Blog Archives
CFB Survival Guide: Louisville Still Needs Help
Well, what a wild 120 hours we’ve untangled since Saturday’s plethora of upsets. #2 Michigan, #3 Clemson and #4 Washington all lost, but Louisville still lags behind with a #5 ranking
Opening Thoughts: Why #5?
Personally, I think Louisville should have been ranked fourth behind Alabama, Ohio State and Clemson in that order. But, being ranked fifth with Michigan in front of them basically means they are fourth. At the end of the regular season, someone between Michigan and Ohio State will lose, meaning they will likely eliminate someone from the CFP for good. That will open the door for Louisville, but there will be other teams gunning for that spot with conference championships and bigger games down the road.
A Comprehensive Guide To All CFP Contenders
We are officially halfway through the season, and Louisville has surpassed all expectations and become a legitimate College Football Playoff contender. However, Louisville may – or may not – need some help down the road to complete its first ever playoff bid. And with only four teams entering the playoff, the air is going to get incredibly thin at the mountaintop, so it’ll be of interest to see how the nation plays out for Louisville’s CFP campaign.
Here are some teams to watch in the coming weeks that could challenge Louisville’s run to its first ever CFP bid.
(Click on More below for the breakdown)
Jawon Pass is “not wavering…still committed to Louisville”

Photo: Scout.com
National Signing Day is coming up on Wednesday, February 3rd. So when your big time commits take visits to powerhouse programs like an Alabama, some people get a little nervous. Now obviously, if you listened to Cardinal Sports Zone on 93.9 The Ville this past Saturday morning, you heard me say that a recruiting expert from down south was still believing that Pass was solid to Louisville, and to not make much of his visit to ‘Bama. If you didn’t listen, and you were freaking out, well then maybe it’s lesson learned?
Steve Jones of the Courier Journal spoke to Pass’ mother (Kershena Thomas) about the visit to see Nick Saban and the Crimson Tide. Here are a few things that she had to say about the trip and where the recruitment stood with Jawon.
Cardinal Sports Zone radio show: 8/1/15
We have survived the “slow” part of the year and got through June and July! And even then, I think our shows were pretty good. Now we are in August, and that one hour just flies by! Today, we talked a lot about the Alabama game in 2018, the upcoming Auburn game, the fact that Auburn fans are buying our tickets, and much more. Click the soundcloud link below and give it a listen. Oh, and I love our ending music of “Today was a good day” by Ice Cube, but it was different today and it was fantastic.
Louisville vs Alabama to open 2018 football season!
ESPN’s Brett McMurphy just dropped the big news on us that Tom Jurich hinted to yesterday: Louisville will open the 2018 football season against the Alabama Crimson Tide. The game will take place in Orlando, Florida on September 1, 2018. Go ahead and start planning!
In their last meeting, the Cards beat Alabama 34-7 in the 1991 Fiesta Bowl.
Jawon “Passes” on Alabama and Auburn; Picks Louisville
Full disclosure: that title was sort of Steve’s idea…
Big-time quarterback recruit Jawon Pass has made his decision, and that is to commit to the Louisville Cardinals. In the end, he chose Louisville over Auburn and a strong, late push from Alabama. I repeat: Louisville beat out Auburn and Alabama for a football recruit from Columbus, Georgia. Weird, huh?
My prediction on where Jawon Pass will decide today
Jawon Pass will make his decision today at 4:00 p.m. ET on where he will play his college football. He will be choosing between Louisville, Auburn, and Alabama. Normally when you see a list like that, you are just happy that Louisville is mentioned with the big boys of college football. But this time, the Cards have a legit chance to go down and get a recruit right from their territory.
I have said for a while that Jawon Pass is a name that I would get tired of hearing when it came to his recruitment. Now that it is the day he will announce, I can’t get enough of it. And most of that “me being tired of it” was due to the fact that it seemed like every time there was a new “top 5” or “these two schools are in the lead” with him, the list was different. But it was mainly reporters that were putting these lists out that were constantly changing, not necessarily Jawon himself. So I wasn’t tired of Jawon Pass. I was just tired of hearing about the recruitment.
Latest on Jawon Pass’ recruitment from his mother: Wednesday night
Steve Jones of the Courier-Journal spoke with Jawon Pass’ mother, Kershena Thomas, on Wednesday evening and got some last minute insight into the recruitment of Jawon. The quarterback will announce his decision on Thursday at 4:00 p.m. ET. He will be choosing between Louisville, Auburn, and Alabama.
Here are a few of the question and answers with Steve Jones and Kershena Thomas…
Mother of Jawon Pass gives insight into his recruitment
If you follow football recruiting, then by now you know who Jawon Pass is. And you know that he is down to three schools: Louisville, Auburn, and Alabama. Pass is set to announce his decision on July 16.
Steve Jones of the Courier Journal posted a very insightful article on Friday afternoon about Pass and his recruitment. He has quotes from one very important person: Jawon’s mother.
Kershena Thomas seems to think that Louisville could have an advantage already on campus, and that is Jawon’s brother Khane, who is a freshman safety on the football team.
