October always does this to football. The sport spreads out, fills every night of the week, and suddenly there’s a game on Tuesday, two more on Wednesday, and a pile more by Thursday before the usual weekend flood even starts. Southern Miss and Troy get the Tuesday slot, then the calendar keeps rolling because Draft Kings and Fan Duel and The World Wide Leader need content.
For Louisville fans, the bigger headache is national perception. At theathletic.com, the weekly ranking of all 138 DI teams had the Cardinals taking a brutal fall from No. 23 to No.
- That’s the kind of slide that earns a simple label: precipitous decline.
The Cards are now firmly in Rodney Dangerfield territory, and the respect issue gets worse when ESPN’s weekly bowl projections are considered. One of the site’s writers has Louisville in the Wasabi Fenway Bowl against UTSA.
The other doesn’t have the Cardinals going to a bowl at all. That comes even though a ranking of the country’s best first time starters has Lincoln Kienholz at No.
Coaching changes are piling up too. Jim Mora, now at Colorado State in the PAC 12, saw his Rams start 2-0 before giving up 41 in a loss to Brigham Young.
The next game got even uglier, a 59-point surrender in a defeat to Texas San Antonio, and Mora showed his frustration on the sideline with defensive coordinator Tyson Summers. When Oregon State jumped out to 14 quick points early Saturday, Summers was gone immediately in the opening stanza and was no longer seen on the sideline or in his old office.
Illinois also fired its defensive coordinator, though only after a home loss to Purdue.
At Ohio State, the coordinators carry a different kind of weight. The Buckeyes have two former NFL head coaches on the headset crew, with Matt Patricia running the defense and Arthur Smith handling the offense.
The week also delivered one of the wildest finishes you’ll see. Harvard was down three to Colgate with four seconds left and initially looked set to try a 50-plus-yard field goal to tie it.
Then a false start pushed them back five yards, forcing a desperate shot. The Hail Mary came up five yards short of the end zone, but a receiver hauled it in, flipped it to a teammate, and the ball-carrier dashed in for a game-winning Hail Mary hook and ladder.
They reportedly practice it every week, just in case.
Pittsburgh remains one of the more surprising unbeaten Power 4 teams, along with UCLA, and the Panthers backed that up by beating Virginia Tech in Blacksburg to get ranked. The price was steep, though: wunderkind quarterback Matt Heintschel is out for the duration with an ACL injury.
Northwestern’s new Ryan Field is getting rave reviews, including a standing-only student section. The Wildcats, after hanging tough with Indiana last time out, battered Penn State in the stadium’s debut Friday.
At 3-1, the former Big Ten punching bag looks like it may actually be turning a corner, especially with Chip Kelly as offensive coordinator. Whether that means the school keeps its self-deprecating cheer - “That’s all right, That’s OK, You’ll come to work for us some day.” - is another question.
And then there’s Mississippi State. The Bulldogs’ lopsided loss to Alabama means the search for a new Flavor of the Month is on, with Kamario and Keelon now in the conversation.
One final note from the old-school playbook: Hayden Fry once painted the visiting locker room pink at Iowa. “It was the only paint we had,” said he.
That didn’t stop Bo Schembechler from being furious enough to have his staff paper the walls in a neutral color, and Jim Harbaugh followed in that same irritated tradition years later. The Wolverines still lost anyway in 1984, 26 zed.
In Other News...
Louisville Suddenly Has No Margin For Error Against Florida State
The trip to NC State left Louisville with another close loss and a little less room to breathe, as the Cardinals fell 31-28 and dropped their second straight game. It was the kind of result that stings because it was there to be taken, and it now leaves Jeff Brohms team trying to steady itself before the next ACC test.
ESPNs updated Football Power Index reflected the slide, pushing Louisville down five spots to No. 36. The numbers still lean slightly in the Cardinals favor for Florida State, but not by much, which is a reminder that this is turning into the kind of stretch where every possession matters and every misstep gets magnified. [Read more 🡒]
Louisville Keeps Losing Games The Same Painful Way
Louisville keeps finding new ways to make the same old mistakes feel fresh, and the latest loss followed a frustrating script. Turnovers put the Cardinals behind the eight ball, and even as the offensive line showed some improvement in front of Isaac Brown, the overall operation never quite steadied itself enough to take control of the game.
The defense was the more alarming problem, with coverage breakdowns creating too many easy openings for big gains and leaving the secondary exposed for much of the day. Louisville did flash some pass-rush pressure and had chances to get off the field, but third-down struggles and the blown assignments in the back end kept undercutting any momentum the Cardinals tried to build. [Read more 🡒]
Florida State Faces A Chance To Make An ACC Statement At Louisville
Saturdays ACC meeting in Louisville brings together two teams trying to firm up their standing, with Florida State walking in after a recent stretch that has kept its name in the conference conversation. The Seminoles have leaned on a balanced offense and enough efficiency in key spots to stay dangerous, while Louisville is looking to use home field and a bounce-back performance to make the kind of league statement that changes how the rest of the schedule feels.
What makes this one especially interesting is the contrast in styles and the way Florida State has been able to stress defenses with its quarterback run game and money-down execution. Louisville will need to be sharper than it has been in recent conference tests, because the Seminoles have shown they can keep drives alive and make opponents pay when the game tightens late. [Read more 🡒]