UofL Football Picks Up Commitment From 2019 3 Star Zach Williamson
Photo Courtesy of Zach Williamson’s Twitter Account (@ZWilly32)
UofL Football picked up a commitment from 2019 3 Star DT/OL Zach Williamson out of Spring Valley High School in Huntington, WV.
The 6’6 275 lbs Williamson had offers from West Virginia, Pittsburgh, Duke, Vandy, and others.
Williamson is a two-way player in high school playing both OL and DL. He primarily plays DT and OT. His footwork and strength will make him valuable at either position.
In watching his Hudl highlights, there’s a lot to like about Williamson. As an OL, he is like many of the OL recruits UofL has recruited recently in that he’s a mauler. He absolutely loves pancaking defenders. In one highlight, he literally pushes a defender at least 15 yards down the field.
Jaylen Smith And Dez Fitzpatrick Named To 2018 Biletnikoff Award Watch List
Press release from the University of Louisville athletic department:
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – University of Louisville football wide receivers Jaylen Smith and Dez Fitzpatrick were named to the 2018 Biletnikoff Award Watch List, the Tallahassee Quarterback Club Foundation announced Thursday.
The Biletnikoff Award annually recognizes the outstanding receiver in college football. Any player, regardless of position (wide receiver, tight end, slot back and running back) who catches a pass is eligible for the award.
Smith, a senior from Pascagoula, Miss., earned first team all-ACC honors last season after leading the Cardinals with 60 receptions for 980 yards and seven scores. Despite missing three games with an injury, he finished third in the league in receiving yards and was ninth in receptions, while averaging 16.3 yards a reception.
A starter in 10 games, Smith registered a career-best four 100-yard receiving contests, establishing career highs with nine receptions for 183 yards and a touchdown in a 47-35 win over North Carolina.
Holly Aprile Introduced As New Head Softball Coach
UofLSports.com
On Wednesday afternoon, athletic director Vince Tyra, introduced the new softball coach Holly Aprile to the media for the first time. Coach Aprile comes from Pittsburgh where she spent the last ten seasons at the helm. She mentioned that this job has been on her radar for quite a while and it was more than a destination job.
Here are some highlights from the press conference:
Donovan Mitchell Wins Breakthrough Athlete Of The Year At 2018 ESPYS
Photo Courtesy of the Utah Jazz
Donovan Mitchell continues to live his best life. Spida was voted breakthrough athlete of the year at the 2018 ESPYs and wore a killerrrrrr suit to top it off.
Keep it up Donovan, you continue to make the University of Louisville proud!
Nunnsense | Bobby Petrino Has A Chance To Make A Statement This Season
Football season is rapidly approaching and it’s time for everyone to set their expectations. When it comes to Louisville football, for most people, expectations have generally been very high with Louisville falling just short of those expectations. I would say that Louisville has pretty much finished the last 4 seasons right on the realistic expectations set by Las Vegas. Louisville has won either 8 or 9 games each of the last 4 seasons under Petrino (34 wins). In his previous tenure (2003- 2006), Louisville had 41 victories including an 11-1 season and a 12-1 season, but that wasn’t against ACC competition.
This season is shaping up to be a season with very low expectations. Louisville just lost both their Heisman winning quarterback and their defensive All-American as they were both selected in the first round of the 2018 NFL draft. They also lost 7 starters on defense, including their 2 leading tacklers. Louisville is entering the season with their 3rd defensive coordinator in 3 years. They also have a very daunting schedule where they will open the season against the 2017 national champions, Alabama, and will play the 2016 national champions, Clemson, in the middle of three road games in four, going to Boston College, Clemson and Syracuse, with only six days to get ready for the Orange after the battle in Death Valley.
Las Vegas has set the win total for Louisville at 7 while a few other national publications have predicted Louisville to finish the regular season with a 6-6 record. Needless to say, some of the “experts” are lazy and just look at what Louisville has returning and not looking at the potential of the talent on this team when making their predictions.
Locally, there have been some rumblings that Petrino’s seat may be getting a little warm. While I don’t totally agree, I can see where his 1-11 record versus ranked teams and his 1-3 bowl record could be reason for concern. He also just finished a season where he had the best college football player on his team and they could only win 8 games – and he sent said player out with his best career victory being a Music City Bowl game.
I understand, as a fan, that this can be frustrating.
But we all know that Petrino is widely regarded as an offensive genius and that he can coach. With expectations being what they are, I expect Petrino to make a statement this year that he is still a great coach and that his team is being slightly overlooked. I don’t expect Louisville to be in the college football playoffs but I do expect them to win 8 games.
