UofL 2017 Football Schedule Recap

Purdue -25.5, won 35-28, Purdue better than most thought they'd be and are going bowling, congrats to Brohm

@ UNC -12, won 47-35, UNC worse than thought but good win on the road for Cards

v. Clemson +3, lost 47-21, Clemson played well, Cards did not and got beat by a better team

v. Kent St., pay for win

v. Murray State, pay for win

@ NC St. -3, lost 39-25, NC St. better than thought

v. BC -19, lost 45-42, BC better than thought, Cards defense atrocious and allowed BC to run wild on them, fumble by Jaylen Smith squashed a late rally but they deserved to lose that game

@ FSU +6, won 31-28, UofL took advantage of poor FSU offense and won a game they should have

@ Wake -2.5, lost 42-32, Wake better than thought, Cards defense bad

v. UVa -11.5, won 38-21, defense starts to improve and good win

v. Syracuse -14.5, won 56-10, defense continues to improve over injury riddled Syracuse team

v. UK -9, won 44-17.

Summary: UofL favored in 10/12 games and were 7-3 in those games (7 were double digits - won 6 of them). Wake & NC St. were basically "pick em" favorites on the road and lost both. UofL split the 2 games they were underdogs @fsu & v. Clemson) and were never a double digit dog.

The BC game sticks out as the only real outlier. They were supposed to win big and lost close at home. They won the games they were supposed to and lost the 3 close spreads. In retrospect, the spread should've been larger v. Clemson as UofL is not yet in their class but it was early in the season for them with a new QB. Similarly, FSU probably shouldn't have been a 6 point favorite v. UofL but they were coming off the loss at home to BC where defense was wretched and it was in Tallahassee with Jimbo wanting some revenge for the curb stomp in 2016.

Could've been 9-3 or 10-2. 7-5 was about the bottom against that schedule. 6-6 would've been a collapse. It's good that fans are barely satisfied with an 8-4 season with a boat race of UK in the final game.

The end of the season felt really good. If we could play one team again, I would like another go at Clemson – sure we’d lose again, but I wonder how much/if any we would close the gap....

Can’t help but wonder how next season will go without the GOAT that is Lamar.

Can’t help but wonder how next season will go without the GOAT that is Lamar.

Will be crucial to respond well after getting shellacked by Bama in game one.

I agree with the first post here. BC is the one I want back most. Gave up a shocking amount of yardage on the ground and just one more stop would’ve been enough to put this team at 9-3 and I’d have felt a lot better about that.

With a healthy defense in the middle of the year, I think Louisville wins both of those games against BC and Wake and we’re talking about 10-2.

So it goes. That’s football. It’s hard to compete in every game all season without the kind of the depth that the best teams have and that’s a tough thing to build, especially defensively.

Will be crucial to respond well after getting shellacked by Bama in game one.

Truth. We’ll have Indiana State and Western Kentucky at home before beginning the ACC schedule in Week 4. I’m glad of that rather than jumping feet first into the league schedule in Week 2 like we had to this year.

Also been thinking about this since last night: what are the odds the bowl organizers want to pit UofL and Grantham against each other in a bowl? There aren’t a ton of good SEC teams to fill bowl slots so Miss St will likely end up elsewhere but I keep staring at that Tax Slayer bowl on Dec. 30 as a possible landing spot for both.

BC was the game that took some wind out of my sails this year. Still upset that we were outscored at home when putting 42 points on the board.

Also been thinking about this since last night: what are the odds the bowl organizers want to pit UofL and Grantham against each other in a bowl? There aren’t a ton of good SEC teams to fill bowl slots so Miss St will likely end up elsewhere but I keep staring at that Tax Slayer bowl on Dec. 30 as a possible landing spot for both.

I wouldn’t hate that story line. I’m just hoping we draw a ranked opponent.