It's crazy to think about the last decade of Cardinal Football, but we've been a Power 5 program from a decade. Thinking about the topics we were thinking about at the time.
But we just had an amazing run with Charlie Strong, but he was heading to Texas. He left a solid roster, but going into the ACC we needed a sure thing as head coach to keep it moving. We also were going to be replacing Teddy Bridgewater. Enter Bobby freaking Petrino. We were bringing back a man, who was hated, but we never doubted his coaching ability. Will Gardner was our guy at QB and Bobby 2.0 would unlock a more aggressive passing attack than we had with Charlie. And he was bringing in a legit SEC DC in Todd Grantham. 10 players on that team were drafted, so it probably was the most talented group we ever had at Louisville.
The schedule featured homes games starting a Labor Day primetime matchup with the Miami Hurricanes, Thursday Primetime matchup with Jameis Winston and the defending champion Florida State Seminoles, and we ended with our first Thanksgiving matchup against the Cats at home. Road trips to Notre Dame and Clemson.
Take out the early injury to Devante and that team would've beaten UVA and would've been 6-0 going to Clemson & likely 7-1 when we faced FSU for our showdown. That would've been a 10-2 year. It's probably the best overall team we had in the modern era along with probably the toughest schedule.
A decade has passed since then, it's crazy to think of the ups and down. A Heisman trophy winner, 2 years later at the bottom of college football, and ending the decade in the ACC title game.
What do you remember about our time that summer as we were entering the ACC?