I think there may be some faux outrage over the cancellation of the Spring Game. It seems there are many people complaining and expressing disappointment in the new coach for not really having a Spring Game even though he kinda is having one. In this day of social media, people notice other people complaining about something so they feel compelled to join in and pile on even though they really don’t care about the subject.
Fact is, people like to complain, and social media provides the platform for them to complain. Some people could win $100 and you would see them on Twitter bashing the people who awarded them saying, “How am I supposed to break this $100 bill? They should have given me 2 50 dollar bills or 5 20 dollar bills.” I feel that’s what is happening with the Spring Game. Scrolling through my Twitter feed, I see more people complaining about it than people who actually attend the game. Let’s take a look at past years attendance.
- 2018 – 17,200
- 2017 – 14,000
- 2016 – 16,221
- 2015 – 23,187
- 2014 – 27,500
- 2013 – 33,000
* These attendance numbers are estimated as released by the University.
The 2018 game was played on a Friday night after severe weather threats forced the game to be moved up a day from it’s originally scheduled date on Saturday. The 2017 game was played on the Saturday of Easter weekend. The 2016 game was played on a Saturday afternoon as well. I remember Charlie Strong played his at night. What I’m getting at is there is no tradition with Louisville’s Spring Game. It’s not always played on the same date. It’s not always played during the day. It’s not always played with the first team vs the second team. They haven’t always given out last season team awards at halftime. The game changes from year to year and from coach to coach. Cancelling the game doesn’t mean that coach Satterfield is breaking some big tradition. It’s simply a glorified open practice that really has no bearing on the season. Coach will have an open practice on March 7th (Happy Birthday, John Nunn) where they will most likely scrimmage and I’m sure AD Vince Tyra, and his assistant AD’s, will pull out all the stops to make it as family friendly as possible.
Don’t be mistaken, I am a huge fan of the Spring Game but I would rather skip it and let coach work on getting the culture right with this team. Sacrificing a Spring Game to help the future of the program seems like a fair trade to me. Coach isn’t punishing the fans but rather setting them up for future rewards with a winning program. We as fans just need to sit back and trust the process. Coach knows what he is doing. I trust him and you should too. The future is bright.
If you are a faithful annual attendee of the Spring Game, then I say thank you and I’m sorry it won’t happen this year. My suggestion to you, and any other fans who want the annual game to return next season, is to show up on March 7th and bring as many people with you as you can. Treat it like Louisville Live. Coach Mack was blown away at the support and coach Satt would be too if 20,000 fans showed up to the practice. He is new in town and doesn’t fully understand how much we love football. Let’s show him.
Louisville basketball rejoined the AP top 25 rankings after being out of them since November of 2017. If you listen to talk radio or scroll social media, you would think they just made the Final Four. Fans are super excited about the rankings. Personally, I could care less about AP ranking, especially in January. Sure it’s fun to talk about but it means absolutely nothing. The NCAA tourney is what defines a seasons success. The net rankings are what will primarily be used for seeding in the tournament. We should put more stock in the fact that Louisville is currently 11th in those rankings if we want to celebrate rankings. However, celebrating could be a bit premature with the schedule the Cards are facing in February and the ACC tournament. It seems likely they will drop 5 or 6 more games before selection Sunday. Even if that happens, the strength of schedule should be solid enough to keep Louisville in a good spot to make the tournament. But for now, celebrate the AP ranking if you wish but beware, it’s kinda meaningless.
Tearing down Old Cardinal Stadium is sad but it’s definitely time. They can take down the structure but they can’t take away our memories. I have plenty, and I’ll share a few, but I would love to hear some of yours also. Please share some with me.
For me, Cardinal Stadium was where I attended all the Trinity – St. X games as a child. I always met my buddies under the scoreboard and then went walking around the stadium looking for certain females in our class.
I also remember attending many Louisville Redbird games with my uncle Kenny who had seats right on the main isle. Everybody in the city knows him and would always stop by to say hi. We spent more time talking to people than watching the games. I vividly remember a foul ball landing in my aunts nachos at one particular Redbirds game.
I was in attendance when Brett Favre threw a hail Mary to beat us and there are several other Louisville football games that I can recall. Most didn’t go in favor of the good guys.
In 1989 I was lucky enough to see the Rolling Stones play on their Steel Wheels tour inside Cardinal Stadium. I’m sure there are more concerts but that one was most memorable.
When I attended UofL, we tailgated for football games out in the grass and sometimes we would actually walk up to the gates at game-time where someone was always handing out free tickets. Sometimes we stayed out and drank till the beer was gone, never making it into the game.
I remember being 1 of the 20,511 people in Cardinal Stadium on Dec 7th, 2002 when Brian Brohm and Trinity battled Michael Bush an his Male Bulldogs in the most epic high school football game I have ever seen. Over 1000 passing yards combined and a total of 115 points scored.
My first time ever being on ESPN was at Old Cardinal Stadium. As cool as that was it didn’t help me when I called in sick to work the next day. They said “you looked pretty healthy last night on TV. ”
Goodbye Old Cardinal Stadium. Thanks for the memories!
As Always, GO CARDS!
