Author Archives: Jeff Nunn
CSZ Updated YouTube Channel
We have been busy updating our YouTube channel. Please check it out for hype videos, Media Day interviews and we will be posting some of your favorite games. Please subscribe to be notified when we post a new video. Also, let us know what you want to see this season and we will try to bring it to you. You can find us on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUFJRvlDRkaBKw-Tegoyl7w
Petrino, Cardinals Close Camp With Successful Scrimmage
Press Release LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The loud cheers coming out of Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium this morning were not from all the touchdowns scored in the second scrimmage of fall camp, but from the joy of the University of Louisville football players realizing that the grind of camp was over.
With classes officially starting on Monday, the Cardinals completed camp with a 145-play scrimmage under intense heat on the field — and from Mother Nature.
“It was the last official practice of camp,” head coach Bobby Petrino said. “I think the players are excited about that. Overall, I thought it was a real good camp. Our players did a good job of focusing on learning and getting better individually.” Read the rest of this entry
Defense Looks to Continue Progress in Upcoming Practices, Saturday’s Scrimmage. Plus Post Practice Interviews
Press Release – LOUISVILLE, Ky. – In the University of Louisville’s first football scrimmage last Saturday, first-year defensive coordinator Peter Sirmon wanted to see his players get to the football and tackle – a key component that’s helped the Cardinals sport a top-25 defense over the last seven seasons.
For the most part, Sirmon and head coach Bobby Petrino were pleased with the results in the team’s first major test under the lights at Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium. Both coaches came away pleased with the ability to limit big plays and tackling, which were a cause for concern last season.
PJCS Stadium Expansion Update and Photo Gallery
Associate Athletic Director Mark Jurich gave an update on the progress of the Papa Johns Cardinal Stadium expansion project today at the stadium. The $63 million expansion is currently on pace to be done for the beginning of the 2018 season and is also on budget. It will enclose the north end-zone and add 10,000 new seats, bringing the capacity to 65,000.
When asked if more expansion could be coming in the future Jurich said, “You have 65,000 chair back seats, over 75 suites and 5,500 club seats. I feel that’s pretty good. We’re the only stadium in the country that has all chair back seats. So 65,000 for us right now is a pretty comfortable point.” Read the rest of this entry
Nunnsense: Reggie Bonnafon Has To Be The MVP
Photo: RantSports
It goes without saying that Lamar Jackson is the most important player on this years team. Not only because he plays quarterback but because he is the returning best player in the country – And he has the Heisman trophy to prove it.
But is he the most valuable player on this team? I guess that depends on your definition of most valuable. Most people say that the quarterback is always the most valuable. While I won’t argue with you if that is your belief but it’s hard for me to believe that this team can make the playoffs without Reggie Bonnafon as the team’s MVP. Read the rest of this entry
King, Creque Serve as Answers to Special Teams’ Question And Post Practice Interviews
Press Release
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The importance of special teams can never be underestimated. Football games can be won – and lost – because of poor execution or critical mistakes in that phase of the game.
Heading into last season, there were many questions surrounding the special teams unit at the University of Louisville, with no experience returning at the punter or placekicker positions.
Those questions were answered immediately with the emergence of punter Mason King and kicker Blanton Creque – a pair of Kentucky natives.
Despite their lack of playing, the duo stepped in and calmed the nerves of the coaching staff by making this unit a strength of the team.
King, who hails from Louisville, never took a snap during the regular season until he punted in the season opener versus Charlotte. Even as newcomer, King emerged as the punter of the future, setting a school mark for punting average at 43.9 yards per boot.
Despite a 37.5 yards average in his first game, King continued to improve as the season went on, averaging over 40.0 yards a punt in seven games, including a 48.0 yards average in Death Valley versus Clemson and 49.3 yards a punt against Kentucky.
“I look back at all the work I put in, and Austin Johnson challenges me every day in practice,” King said, “which has made me a better punter. We challenge each other every practice and that’s what helps us kick so well.”
With all the success that King enjoyed last season, his biggest accomplishment is the fact that he was voted as one of the team’s seven captains last weekend. The St. Xavier High product, King and Devante Peete were named to lead the special teams.
