Didn’t we sign up for football schedules like this?

There are so many story lines from Thursday night’s Clemson game. There have been big moments in all three games for the Louisville Cardinals this season. This post is not about second guessing play calls, timeouts, or anything else. This isn’t a post to say how the Cards have lost all three games by a combined 13 points, so things could easily be much different. We all know that. There are other posts designed for that information. This post is to simply pose the question:

Didn’t we sign up for football schedules like this?

Now look, I am not saying that since our schedule started with three tough games, that we should be 0-3. I am not getting into that. To this point, the Cards have played two top-10 teams. I don’t care what Auburn is ranked now. They were 6th when we played them, and that is what would have counted.

It wasn’t so long ago, oh maybe three or four years ago, that if we played one ranked team, that was THE game on the schedule. THAT was the game that we would have to impress the country, because they wouldn’t see any of our other games. Or just go back two years to 2013. The atmosphere at the Houston game was electric. HOUSTON! That was one of our bigger games that season. Now we cringe at the thought of losing to Houston.

Here is what I want to know. Would you rather be 3-0 against terrible teams? And then you are constantly defending the team when people say “You haven’t played anybody!” You respond with “Just give us the chance!” Well folks, we are being given the chance, and coming up just short. Nevertheless, this team full of youngsters is competing.

Remember when we beat Florida in the Sugar Bowl? We suddenly talked like we could win the SEC every year. There was no way to know what would happen if we played an SEC schedule for a whole season. But we did play Georgia last year. So do SEC fans now get to use that as their guide for us if we were in the conference? If so, yikes.

The point is, if you play a competitive schedule, you won’t win every game every year. Go ahead and schedule the Murray State’s and EKU’s of the world. Win by 40. Yay. Or play Auburn and Clemson in two of your first three games and hang right there with them and realize that you are knocking on the door of the next level with the big boys. Do you want to be the big fish in the little pond? Or do you want to jump in the ocean and learn to survive with the sharks?

So here is what I did. I went back and looked at the first three games of the season for the last 10 years for Louisville. This takes us back to 2005, UofL’s first season in the Big East. The results are below. I have put our record in those three games next to the year, followed by the teams we played.

If a team was ranked when we played them (according to ESPN.com), I listed it.

SPOILER ALERT: THERE ARE ONLY TWO TEAMS THAT HAVE BEEN RANKED WHEN WE PLAYED THEM IN THE FIRST THREE GAMES OF THE SEASON! JUST TWO IN 10 YEARS!

So in 2015, the Cards have played two top-10 teams in the first three games. In 10 years, they only played two ranked in the top 25. Those two were Miami in 2006 (ranked 17) and Oregon State in 2010 (ranked 25th). Other than that, well you can see for yourself how the schedule began for the last 10 years.

So I must ask: didn’t we sign up for football schedules like this? Didn’t we want to play tough teams? I certainly did. Still do.

2014   2-1

vs Miami   W 31-13

vs Murray State   W 66-21

@ Virginia   L 23-21

2013   3-0

vs Ohio   W 49-7

vs EKU   W 44-7

@ Kentucky   W 27-13

2012   3-0

vs Kentucky   W 32-14

vs Missouri State   W 35-7

vs North Carolina   W 39-34

2011   2-1

vs Murray State   W 21-9

vs FIU   L 24-17

@ Kentucky   W 24-17

2010   1-2

vs Kentucky   L 23-16

vs EKU   W 23-13

@ #25 Oregon State   L 35-28

2009   1-2

vs Indiana State   W 30-10

@ Kentucky   L 31-27

@ Utah   L 30-14

2008   2-1

vs Kentucky   L 27-2

vs Tennessee Tech   W 51-10

vs Kansas State   W 38-29

2007   2-1

vs Murray State   W 73-10

vs Middle Tennessee   W 58-42

@ Kentucky   L 40-34

2006   3-0

vs Kentucky   W 59-28

@ Temple   W 62-0

vs #17 Miami   W 31-7

2005   2-1

@ Kentucky   W 31-24

vs Oregon State   W 63-27

@ South Florida   L 45-14