Once thought to be a cheap knockoff of Saturday College football the Thursday night college game has become a staple of the season. These Thursday night throw downs started off with much skepticism. Some college football fans and media folks thought that the Thursday night game degraded the product. As the popularity of the mid-week game has increased that negative talk has decreased and even the NFL is now cashing in on the market. The University of Louisville has been a part of ESPN Prime-time College Football Thursday nights since the late 90’s. They were playing on Thursdays before they were cool, and now prepare for one their biggest match-ups they’ve ever had on the mid-week telecast.
Tom Jurich will soon celebrate his 18th anniversary as the Cardinals athletic director. The impact he’s had on the Louisville athletic programs are nothing short of amazing, and a huge factor in all of the success especially as far as the football program is concerned can be directly linked to his willingness to be a part of ESPN’s weekly college football games. Jurich was quoted after he was hired saying “The thing we need to do right away is to get exposure and get this program branded, and that is something I feel is most essential.”
The Cardinals had played in mid-week games throughout the 90’s, but those games were regional broadcast and it wasn’t until ESPN that those games went national. Louisville football had five national telecasts on ESPN or ESPN2 during the 2001 season and mid-week games were a big reason why. In the ten years prior Louisville had a total of 28 games broadcast. Since 2001 Louisville has regularly appeared on national television and the surge in nationally broadcasted games is linked to Louisville’s embrace of weeknight games. Louisville has had a total of 18 appearances on ESPN Thursday night telecast. Jurich was quoted saying “That’s helped us immensely; ESPN has helped us build this program. I look at them as a full partner.”
The emergence of the Louisville football program has happened on Thursday nights. Having the undivided attention of college football fans across the country has paid off, and the Cardinals haven’t disappointed. At 10-8 on Thursday nights they have been involved in some great games. Ironically it was the game in 2002 against Florida State that got it all started in a big way when the Cardinals beat the #4 Seminoles in OT 26-20. In 2006 Louisville and West Virginia set the mark that still holds today as the most watched Thursday night game in ESPN history. 4,916,000 households watched the #5 Cardinals beat the #3 Mountaineers 44-34. This game is also the second-biggest college football audience ever for an ESPN game (any day or time slot).
Thinking back about those games I’m reminded of all the highs and lows I’ve felt on Thursday nights over the last 15 years. The field goal at Rutgers was probably the biggest low, but that was replaced by many highs including the Thursday night win against Rutgers that got us to the Sugar Bowl. And that game two years ago against Cincinnati. All those heroic performances by Teddy and other Cardinal greats the memories just go on and on. They laughed at us for playing the Thursday night games but who’s laughing now. I think it’s been one helluva ride and I’m looking forward to that next great moment.
We may not have to wait long. On Thursday night the 11th ranked Clemson Tigers will make their first trip into Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium. This will be only the second game ever between these teams. The Cardinals find themselves needing another program defining win on a Thursday night after a dismal start to the season. It’s funny how things tend to come full circle. There have been some magical Thursday nights in Louisville and lets just hope that this week we can recapture some of that magic and pull off the big upset.