“To be named a captain is an absolute honor,” King said after Wednesday’s practice. “To know that the players voted for me is an absolute honor to go out there, and I’m going to take advantage of that opportunity and let them know how valuable special teams are.
“I’m so excited for this season, especially after being named captain, which is something I never dreamed of.”
Creque took over the placekicking duties in the fourth game of the season, and never relinquished his starting opportunity, hitting 16-of-19 attempts – tied for the third-most in school history.
After missing one of his first two career attempts, Creque went on to connect on 10 straight, including tying a school record with four field goals in a win over NC State. He closed the year by going 3-for-3 in the Citrus Bowl loss to LSU, including hitting a career-best 47-yarder in the 29-9 loss.
“I had to make that jump last year, Creque said. “After a few games, I was able to zone in and treat every kick the same. In practice, I visualized that every kick I took was a kick in the game. My second game kicking was Clemson, so anything after that really didn’t faze me.”
There wasn’t a lot that Creque needed to improve on after missing three kicks all of last season, but he did need to figure out how to extend the ball to the end zone on his kickoffs.
“My kickoffs have been a big focus for me this offseason,” Creque said. “Right now in camp, I’m trying to make every kick. I’ve gotten stronger, which has been a big help for this so far during camp.”
Head coach Bobby Petrino spends a lot of time in practice focusing on special teams, which has paid off on game day, and Creque thinks the Cardinals will be even better this season.
“We are so deep this year,” Creque said, “that we will have a lot of guys playing on special teams. We emphasize it a lot in practice. The more time you spend on it, the better you will be. I think we have a chance to be very good on special teams this year.”
Post Practice Interviews – Galloway, Smith And Dawkins
Lonnie Galloway, Jaylen Smith and Seth Dawkins spoke with the media after today’s practice. The wide receivers know they have a very big role on this team if they want to have a special year.
Louisville Football Clear Bag And Wanding Policy
UofL Adds Clear Bag Policy, Magnetic Wanding at Football Games
Press Release
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — In the interest of augmenting existing security measures at football games at Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium, University of Louisville Athletics will implement new security measures, including magnetic wanding at all entry gates and restricting the size and type of bag that may be carried into the stadium for home football games and concerts moving forward.
Fans are encouraged to enter the stadium early, as magnetic wanding will be added to the entry process for all patrons at all gates on game days. Upon entering the queue at the stadium gates, fans will be asked to empty their pockets prior to being wanded by a security guard. Cell phones, keys or other metal objects are examples of items that should be held in one’s hands over the head while being scanned.
Louisville Officially Responds To The NCAA Appeals Panel
Photo: Louisville.edu
The University of Louisville filed the paperwork to appeal the ruling from the NCAA committee of infractions. In Jeff Greer’s article below, he says that “The school said it would accept several other penalties, including the NCAA’s docking of four men’s basketball scholarships over the next four years; a $5,000 institutional fine; and a requirement that prospects on unofficial visits stay off-campus.” Louisville also called the COI’s ruling “draconian, ” which is an adjective that means rigorous; unusually severe or cruel. I think we can all agree on that. Greer also states that “The COI had 30 days from Wednesday to respond to U of L’s appeal. After that paperwork is filed, U of L gets another two weeks to send a rebuttal. Then the NCAA’s enforcement staff has 10 days to add its reply before U of L gets 10 more days to counter.
The hearing in front of the appeals committee, a small panel of college and conference administrators and lawyers, will be set after the exchange of documents.”
Read the full article below for much more and some very interesting details that lead me to believe that the banner will stay. Read the rest of this entry
Cardinals’ Defense Learning New Scheme, Ready To Escalate Tempo & Post Practice Interviews
After practice today the media got a chance to talk to coach, L.D. Scott, and redshirt sophomores, Jonathan Greenard and G.G.Robinson. L.D talks about the return of Trevon Young and some of the younger guys. Jonathan talks about the leaders on defense and his redshirt year. G.G. talks about going against the much improved offensive line in practice. Read the rest of this entry
Nunnsense: The Legacy Of James Quick
Photo: Athlon Sports
The legacy of James Quick is one that can be interpreted in many different ways. It all depends if compare his college career to the expectations most people had for him or if you compare his actual statistics and contributions during his time at Louisville to every other receiver that came before him.
