CardinalSports.com - Game Day: Cards underdog at West Virginia

November 6, 2009

Matt Willinger
CardinalSports.com Staff Writer

Louisville at West Virginia
Saturday, Nov. 7, 2009
Noon
Mountaineer Field at Milan-Puskar Stadium (60,000)
Morgantown, WV
TV: Big East Network
Radio: WHAS 840 AM

Setting the Stage
The University of Louisville football team returns to BIG EAST Conference action when the Cardinals travel to Morgantown, W. Va. to face the Mountaineers of West Virginia on Saturday, November 7 at Noon. The game can be seen live on the BIG EAST Network, which will be WHAS TV in Louisville. The Cardinals snapped a two-game losing streak with a solid 21-13 win over Arkansas State at Papa John's Cardinal Stadium. It was the Cardinals' second-straight win at home and moved them to 3-1 on the year.

The Cardinals' defense held the Red Wolves on fourth and goal from the 14-yard line to preserve the win. Corey Leonard's pass to Trevor Gillott went incomplete on fourth down to end the game. Leonard threw for 303 yards, but the Red Wolves were held to just 45 yards on the ground. Louisville received their first defensive score of the season when Brandon Heath picked off a pass and raced 25 yards for his second career touchdown.

Starting their third different quarterback of the year, the Cardinals snapped their losing streak behind the solid play of walk-on Will Stein, who was 20-of-39 for 232 yards. Stein started in place of junior Adam Froman and Justin Burke, who were out with injuries. Louisville, who was ravaged by injuries, played without leading rusher Victor Anderson, but received solid performances from Bilal Powell and Darius Ashley. Powell carried 17 times for 93 yards, while Ashley rushed 13 times for a career-high 77 yards and his first two touchdowns. Ashley put the Cardinals on the board first with an impressive 26-yard run in the first quarter. He added a one-yard touchdown run in the third quarter.

West Virginia enters the game with a 6-2 overall record and a 2-1 mark in the BIG EAST after a 30-19 loss to South Florida last Friday

Series History
The Cardinals and Mountaineers will meet for the 11th time in school history when the two teams face off on Saturday. The Mountaineers own an 8-2 series advantage and have won the last two meetings. Louisville's last win was a 44-34 win at Papa John's Cardinal Stadium in 2006. Louisville's last win was a 9-7 win over the Mountaineers in 1990.

Last Meeting vs. West Virginia
West Virginia's Pat White broke the NCAA record for most career rushing yards by a quarterback in leading the Mountaineers to a 35-21 win over Louisville. White ran for 200 yards and three touchdowns to give him 4,292 yards for his career, breaking the record of 4,289 set by former Missouri quarterback Brad Smith between 2002-05. Noel Devine added 154 yards rushing for West Virginia, which ran for 376 yards while averaging nearly 10 yards a carry. Louisville quarterback Hunter Cantwell threw for 276 yards with a touchdown but also threw three interceptions. Brock Bolen ran for 77 yards and a touchdown in his final home game and the Cardinals put up 474 yards of total offense.

Cardinals vs. the BIG EAST
The University of Louisville joined the BIG EAST Conference in 2005 and are 40-60-1 against BIG EAST school's all-time. Since joining the league, the Cardinals are 15-16 in conference play. Louisville and Cincinnati, who were former league members together, have met 49 times, with the Bearcats owning a 28-20-1 advantage. The Cardinals and Panthers have also met 13 times, while Louisville has faced West Virginia 10 times.

Kragthorpe vs. the BIG EAST
Louisville head coach Steve Kragthorpe is 4-13 all-time against BIG EAST foes in his third season as the Cardinals head coach. Kragthorpe went 3-4 in his first season, 1-6 last year and is 0-3 in 2009 after his team's loss to fifth-ranked Cincinnati on Oct. 24.

Cardinals Hope to Avoid Back-to-Back Losing Campaigns
The University of Louisville football has enjoyed unprecedented success over the last few seasons. Coming off a 5-7 season - their first losing campaign since 1997, the Cardinals are trying to avoid their fi rst back-to-back losing seasons since Louisville went 5-6 in 1996 and 1-10 in 1997. Last season's 5-7 mark snapped the Cardinals' 10-year run of consecutive winning seasons.

Bowl Games Chances Hinge on Tough Four-Game Slate
If the Cardinals are going to make a run to try and end their two-year streak of not going to a bowl game, they will face a huge challenge in their final four games of the season, which are all BIG EAST Conference games. Louisville will face West Virginia, Syracuse, South Florida and Rutgers in their last four contests. Th e combined record of those four teams is a solid 21-11 with Syracuse being the only team with a losing record at 3-5. West Virginia, South Florida and Rutgers are all 6-2 heading into this week of action.