While 8 wins isn’t a huge difference from the 7 Vegas predicted, it’s not about the number of wins but rather how Louisville gets those victories.
Papa John May Not Go Away Quietly
We all know that Papa Johns founder, John Schnatter, used a word that is totally unacceptable. A chain reaction of events followed, one of which was the changing of the name of the University of Louisville football stadium to Cardinal Stadium, dropping Schnatter’s name from the title.
After Schnatter’s unacceptable remarks were made public by Forbes, I immediately looked up and thoroughly read through the naming rights contract between Schnatter and the University. The contract is very one-sided in favor of Schnatter and it gives him rights over the stadium name until December 30th 2040. It appeared as though the name of the stadium wouldn’t change despite the millions of new name suggestions on social media. While it was fun to come up with new names, I highly doubted the name would be changed before the year 2041.
Enter new University president, Neeli Bendapudi. She quickly met with her board and trusted advisors. After the meeting she announced that the Stadium would now be called Cardinal Stadium. Read the rest of this entry
Cards In The Pro’s: All-Star Game Update
Will Smith is on absolute fire right now for the Tulsa Drillers. He hit .378 with 17 total hits in 11 games, 6 games included multiple hits. Kyle Funkhouser was promoted this week to AAA in the Detroit Tigers organization and if he continues his surge of great performances on the mound he may be on the Tigers Roster in September. Â
Corey Ray is going nuts right now for Biloxi as he hit 4 home runs, had 12 RBIâs and 12 stolen bases. Logan Taylor was signed by the Reds on July 12th. Devin Hairston is currently on an 11 game hitting streak for Carolina.
Weekly statistics are from the week of 7/2-7/16/2018
2019 GA ATH Jeremiah Pruitte Commits To The Cards
Photo Courtesy of Jeremiah Pruitte’s Twitter Account (@_jlp5)
UofL Football went down south to GA and got a commitment from 3 Star GA ATH Jeremiah Pruitte. Pruitte plays for Wheeler High School in Marietta, GA.
The 6’6 218 lbs player chose UofL over offers from Pittsburgh, Syracuse, and Purdue, among others. Cardinals WR coach and co-offensive coordinator Lonnie Galloway was the primary recruiter of Pruitte per 247sports.com.
Pruitte plays multiple positions for Wheeler High; among them OLB, WR, and TE.
In watching Pruitte’s Hudl highlights, he’s tall, he’s big, and he’s physical. One of his best attributes is his blocking. Pruitte is a great downfield blocker as a WR. His team utilizes this skill a lot in bubble screens. He’s able to seal off defenders and open a lane for the receiver with the football to gain yards.
Post Practice Interviews 7-13-18
Jaylen Smith and Jon Greenard spoke with the media after today’s practice. Here is a little bit of what they had to say…
Bobby Petrinoâs Statement On Removal Of âPapa Johnsâ From Cardinal Stadium
Here is what Head Coach, Bobby Petrino, has to say about the football stadium now being called âCardinal Stadiumâ
Photo Gallery : Football Practice 7-13-18
The Louisville football team held a rare open to the media practice today at the Trager Center. This wasn’t a practice in helmet and pads but rather a conditioning practice. The Cards warmed up, stretched and lifted a little inside. Then they headed out to the sand where they ran sprints, worked on vertical and long jumps and ran a few more drills. The hardest worker on offense and defense got to smash a rock with a sledgehammer at the end of practice. There were a couple of interviews after practice and I included a few up to date pics of the expansion progress of CARDINAL STADIUM. Enjoy! Football season is getting closer…
UofL President Neeli Bendapudi’s Official Statement On Removal Of Papa John’s Name From Cardinal Stadium
Below is the official statement from UofL President Neeli Bendapudi regarding the removal of Papa John Schnatter’s name from Cardinal Stadium and the renaming of the stadium as “Cardinal Stadium”:Â
UofL Family,
In moments of crisis, the best communities find a way to come together. Over the last 24 hours our community has been fractured by the comments made by former UofL trustee John Schnatter. These comments were hurtful and unacceptable, and they do not reflect the values of our university. I have decided, with the support of our Board of Trustees, to rename our football stadium âCardinal Stadiumâ and to remove John Schnatterâs name from the Center for Free Enterprise at our College of Business effective immediately.
I have stated since my first day on this job that my commitment to the University of Louisville is to make it a great place to learn, a great place to work, and a great place in which to invest. We can only accomplish this if we truly celebrate diversity, foster equity, and aim to achieve inclusion.
