We are headed into one of the most hopeful and exciting eras in the history of Louisville football. A program that has had many ups and downs and one that had very humble beginnings. Due to financial difficulty Louisville did not participate in the 1917-1921 seasons. When they did return to football they were members of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association. The Cardinals would be competing against all the smaller state schools. By smaller I mean what are NAIA and FCS level today.
One of those schools was Murray State. The Cardinals won their very first match-up against the Racers 14-0 in 1927, but they would come back with a vengeance 5 years later in 1932. The Cardinals would travel to Murray and suffer what is the worst defeat in school history losing to the Racers 105-0. And the Racers would beat up on our Cardinals the following year 54-6.
They have laid claim to four other victories over the Cardinals in the last 81 years with their last win 26-23 coming back in 1984 in Louisville. Since that loss to the Racers the Cardinals have won four straight against the in-state foe. The last time these teams met was in 2011 with the Cards winning that one 21-9. Louisville leads the all-time series 12-6.
The Murray State Racers haven’t had much success over the FBS opponents and their last win against an FBS program was that win against the Cards in 1984. The following year they were able to tie Memphis and since have lost 22 straight games to FBS teams.
The Murray State program has a lot of pride winning eight conference titles and ranks 4th in total conference championships among OVC schools. They are a program that is used to winning not surprising when you look at some of their former head coaches. Mike Gottfried, Ron Zook, Frank Beamer, Ralph Friedgen and Houston Nutt all got their starts in Murray Kentucky. Like I said above the Racers have a lot of pride and you best believe that they are coming into Papa Johns Cardinal Stadium on Saturday evening thinking they have a chance to knock off the Cardinals. Last weekend they beat Union 73-26 and are receiving votes in the Sports Network Top 25 Poll.
They run a spread offense called the “Hatch Attack” after their head coach Chris Hatcher and love to throw the football around. Their guy under center is South Alabama transfer CJ Bennett. He was 13-22 for 167 yards and five touchdowns last weekend. By all accounts he is a heady QB that fits well into that system. His favorite target is talented WR Janawski Davis. He caught three of those touchdown passes last weekend. This guy also added a 62 yard punt return for a touchdown and finished with 135 all purpose yards.
They have a very balanced rush attack and had four players rush for more than 50 yards last weekend. Nick Taylor is the guy the Louisville D will need to stop here rushing for 82 yards last weekend.
On special teams it appears that they have a guy who is going to be big for them. First time junior newcomer Shaun Samuels-Connell returned two punts for TD’s last weekend one for 68 yards and another for 13 yards. He averaged 17.5 yards on two kickoff returns.
Defensively they have a great sophomore linebacker Jonathan Jackson who last weekend recovered a fumble that led to a touchdown, blocked an extra point and ran back 98 yards for 2 points, added seven tackles and a sack. Not too shabby.
For our Cardinals it is all about execution this week. Staying disciplined at each position and going through their reps trying to be perfect. I expect to see Reggie Bonnafon get some reps after Will Gardner has done his part to put the game away. I also expect to see more of LJ Scott at running back after Dom Brown gets enough reps. This will be a good game for the QB and Wide Receivers to get more comfortable with each other in a game environment. I expect to see a healthy dose of passing to multiple guys. On the defensive side of the ball this will be a good week to get some practice against a team that likes to play fast and throw the ball all over the field. It will give our line backers a chance to get more comfortable with the 3-4 and their reads. Our secondary should get a good workout also. Execution…. Execution…. Execution this weekend is the name of the game on both sides of the ball.
Murray State won’t back down, but this one will be a game situation walk through for the Cardinals. Great weekend for the guys with nagging injuries to get better, and a great weekend for guys to get more comfortable in their roles. I’d love to see us redeem ourselves from that 105 point ass whipping of 81 years ago by getting a 112 point win Saturday. Don’t think that’ll happen but should be a lot of touchdowns.
The Beak Prediction:
Louisville 69 Murray State 3