It all began at Trinity High School when James became the first-ever freshman to start a game for the storied football powerhouse. He also won the state championship in the 200 meter dash in both his freshman and sophomore years. James became the first player in Kentucky high school football history to score a touchdown in four straight state championship games (’09 -’12) and had received offers to play at almost every major college school. Read the rest of this entry
Why Is No One Talking About Lamar?
Here is a short video where Scott Van Pelt and Bob Griese talk about why people are sleeping on the reigning Heisman trophy winner.
Etheridge Stealing the Freshman Spotlight And Post Practice Interviews
Photo: Jeff Nunn
Etheridge Stealing the Freshman Spotlight
Press Release – LOUISVILLE, Ky. – With nine starters returning last season’s top-25 defense, a true freshman cracking the starting lineup didn’t seem likely.
However, after nine days of camp, rookie Dorian Etheridge is the front-runner for one of the starting linebacker positions.
The Charleston, W.Va., native, Etheridge has been extremely impressive on the practice field.
“Dorian is someone I’m very excited about,” inside linebackers coach Cort Dennison said after Tuesday’s practice. “He’s very natural. He has great instincts and his knowledge of the game is advanced. He’s always in his notebook and continuously asks a lot of questions. He’s very mature and will only get better.” Read the rest of this entry
2017 Louisville Football Media Day Interviews – Jaire Alexander
Photo: Jeff Nunn
Jaire Alexander and Chucky Williams, AKA The “Tax Boys,” held court at media day. Jaire talks about his celebrity look-a-like, the possibility of doing the chicken prance again this year, the maturation of Lamar and Chucky says the new defense is simpler than Grantham’s. Read the rest of this entry
2017 Louisville Football Media Day Interviews – Lorenzo Ward
Photo: Jeff Nunn
Cardinal Sports Zone sat down with secondary coach Lorenzo Ward. He talks about how he got the nickname” Whammy,” how good Jaire Alexander is, how 2 of the newcomers are already running on the second team, as well as the time he played against Louisville in the Fiesta bowl and his recollection of Louisville QB, Browning Nagle.
2017 Louisville Football Media Day Interviews – Jaylen Smith
Photo: Jeff Nunn
Four members of the Cardinal Sports Zone staff attended Louisville football media day. We were able to talk to several players and coaches. In this interview we talked to Wide receiver Jaylen Smith. He talks about overcoming his injury, being a leader for his fellow wide receivers, going up against Jaire Alexander in practice and tells us about the nickname ” The Breadwinners.” Read the rest of this entry
Lamar Jackson Media Day Interview #1
Here are some clips of Lamar Jackson at the 2017 Louisville Football Media Day. He talks about the Heisman pose vs uk, would he do it again? Where’s the trophy & why did he cut his hair? Check out what OUR reigning Heisman Trophy winner had to say in Katies video from Louisville Football Media Day 2017.
Louisville Football Media Day Photo Gallery
I had the pleasure of attending U of L football media day and I took my camera. We at CSZ had the privilege of talking with all the coaches and many of the student athletes. We will be posting all the interviews very soon. I can’t seem to put into words what this experience was like, so you can just browse through the pics I snapped and try to get a feel for yourself. I also took a few pics of the progress of Papa John’s Cardinal stadium expansion. I hope you enjoy… Read the rest of this entry
Louisville Football Media Day Clips
We will be posting our own photos and interviews here on CSZ. We got to talk to Lamar, Jaire, Jaylen, Coach Ward, Dennison & many more! While we wait, here are some clips from UofL media day that were posted from the GoCards YouTube account. Read the rest of this entry
Louisville Appeals Part Of NCAA Ruling
(Photo Cred: @gocards)
The University of Louisville has until August 9th to file its written response to the NCAA Infractions Committee. Louisville will do so and will appeal the financial penalty and the vacation of records ordered in June by the NCAA’s Committee on Infractions. “U of L also told the NCAA that it wished to have the organization’s Infractions Appeals Committee hold an in-person hearing instead of basing the appeal only on written correspondence.” – Per the Courier-Journal.