I appreciate your support as we have reviewed this difficult situation. By taking this action, we renew our communityâs commitment to speaking up when it matters, doing what is right, and coming together as one team â our Cardinal family â to heal and move forward. The brightest days for this university are still ahead.
Go Cards!
Sincerely,
Neeli Bendapudi
Two UofL Football Players Want Papa John’s Name Removed From Cardinal Stadium
“Papa” John Schnatter has come under a storm of controversy after he admitted to using the N-word during a conference call. He resigned from the UofL Board of Trustees and from the position of chairman of the company he founded.
There is, however, another thorny issue that remains unresolved. His name adorns the football stadium UofL plays in and, by contract (click here for contract details), it will remain there in some form until at least 2040.
Nunnsense | Louisville Has Best Receivers In The ACC
The definition of best is “of the most excellent, effective, or desirable type or quality.” As a fan you can use any number of factors to determine who you think is the best. Most fans just use their heart.
I prefer to use my eyes and statistics.
Based on my research, and what I have witnessed, it is my opinion that Louisville has the best receivers in the ACC. I want to also say that they could be top 5 in the country but I have not seen enough of the other receiving corps to fairly make that assessment. So I’ll just stick with my opinion that Louisville has the best receivers in the ACC and that they compare favorably with the top receivers in the country. Read the rest of this entry
John Schnatter Resigns From UofL Board Of Trustees
Photo Courtesy of Insider Louisville
The University of Louisville released a statement today regarding the resignation of John Schnatter (Papa Johns) from the Board of Trustees.
UofL Men’s Basketball Tickets On Sale Now
Press release from the University of Louisville athletic department:
UofL Menâs Basketball Season Tickets on Sale
LOUISVILLE, Ky. â Season tickets for the University of Louisville’s 2018-19 20-game home men’s basketball schedule in the KFC Yum! Center are now available for purchase.
Under first year head coach Chris Mack, the Cardinals will face an impressive list of home games highlighted by teams such as Duke, Michigan State, North Carolina, Kentucky, Virginia and Notre Dame. The Cardinals enter their ninth season in the spectacular 22,000-seat KFC Yum! Center with eight returning lettermen and four talented transfers among the accomplished UofL roster.
2013 Championship Members Announce Lawsuit Against The NCAA
Photo: Sam Upshaw Jr.; The Courier-Journal
Today, we received more details on what the lawsuit against the NCAA will look like.
We now know that Gorgui Dieng, Tim Henderson, Mike Marra and Stephan Van Treese and Luke Hancock will be the players suing the NCAA in the case headed by Morgan and Morgan. Rick Pitino will not be part of the lawsuit, even though Mr. Morgan and Luke both agree that he got a “raw deal”.
When asked why other players from the 2013 team were not involved in the suit, the attorney said that “this is the first group of players to come forward” so it is not clear if another group will follow in the footsteps of the initial players.
Changing The Name Of Papa Johns Cardinal Stadium Is Not Likely Until 2041
With all the recent controversy surrounding John Schnatter, Papa Johns founder, there has much talk on social media and around the water coolers of every work place in Louisville about changing the name of U of L’s football stadium. I hate to be the bearer of bad news but it seems that the name won’t change unless John Schnatter changes it himself and the University approved the change. The name change can only occur once every 5 years and the new Stadium name “shall be that of John Schnatter, a person or entity closely affiliated with Schnatter, or his or its successors or assigns” – according to the contract between the University and Schnatter. Here is a part of the contract…
Web Site Makes Annual Comparison Of Each ACC Football Team To Cars
Each year CJ Pony Parts makes comparisons of NCAA football teams to different types of cars that fit the style of said teams. They do this by conference and started this year with ACC teams.
Last year, they compared UofL Football to a 2017 Chevy Volt. Odd choice for a team led by Lamar Jackson, but I digress.
This year, CJ Pony Parts chose the Falcon F7 to represent the 2018 version of Bobby Petrino’s Cardinals (click on story in tweet below to see pictures of the vehicle compared to UofL and for all other ACC teams).
UofL Women’s Basketball Is Battling UConn For Super Talented 2019 4 Star Wing
Photo Courtesy of Dan Ricci
Itâs no doubt that Louisvilleâs Womenâs basketball program has experienced a meteoric explosion in itâs rise to national prominence. Accidentally? No. Intentionally? Hell yeah! Louisville has experienced this explosive rise because:
1. They were deliberate in hiring not a good coach; but a great one.
2. The recruitment of quality players with great basketball skills and character.
3. Getting those players with high skill sets drafted into the WNBA.
4. The consistent ability of the coaches and players to secure significant program changing wins against some of the nationâs elite teams.
