How bad the damage.
U of L is playing with all the med-iocrity of the Cooper era, and the lack of discipline of the Smith Era. How do the Cards look in Week 5 of the Koach Ron L. Kragthorpe regime? Seriously U.G.L.Y. on both sides of the ball — and no spin, nor Koach’s acceptance of responsibility, can mask it. Much of it is systemic. Late-arriving, uninspired play calls on O. Poor technique and lack of execution on D. Strange coaching strategies from the sideline. The best metaphor I’ve heard is that a pilot certified to fly twin-engine Cessnas was put in the cockpit of a 747. Will he learn the controls before the superjet, now spiraling perilously in free fall, crashes on primetime ESPN? Should AD TJ take a mulligan? This looks so far like his first misbegotten coaching hire? Frankly, not yet. As bad as it is, and as long as it will take to reestablish the program from this startling, sudden and precipitous decline, a responsible university can’t cut bait in the middle of or after one season. Period.

The Oscars. You gotta wonder what Louisville’s first football family is thinking? Unless Jeff  Brohm is named O coordinator — which he should be — don’t look for him on the Cardinal staff next season.
Hope. Hoops practice begins in 16 days.

Schnell Speak of the week. FAU warmed up for the Cats with a W over North Texas. Howard was happy: “This was a very special night. They got ahead of us substantially and we came back and won it the hard way, never losing sight that we had the ability to do it.” FAU approved the building of a new campus stadium last week. Howard was happy: “It’s a more important event than winning a football game at this juncture. This has certified the university’s commitment to putting the best football team on the field that they can. It is a firm selling point (for recruiting) that we haven’t had. It was getting more and more difficult to talk about a national championship, but this puts us back on course, and the course is shorter now.”