November 23, 2012

Game Day: Cards host UConn in home finale

Matt Willinger
CardinalSports.com






UConn vs. Louisville
Noon EST
Nov. 24, 2012
Papa John's Cardinal Stadium
Louisville, Ky.
Television: Big East TV Network
Radio: WHAS (840 AM)



The Game
  • No. 18 Louisville (9-1, 4-1) returns home after a 45-26 loss at Syracuse to close out the 2012 regular season with a visit from Connecticut on Saturday, Nov. 24. Kickoff is set for noon with live coverage on
    the BIG east Television Network.

  • The cardinals lost for the first time on Nov. 10, dropping a disappointing 45-26 game to Syracuse in the Carrier Dome. The orange totaled 524 yards of total offense, including 278 on the ground to stop Louisville's nine-game winning streak.

    Series Information
  • Louisville leads the all-time series 5-3 and has won the last two games between the two schools. The Cardinals won 34-20 last season at Rentschler Field and 26-0 at Papa John's cardinal Stadium in 2010. It was Louisville's first shutout as members of the BIG East conference. The Huskies have won three out of the last five contests with their last win coming in east Hartford, Conn., 38-25 in 2009.

  • at home, the cardinals are 3-1 all-time versus Connecticut, but have split the last two meetings at Papa John's cardinal Stadium. Connecticut took a 26-21 victory over Louisville in 2008. Louisville owns a 4-3 mark as members of the BIG EAST conference against Connecticut.

  • The cardinals won their sixth-straight game at home with the win over Temple. Louisville has won eight of its last nine games at home, with its last loss being a 21-14 decision to Pitt on Nov. 12 last season.

    Senior day
  • head coach Charlie Strong will say goodbye to 13 seniors (10 scholarship) on Saturday, Nov. 24, when the cardinals take on the Huskies in Papa John's cardinal Stadium. The senior class has enjoyed a 27-21 record during their four years in the football program and have enjoyed three-straight
    winning campaigns.

  • Here is a list of the seniors who will be playing their last home game at Papa John's cardinal Stadium. Mario Benavides, Daniel Brown, Adrian Bushell, Bo Eggers, Stephen Goodwin, Nick Heuser, Alex Kupper, Nate Nord, Scott Radcliff, Andrell Smith, Will Stein, DeMarcus Topp, Chris Zelli.

  • This will head coach Charlie Strong's third Senior Day and the Cardinals are 0-2 so far in home finales. Louisville dropped a 21-14 decision last season to Pittsburgh and a 17-10 verdict to West Virginia in 2010.

    Cardinals Lose Leading Rusher
  • The cardinals dropped their first game of the season at Syracuse on Nov. 10 and also lost their leading rusher when running back Senorise Perry tore the ACL in his right knee. Perry was lost early in the loss to the Orange and will be severe blow to the potent Louisville offense. Playing in 10 games, Perry rushed for 705 yards and 11 scores on 136 carries.

  • Perry, who was in his first season as a starter, tied for the team lead with three 100-yard games, including a career-high 118 yards and two touchdowns in a win over Southern Mississippi. Perry recorded 108 yards and a touchdown in the season opener versus Kentucky and rushed for 101 yards
    and four touchdowns in a 45-35 victory at Pittsburgh.

  • Perry also was one of the team's top receivers, catching 18 passes for 181 yards.

    Last Meeting
    Nov. 19, 2011 • Louisville 34, Connecticut 20
    Teddy Bridgewater threw for 174 yards and scored two rushing touchdowns as Louisville beat Connecticut 34-20. victor Anderson added 72 yards rushing for Louisville, which kept its title hopes alive in a tightly packed conference.

    Bridgewater completed 14 of 22 passes with an interception. UConn, which last year won its final five regular season games to win the league championship and earn a trip to the Fiesta Bowl, is now mathematically out of the race.

    Junior cornerback Adrian Bushell started the scoring festivities immediately, as he opened the game with a 100-yard kickoff return for a touchdown to put Louisville ahead, 7-0. Bushell, who only took 15 seconds to sprint the length of the field, became the fourth player in program history to record a 100-yard kickoff return. Johnny Mcentee was 18 of 43 passing for 253 yards for UConn. Kashif Moore caught six passes for 110 yards and a Td and also scored a rushing touchdown.

    Strong Looking to Become Third Coach to Win 10 or More Games
    After taking over a program that went 15-21 in the three years prior to his arrival, head coach Charlie Strong is on pace to do something special in just his third year as head coach. With a win over Connecticut, Strong would be the third coach at Louisville to win 10 or more games. John L. Smith won 11 games in his fourth season and Bobby Petrino also tallied an 11-win season in just his
    second year on the sidelines.

  • The Cardinals won 11 games in 2001 and 2004 to claim conference USA titles. The 2006 squad won a school record 12 games and were victorious in their first BCS Bowl Game - a 24-13 win over Wake Forest in the Orange Bowl.

    Cardinals drop in Rankings
  • With the 45-26 loss to Syracuse on Saturday, Nov. 10, the Cardinals fell to 18th in the USA Today/ESPN Coaches Poll and 20th in the Associated Press. The Cardinals dropped eight spots in the USA Today poll and nine places in the AP after being ranked as high as 10th in the USA Today and 11th in the AP polls.

  • Louisville has been ranked in some poll for the last 12 weeks. They started the year 25th in the preseason AP Poll and made its first appearance in the USA Today coaches Poll on Sept. 4.

