Chemistry and character are two separate entities in my opinion.

The 72 A's hated each other and still won the World Series.

Character more or less is an individual piece, chemistry is a team wide piece, in my opinion.

Chemistry can only get you so far...you may have a group of kids who love each other but aren't very good. You still have good chemistry but a lousy product.

 

The 72A's were being paid to win.

 

Like I said earlier. Give me a group of kids with character and team philosophy and a season of trials and tribulations over a winning season with kids you can't keep out of jail every day.

Question: If you are going to live with the growing pains of an inexperienced QB, why would you do that with a 5th year senior?

Please tell me how someone who is smaller that 6' tall standing in front of you can block the view of a ball soaring through the air. Lyons didn't get touched, the ball didn't get touched, he just flat out dropped it and it was a bad call. Just because Lyons messed up doesn't mean he was interfered with.

 

 

I'd say the angle of the ball coming in has something to do with it, and Dicky Lyon's ain't exactly taller than the defender. Lyons is reaching out to get the ball, so as not to hit the defender. Next time, Dicky needs to just cream the defender so he can get to the ball in his bread basket, then there won't be any questions about interference.

 

As far as Petrino, there weren't problems under his watch because he swept them under the rug. He took Vaughn from ND even though they kicked him off the team for a major infraction. He was not just a transfer as stated on air yesterday. Seldom do you see players kicked off teams for major violations get picked up by another D1 school. So I wasn't exactly shocked to see him spending his weekends shooting innocent families with paintballs. :creepy:

Once again, there is no halo rule. You have to give the returner an opportunity to catch the ball, which OBVIOUSLY happened, because he dropped it...It was a blown call.

 

It's OBVIOUSLY a judgement call. IMO, he dropped it because he didn't have full opportunity to catch it.

Question: If you are going to live with the growing pains of an inexperienced QB, why would you do that with a 5th year senior?

 

This question drives me nuts because anyone who has seen Hunter play since the Gator Bowl 3 years ago can tell you that this was his worst performance EVER. Hunter HAS PLAYED BEFORE, and HAS PLAYED WELL.

 

Yesterday was a choking bomb for Hunter, and I REALLY hope he can get it together.

Your right, it hasn't existed since 2003. The rule is that the defense must allow the receiver to catch the ball unimpeded. It was a blown call but it UofL didn't play well enough to win anyway.

 

The halo penalty only applied when there was no fair catch called. The correct call was made because he interfered with him catching the ball due to Lyons having to pull up to avoid running into the defender. If you look at their feet, they were less than a yard from each other.

This question drives me nuts because anyone who has seen Hunter play since the Gator Bowl 3 years ago can tell you that this was his worst performance EVER. Hunter HAS PLAYED BEFORE, and HAS PLAYED WELL.

 

Yesterday was a choking bomb for Hunter, and I REALLY hope he can get it together.

 

Agreed. Cantwell was supposed to be the best player on the field yesterday and he was far from it. Not time to panic yet though.

The halo penalty only applied when there was no fair catch called. The correct call was made because he interfered with him catching the ball due to Lyons having to pull up to avoid running into the defender. If you look at their feet, they were less than a yard from each other.

 

Exactly. RRR's post also says "unimpeded." Thus, it wasn't a blow call IMO.

Honestly, it shouldn't be surprising if you've followed the off-season troubles this year. The roots are before Coach K's time. His in a position similar to what Coach Brooks faced upon his arrival at UK, without the NCAA sanctions. Coach Brooks has done a FANTASTIC job rebuilding UK's program, and restoring it's integrity. I think Coach Kragthorpe is the guy to do the same at UL, and I'm glad he's here, W's or no W's.

 

Coach Brooks was given a lot more time than Kragthorpe will, IMO. Brooks took over a program that wasn't winning and couldn't hold on to a coach. K took over a BCS contending team.

 

How long do you think the Louisville fans will give Kragthorpe? It takes at least three years to make a turn around.

Let me start a list of U of L's excuses:

 

1. All Petrino's fault. He only recruited players that won't take responsibility for their own

actions and blame someone else, so it's the coaches fault when they turn out to be thugs

 

2. The officiating

 

3. The weather

 

4. It was the first game of the season

 

5. We lost 25 players from last year

 

6. Big Brother won't schedule the game when we want

 

etc, etc, etc.

Let me start a list of U of L's excuses:

When someone starts saying UofL should have won the game, your list will have merit.

Cantwell did ok, I put just as much blame on the receivers as I do him.

 

:confused:You've got to be kidding right? Cantwell did not look good/ok at all IMO, he missed wide open throws, put way too much zip on finesse throws and way too many tipped balls for a QB as tall as him.

One more thing in regards to Cantwell, IMO he could have done a much better job moving in the pocket. A four man rush provides a prefect opportunity to step up in the pocket when it collapses and make a throw, I don't remember Cantwell doing that one time...

Did I really read that UK's offense was "vanilla"? :lol:

 

Seems like I've heard something similar before.

 

Seriously, here's my take. I was very pleased with what I saw from UK today, but I'm not sure we know exactly what we've got based on one game against a U of L team that we aren't sure about either.

 

The defense played great, but Cantwell played terrible...he missed a lot of throws.

 

Offensively, I was fairly pleased with the performance. I like the potential of Hartline and the WR's...he missed some throws and they dropped some passes, but those are things they can improve on with some experience and confidence. I'm definitely not on the Cobb @ QB bandwagon. Cobb looks like he could potentially be our best WR...I don't think it would be a bad idea to give him some snaps at QB just to mix it up and get the ball in his hands in a different way though.

 

Overall, I was pretty happy with what I saw. The defense is obviously better, and if they can stay healthy, should be more competitive than in the past. How much better is the question I have. Louisville's offense looked pretty bad, and while UK was responsible for some of it, they weren't responsible for all of it.

 

The offense didn't do a whole lot, but I liked the potential I saw and think they can improve quite a bit with experience and confidence.

 

That said, they're going to have their work cut out for them to get 3 W's in the conference.

 

Brooks and company have done a great job re-building this football program. I think we've got a great chance to at least get to six wins and a bowl game, which would be huge in the year following the departure of a lot of offensive firepower. It shows that we're actually building something in Lexington rather than getting lucky with a good QB and a few good WR's for a couple of years.

 

I think UK has four "swing" games in the SEC...South Carolina, Arkansas, Mississippi State and Vandy...I expect them to win at least two of those to reach the 6 win level. They have a shot to win against any of those teams though.

 

The Georgia, UT, Florida and 'Bama games are almost certain losses.

 

I'm just not sure how much we learned from this game because we don't know how good or bad U of L actually is right now.

Agreed. Cantwell was supposed to be the best player on the field yesterday and he was far from it. Not time to panic yet though.

 

If Ihadn't known better I would have guessed Cantwell was either a Frosh or soph. A 5th year senior should show pose and have command on the field. Cantwell showed neither.