Jawon Pass names his “final” three schools
Take this post with a grain of salt. Jawon Pass, a big-time quarterback recruit and a name that Louisville fans probably know by now, said over the weekend that he has a final three.
From scout.com:
Jawon Pass Announces Top 5
One of the top quarterbacks in the country for the class of 2016 is Jawon Pass. He just announced his top 5 and it is Louisville, Auburn, Alabama, North Carolina, and Virginia Tech.
4 Star Alabama DE Commit visiting Louisville?
According to his twitter 4 star Alabama DE commit may visit Louisville.
The two Louisville commits mentioned in the tweet (Treveon Samuel and Khane Pass) do not have official visit dates set up just yet but you have to think Miami or FSU will be the games. Brown ranks as high as the #3 WDE (Rivals) and is a teammate of Khane Pass at Carver HS in Georgia. Something to keep an eye on for sure. Follow Mekhi Brown on twitter @MekhiBrownn
Alabama Secondary Coach to Louisville?
According to this tweet from Coaching Search:
This would be another excellent hire for Coach Bobby Petrino. Brown was former DC at Colorado and have many years in the NFL with the Saints, Falcons, 49ers, Chargers and Oilers. Definitely something to keep an eye on.
College Football’s Top 10 games (week 8)
There are some exciting games this week in college football. The great thing about Louisville playing a weeknight game (to me) is getting to enjoy watching other games all day Saturday. Teams in the Top 10 have some tough match-ups, highlighted by a pair of Top 5 teams squaring off. That surely gives Louisville the chance to make a move in the polls, but will a team jump ahead of the Cards? Here are the games to keep an eye on this weekend! (Once again, this is using the USA Today/Coaches Poll)
USA Today Coaches Poll 10-13-13
Here is the latest Coaches poll released by USA Today:
(1) Alabama
(2) Oregon
(3) Ohio State
(4) Clemson
(5) Florida State
(6) Louisville
(7) Texas A&M
(8) LSU
(9) South Carolina
(10) UCLA
(11) Miami (Fla.)
(12) Baylor
(13) Stanford
(14) Missouri
(15) Texas Tech
(16) Georgia
(17) Oklahoma State
(18) Oklahoma
(19) Fresno State
(20) Va. Tech
(21) Nebraska
(22) Florida
(23) Northern Illinois
(24) Michigan
(25) Washington
AP Top 25 10-13-13
Here are the latest rankings from the Associated Press:
1 | ![]() |
Alabama (55)
Record: 6-0
|
PV Rank
1 Points
1,495 |
2 | ![]() |
Oregon (5)
Record: 6-0
|
2
1,438
|
3 | ![]() |
Record: 6-0
|
3
1,352
|
4 | ![]() |
Record: 6-0
|
4
1,330
|
5 | ![]() |
Record: 5-0
|
6
1,242
|
6 | ![]() |
Record: 6-1
|
10
1,137
|
7 | ![]() |
Record: 5-1
|
9
1,105
|
8 | ![]() |
Record: 6-0
|
8
1,077
|
9 | ![]() |
Record: 5-0
|
11
1,017
|
10 | ![]() |
Poll Predictions 10-13-13
Nothing official from the AP or USA Today guys but here’s where I see the top 10 rounding out today. First I do see some positive movement for the Cards this week as Stanford and Georgia fell yesterday. I also don’t see A&M jumping us after struggling with 3-3 Ole Miss last night. As I told you guys a few weeks ago, all we need is for one team to fall every week to have a shot at the title game. Yesterday we got 3 with OU falling who had the potential to jump us if they kept winning. LSU & A&M are the lone teams remaining who can jump us with wins in my opinion. Here’s how I think the polls will shake out:
3 top 10 teams fall on Saturday!
This is the kind of chaos that the Louisville Cardinals need if there is going to be any improvement in their ranking from here on out. Without much competition on the schedule, and with what some would call a “missed opportunity” on Thursday against Rutgers (I agree to an extent), other top teams have to lose for the Cards to move up in the polls. We have been hoping for it every week but it hasn’t seemed to happen. Finally on this Saturday in October, in week 7 of the college football season, 3 teams in the Top 10 of the USA Today/Coaches Poll went down in defeat. The Cards entered this week ranked 8th.
College Football’s Week 6 games for the Top 10
After starting the season ranked 9th in the country and climbing up to 6th, the Cards have kind of hit a stand-still around the 7th spot in the polls. With the lack of quality opponents combined with some of the top teams playing good competition, it has become increasingly difficult for the Louisville Cardinals to continue to climb up the rankings. But just as I have done every week so far, I will give you the schedule for the Top 10 teams so you know who to cheer for and so you can see what teams have legit chances of falling so the Cards can move up. As always, I will use the USA Today/Coaches poll since that factors into the BCS rankings. Here you go…
Blueprint: National Title Game
Here we are approaching week six of the NCAA Football season and the Cards have moved just two spots despite 4 teams ahead of us falling (LSU, South Carolina, Georgia and Texas A&M). As a fan, it is discerning to feel like no matter what we do that it seems like we are just running in place. Got me thinking though, what exactly needs to happen for us to make the BCS Title game in Pasadena? I started looking at the schedules of the teams above and the ones who may jump us. Here is the blueprint to our title hopes.