    Bridgewater named Semifinalist for Davey O'Brien award
  • Sophomore quarterback Teddy Bridgewater was named one of the 16 semifinalists for the Davey O'Brien award. Narrowed down from all 124 starting quarterbacks from NCAA division I Football Bowl Subdivision schools, semifinalists were selected by the Davey O'Brien National Selection committee, with the Fan vote accounting for five percent of the total vote. The committee was asked to
    consider the following criteria: quarterback skills, athletic ability, academics, character, leadership
    and sportsmanship.

  • The 2012 Davey O'Brien Semifinalists represent schools from the following conferences: Big 12 (5), SEC (3), ACC (2), Big Ten (2), Pac-12 (2), BIG EAST (1) and WAC (1). The list features returning semifinalists Matt Barkley (USC), Tajh Boyd (Clemson), Seth Doege (Texas Tech), Landry Jones (Oklahoma) and Denard Robinson (Michigan).

  • The 6-3 signal-caller has thrown for 1,694 yards and 11 touchdowns, while completing a solid 73.4 percent of his throws. he led the Cardinals to a come-from-behind win last Saturday when he connected with Eli Rogers on an 11-yard touchdown pass with 1:35 to play to win 27-25.

  • A native of Miami, Fla., Bridgewater, who is 12-5 as a starter, has two 300-yard games this season and set a school record in the win over Kentucky with a 90.4 completion percentage in the 32-14 win.

    Cardinals Go for perfect home Season against Connecticut
  • Louisville's 45-17 win over Temple on Nov. 3 improved Louisville to 6-0 at home in 2012, marking the cardinals' first 6-0 home start since the 2006 season. a win on Saturday over Connecticut would give Louisville a perfect home season for the first time since going 7-0 at Papa John's cardinal Stadium in 2006.

  • Louisville has posted six unbeaten and untied home seasons in school history. The cardinals went undefeated at home in 1990, 1993, 2001, 2004, 2005 and 2006.

    Wright and Lamb take over Running Back duties
  • Due to the fact that leading rusher Senorise Perry was lost for the season due to a knee injury, the Cardinals will rely on junior Jeremy Wright and red-shirt freshman Corvin Lamb. Wright has rushed a team-high 148 times for 680 yards and nine touchdowns, while lamb has carried twice for -1 yards
    and a touchdown.

  • Wright has two 100-yards rushing games, going for 105 yards and three touchdowns versus Kentucky and 100 yards and one score against Temple.

  • Wright is one of the team's top receivers, catching 24 passes for 193 yards. he caught a career best six passes for 38 yards in the loss to Syracuse on Nov. 10. lamb caught one pass and raced 53
    yards for a touchdown in a loss to Syracuse on Nov. 10.

    Copeland Continues to Make plays
  • After playing in just one game last year due to injury, junior Damian Copeland is showing why he was a highly-recruited player out of Bradenton, Fla. Copeland has put together four consecutive games by tying his career-best with five receptions in each of those games, except for Syracuse. He caught five passes for 56 yards on Nov. 3 versus Temple, and recorded five receptions for a career-high 96 yards in the win over Cincinnati. He had five receptions for 93 yards and his first collegiate score versus USF. Copeland caught a 21-yard touchdown pass in the third quarter to put the Cardinals ahead 21-10.

  • In the last four games, Copeland has caught 19 passes for 275 yards and just missed 100-yard games with 96 and 93 yards, respectively, versus Cincinnati and USF.

  • After 19 games, Copeland leads the team with 37 receptions for 444 yards and a touchdown. He entered the 2011 season with eight career receptions for 113 yards. He has caught a pass in all 10 games this season.

    Pryor having all-America type Season
  • Sophomore Calvin Pryor is having an outstanding season for the Cardinals as one of the leaders in the secondary. Pryor is second on the team with 76 tackles, two interceptions and four forced fumbles.

  • Pryor has had eight or more tackles in six of the 10 games this year, including three games where he totaled nine. He was credited with seven tackles in the 45-26 loss to Syracuse.

  • As a true freshman last season, Pryor recorded 43 tackles and two interceptions. In two seasons, Pryor has registered 112 tackles and four interceptions in 22 career contests.

    Need Returns and need to Stop Returns
  • The Cardinals have been solid in the return game the last couple of seasons, but need to get their special teams going this week versus Syracuse. after nine games, the cardinals rank 95th in kickoff returns with an average of 19.0 yards a return, while Louisville fell a little in punt returns to 102nd at 4.5 yards a return.

  • Kai Dominguez had a season-high 30-yard punt return in the win over FIU on Sept. 22. Senior cornerback Adrian Bushell leads the team at 23.2 yards a kick return and owns the longest return of the season at 42 yards.

  • The Cardinals have to do a better job in stopping the kick returners, as the cardinals rank 112th in kickoff return yardage defense, allowing 25.48 yards a return.

    Cardinals Solid against the pass
  • The cardinals have had their problems against the run this season, but they have played pretty well against the pass. Louisville ranks 23rd in the nation against the pass, allowing 194.9 per game. Louisville
    gave up 246 yards through the air versus Syracuse, which was the most since allowing 287 yards on Oct. 13 versus Pittsburgh.

  • The Cardinals gave up 54 yards in a 45-17 win over Temple and 25 in a win over Southern Mississippi on Sept. 29. Louisville has allowed over 200 yards passing in just four games this year, which included a
    season-high 363 versus North Carolina.

  • The opposition is completing just 60.9 percent of its throws this year, but have allowed 18 touchdown passes.





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