Cardinals Try to Stop League and Road Losing Streak
The Cardinals need a BIG EAST win and a road win in the worst way. Louisville enters Saturday's game at West Virginia having lost eight straight league games and their last seven away from Papa John's Cardinal Stadium. Louisville's last BIG EAST win was a 24-20 win over 14th-ranked South Florida on Oct. 25, 2008. The Cardinals are 0-4 on the road this season and haven't won on the road since a 35-28 win at Memphis on Oct. 10, 2008.

Powell and Ashley Step Up in Anderson's Absence
Running back Victor Anderson missed the Arkansas State game with a shoulder injury, but the Cardinals were fortunate to have two solid back-ups in red-shirt freshman Darius Ashley and Bilal Powell step in and answer the bell. For the second straight week, Ashley stepped in and rushed 13 times for a career-high 77 yards and his first two touchdowns of his career. Powell, who started in place of Anderson, toted the ball 17 times for 93 yards on the ground and also caught two passes for 31 yards. On the season, Powell has already rushed for a career-high 367 yards in his first eight games of the 2009 season and needs just 92 yards for 1,000 in his career.

Walk-on Leads the Cardinals to Win
Red-shirt freshmen Will Stein, a walk-on from Trinity High School, has performed well in each of his three appearances this season, but was extremely solid in his first career start as the quarterback for Louisville. Stein went 20-for-39 for 232 yards and an interception and also rushed for eight yards. He was sacked twice, but eluded pressure and threw the football out-of-bounds to avoid sacks. He converted a huge fourth and two on the fi rst scoring drive with a seven-yard run. He was most impressive on third down where he was an impressive 11-of-17 (64.7 percent) for 142 yards. Stein is 29-of-52 for 350 yards this season.

Long Ties Career-High Against Arkansas State
After catching just one pass for 14 yards against Cincinnati, senior wide receiver Scott Long tied his career-high for receptions in a game with six catches for 46 yards in the win over Arkansas State. It marked the third time in his career and the second time this season that Long has caught six passes in a game. He caught six passes against Utah in 2007 and has caught against Utah and Arkansas State this year. He leads the team with a career-high 35 receptions for 528 yards and one score this season. Nationally, Long is 64th in receiving yards per game (66.0 ypg) and is tied for 88th with an average of 4.38 catches a contest. He is seventh in the league in yards per game and fifth in receptions.

Cardinals Win Turnover Battle; Win the Game
In the win over Arkansas State last Saturday, the Cardinals won the turnover battle for just the third time all season, recording a pair of interceptions and just throwing one. Louisville is 2-1 this season when winning the turnover battle and are 12-2 under head coach Steve Kragthorpe. On the flip side, Louisville is 1-3 this season and 1-14 overall when committing more turnovers.

Getting Better Offensive Production
The Cardinals are getting fairly productive offensive production over their last four games, averaging 394.0 per game and have recorded over 400 yards of total offense three times in those four contests. However, take out the 275 yards of total offense against Cincinnati, the Cardinals would be averaging 434.67 yards of total offense in three of those four games. The Cardinals are averaging 70.33 plays per games in those contests where they had over 400 yards of offense. Louisville had 439 yards against Southern Miss, 457 versus Connecticut and 408 last Saturday versus Arkansas State.

Three Starting Quarterbacks in Three Wins
With the win over Arkansas State on Saturday, the Cardinals became the only team in the entire nation to have three different starting quarterbacks record wins this season. Junior Justin Burke was the starter in the Louisville's 30-10 win over Indiana State, while junior Adam Froman led the Cardinals to a victory over Southern Mississippi. In the win over Arkansas State last Saturday, red-shirt freshman walk-on Will Stein was the signal-caller in the 21-13 win. Stein was a solid 20-of-39 for 232 yards in his win, while Froman was 14-of-26 for 248 yards and a touchdown in a win over Southern Miss. Burke was 17-of-31 for 223 yards in a win over Indiana State.

Demspey Matches Junior Total
Senior linebacker Jon Dempsey is having a stellar senior season at linebacker for the Cardinals. The 6-0 senior recorded 12 tackles and 1.0 sacks in the win over Arkansas State on Oct. 31 and is leading the team with 80 tackles, which matches his entire 12-game 2008 total and still has four games to play. Dempsey has five double-digit tackle games and has recorded six in his 20 career contests. Dempsey is tied for 17th nationally in stops and is second in the BIG EAST in tackles at 10.0 per game.

Campa Bests 2008 Total Already
Senior Chris Campa has already surpassed his 2008 tackle total in the first eight games of the 2009 season. Campa, who has been in the starting lineup due to the injuries at linebacker, is second on the team in tackles with 55. He recorded six stops and a bone-crushing sack versus Arkansas State and has had at least seven or more tackles in five of the eight games this season. Campa recorded 37 tackles in 11 games last year.

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