Mike Rutherford Article: Louisville athletics heads into 2021-22 at a crossroads

[LeFors4Ever]

Louisville athletics heads into 2021-22 at a crossroads

One of the more significant eight month periods in program history lies directly in front of us.

www.cardchronicle.com

Great article that articulates where we are right now. This is a big year for hope and momentum.

In the last eight months alone, we’ve seen ...


—An extortion case involving the head coach of the men’s basketball program. One where extorted and the program he represents seem to have been damaged and embarrassed more than the extorter.


—The head football coach getting caught sneaking around and flirting with an SEC program during those post-regular season December weeks that are always going to give Louisville fans sports PTSD.


—An apparent schism between the president’s office and the athletic department, one which threatens the likelihood of achieving all those positive things that were originally promised. `


It’s past collapsing on present over and over again, and always in the most embarrassing possible way.


The worst part is that there’s no guarantee any of it is going to stop any time soon.


None of this is to say that I’m not eagerly anticipating the 2021-22 U of L athletics season. I’m a lifer; a contract I unknowingly signed at a time before I could fully form a conscious memory. I wouldn’t have it any other way. If you’re reading this, you’re probably a lifer too.

 

[Ipartiedwithhopgood]

His twitter is gold. The twitter polling on the HC's are pretty revealing. It's just a carve out sample of fans, but overall fans are just kind of shrugging right now.

The basketball program situation is pretty easy to understand, but the football program's drop is more complicated and unclear. We knew life after Lamar would be a step back but the overall status on football and what needs to be done to get back into T25 range is for sure up in the air.

 

[2330859]

Mike has a history of insightful wisdom about UL football. Just my opinion, but I had an uneasy feeling about our football program under CBP II era; particularly with so much dependence on Uber-talented Lamar Jackson. It was “fool’s gold” when one extraordinary talent is responsible for such a huge percentage of your offensive success. Bobby failed to take more recruiting advantage of that success and the National exposure we received.

 

[KozmasAgain]

It’s funny when you think about it but at one time Bobby Petrino and Rich Rodriguez had their teams ranked in the top 5. CBP is coaching SE Missouri and CRR is offensive coordinator for Louisiana Monroe.

 

[2330859]

It is funny how some can rise to such elevation, only to drop to mediocre or lower. Rich and Bobby were not very well-liked by their respective fan bases.

 

[LeFors4Ever]

His twitter is gold. The twitter polling on the HC's are pretty revealing. It's just a carve out sample of fans, but overall fans are just kind of shrugging right now.

The basketball program situation is pretty easy to understand, but the football program's drop is more complicated and unclear. We knew life after Lamar would be a step back but the overall status on football and what needs to be done to get back into T25 range is for sure up in the air.

2010-2013 was solid program building by Charlie Strong. Built in the right places and had us ready for an immediate jump. But we weren't too solid on offense with some of the play-calling. Teddy elevated us greatly.

2014-2015 we looked strong in some areas, other than QB. We weren't as sharp, but we still were a top 25 level team. Devante Parker returning saved the 2015 season. We were honestly looking bad late 2015, remember we were down 21-0 to sUcKs until the GOAT started his run.

2016-2017 we had Lamar fever and that FSU game was just amazing. We weren't really deep, but our 1st string was so dominant that it looked great. Then we lost to Houston, sUcKs, and LSU. We just got destroyed. The line was still committing penalties like crazy, but Lamar was GOAT. 2017 was not fun either. Remember how awful the Purdue game was and how awful we looked on D until Jaire returned?

2018 No Lamar. 3rd defensive coordinator in 3 years. A crap line. A crap defense. A coach that didn't care anymore.

It's so amazing what great talents like Parker, Teddy, Lamar, and Jaire can do to elevate you as a program. But the signs were there and we ignored them because well, Lamar was amazing. We remember the FSU route and we wonder why the Houston collapse happened, but we also choose not to remember that an AWFUL Virginia team & a bad Duke team scared us. We forget that sUcKs was waxing us before Lamar's comeback in 2015.

We were a program being elevated by some elite talents on our first string, but the base and depth were not there the whole time. And as those talents left, we were left exposed.

 

[2330859]

Funny, I just responded on another thread about UL‘s powerful roster under Charlie Strong. Clint Hurrt complimented Strong in attracting a level of talent from Louisville and south Florida that was exceptional. Can anyone imagine what UL could have accomplished if Bobby Petrino had been able to bring that level of recruiting to UL when he signed Lamar to that class? Bobby attracted a few other future NFL level kids, but no where close to the numbers that Strong and Hurtt were able to bring in on both sides of the footbal.