October changes the whole feel of the football calendar, and this week is a perfect example. There’s a game on every night now - not just the usual Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday slate. With Southern Miss and Troy on Tuesday, two more games on Wednesday, and four on Thursday, the sport is everywhere.
For Louisville fans, the national picture is not exactly flattering. The Athletic’s weekly ranking of all 138 DI teams took a hard look at the Cardinals, and Louisville dropped from No. 23 to No. 54 after the weekend.
That kind of plunge has a name: “Precipitous Decline.” The Cards are sitting in Rodney Dangerfield territory now, getting no respect at all.
ESPN’s bowl projections aren’t much kinder. One of the site’s two weekly predictors has Louisville in the Wasabi Fenway Bowl against UTSA.
The other doesn’t have the Cardinals in any postseason game at all. That comes even with a ranking of the nation’s best first-time starters placing Lincoln Kienholz at No.
There was also a quick coaching shakeup in Fort Collins. Jim Mora, now at Colorado State, saw his defense struggle again after the Rams opened the year with two wins.
They gave up 41 in a loss to Brigham Young and then 59 in a loss to Texas San Antonio, after Mora had already shown his displeasure with DC Tyson Summers on the sideline. When the defense allowed 14 fast points early Saturday against Oregon State, Summers was relieved of his duties immediately in the opening stanza and was no longer on the sideline or in his office.
Illinois made a defensive change too, though it waited until after a home loss to Purdue.
And at Ohio State, the coordinator jobs are no place for people who think nobody cares. The Buckeyes have two former NFL head coaches on the headset: Matt Patricia on defense and Arthur Smith on offense.
One of the weekend’s wildest finishes came at Harvard. Down three to Colgate with four seconds left, the Crimson were lining up for a field goal from 50-plus yards to tie it.
Then came a false start, a five-yard penalty, and suddenly it was Hail Mary time. The final throw came up five yards short of the end zone, but it landed in a receiver’s hands, was flipped to a teammate, and turned into a game-winning Hail Mary hook-and-ladder.
The report says Harvard practices that play every week, just in case.
Pitt remains one of the two most surprising undefeated Power 4 teams, along with UCLA. The Panthers were ranked and then went into Blacksburg and upset Virginia Tech, but they lost wunderkind quarterback Matt Heintschel for the season to an ACL.
Northwestern’s new Ryan Field is drawing plenty of attention too, and not just for the building itself. The new stadium includes a standing-only student section, and the Wildcats made the debut count by battering Penn State on Friday after giving Indiana a tough game last time out.
At 3-1, the old image of Northwestern as a Big Ten punching bag feels like it belongs to another era, especially with Chip Kelly now running the offense. Whether the school keeps the 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’ beatdown at the hands of Alabama means a new Flavor of the Month is needed, with “Kamario, meet Keelon” now in the mix.
Iowa’s pink visitor locker room is still part of the sport’s lore. Hayden Fry once explained, “It was the only paint we had,” and the setup annoyed visiting coaches enough that Bo Schembechler had his staff paper the walls in a neutral color.
His Wolverines still lost there in 1984, 26 zed. Jim Harbaugh later joined the list of coaches irritated by the pink.
Finally, Minnesota added another line to the Little Brown Jug story by beating Michigan at home for the first time since 1977.
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 🡒]