready to talk about some college football . . .

. . . because I as is my custom annually wended my way out to my purveyor of choice to plunk down an Andy plus a bit of silver for Phil Steele’s ’22 College Football Preview.

It’s 352 pages of everything even the most diehard of diehard pigskin obsessives could possibly want to know about the upcoming campaign. And way too much more.

It is biblical. Even though King Phil updates his yearly, unlike King James I, f/k/a King James VI of Scotland, whose version of his treasured tome has remained relatively unaltered since some time in the mid 1700s. Which predates college pigskin’s first shrine, Franklin Field in Philly, by a century and a half, give or take a 365 or two.

We know for certain of the gridiron annual’s importance thanks to the imprimatur of “The Current Voice of College Football,” Kirk Herbstreit: “The season officially starts every year when I get my copy of Phil Steele’s magazine.”*

*Dispensation has been granted to the former QB at THE, even though, heretic as it may be, he’ll also be calling Thursday night NFL now for Jeff Bezos.

The reality is that Steele’s too much is truly too much. Way more analytics and numbers and breakdowns and team reports and abbreviations (there’s a glossary, also too voluminous) and history and predictions than I can or really wish to consume. Also there’s so much info contained therein, that the print is too small for my aging eyes to read more than a few minutes at a time, and I refuse to use a magnifier. Continue reading Can We Talk Some Pigskin? →

Louisville CardFile: Syracuse

Football, , , , , , ,

CardHelmetIn the pleasant aroma of Louisville’s 41-17 evisceration of the Syracuse Orange, there is but one question.

And it is not where in the hell were all those U of L is a football school fans on a photogenic, weather immaculate, Howard Schnellenberger-perfect, leaves aglow, Grantland Rice crisp, autumn afternoon? Because they sure weren’t at Papa J’s, where the empty faded red seats just about equaled those filled with the base that chose to attend.

No, the real question is, what factors contributed to the first sighting this season of the Bobby Petrino offense fans have been expecing since Tom Jurich cut the devil’s bargain to bring the scandal-prone coach back for a second go round?

As usual, there are many reasons for the offensive onslaught that played out yesterday, each responsible in a greater or lesser percentage, depending on your personal perspective.

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Before I mention Kyle Bolin, whom I suppose to be most fans immediate factor numero uno, I must go to what has been the major offensive flaw all season. The offensive line. Continue reading Louisville CardFile: Syracuse →

Hoopaholic’s Gazette (Diggin’ the Scene with a Pigskin Lean)

Basketball, , , , , , , , , ,

b-ballOther than Gisele Bündchen, in the thrill of victory, agony of defeat Wide Wide Wide World of Sports (wider than wide, wide Dixie Highway), the happiest person after Pete Carroll’s epic strategic Super Bowl blunder was Rick Pitino.

Because, The Rick was the leader in the clubhouse, after allowing, condoning then prevaricating a last second trey in regulation against North Carolina, by Montrezl Harrell for heavens’ sake, for ESPY Award’s Boo Boo of the Year.

Fortunately, for the Cardinal hoops mentor, as well as the perplexed, but eventually relieved U of L faithful, the Cards prevailed over the Tar Heels, making for a Saturday Night Alright Alright Alright, save the fighting for the contestants at the end of that football game.

As well as, all together now, The Thrill of Victory. Continue reading Hoopaholic’s Gazette (Diggin’ the Scene with a Pigskin Lean) →

Louisville Cardinals in the Big Time Now

Sports,

LouACCBrad Evans was a dude in full.

A Hemingway character — He eventually drank himself to death after working on barges just for the experience — he was as smart as he was mean, as willing to argue politics as he was to break a bottle of Sterling over your head in a bar fight.

The transfer from Wofford played line for Frank Camp’s Cardinals in the mid not-so-halcyon 60s, toiling in the grime that passed for turf at the one-sided all-purpose facility, passed off as a football stadium, at the State Fairgrounds.

Evans was an imposing presence on the then quaintly bucolic Belknap campus.

He could rouse the rabble with the best of them.

In that capacity, he led the several hundred or so protestors who marched to The Thinker, to rally against school prexy Philip Davidson’s proclamation that the then woefully underfunded municipal university was seriously considering dropping football.

Were Evans still around, I trust he’d be as dumbfounded and exhilarated as I am at what’s happened with U of L sports. Continue reading Louisville Cardinals in the Big Time Now →