{"id":17002,"date":"2011-08-10T10:00:38","date_gmt":"2011-08-10T15:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=17002"},"modified":"2011-08-09T20:51:58","modified_gmt":"2011-08-10T01:51:58","slug":"2011-louisville-cardinals-college-football-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/2011-louisville-cardinals-college-football-preview-17002\/","title":{"rendered":"2011 Louisville Cardinals College Football Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"

Louisville Cardinals \u00a0<\/strong>
\n2010 record:\u00a0 7-6 overall, 3-4 conference<\/strong>
\n2010 Bowl Game:\u00a0 31-28 win over Southern Miss in the Beef \u2018O\u2019 Brady\u2019s Bowl<\/strong>
\n2010 ATS:\u00a0 7-6<\/strong>
\n2010 O\/U:\u00a0 7-6<\/strong>
\nReturning starters:\u00a0 10 total (4 on offense, 6 on defense)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Week<\/a>
The Louisville Cardinals will have a hard time reaching another bowl game in 2011<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Over the month of August, our team of writers will be previewing the top teams heading into an exciting 2011 campaign.\u00a0 The college football handicappers at Maddux Sports are also preparing and have season-long packages readily available for clients.\u00a0 Let\u2019s take a closer look at head coach Charlie Strong\u2019s second year in Louisville.<\/p>\n

Offense<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Louisville needs to replace seven starters from last year\u2019s unit that ranked second in the conference in scoring.\u00a0 Among those needing to be replaced are the top two quarterbacks, a top running back and four starting offensive linemen.<\/p>\n

Junior Will Stein is expected to be the starting quarterback for the season opener against Murray State on Sept. 1.\u00a0 He is the only signal caller on the roster with significant game experience, but made his two starts back in 2009.<\/p>\n

If Stein falters, the position may fall into the hands of sophomore Dominique Brown, who was used in running formations a year ago.<\/p>\n

Whoever is behind center has to be concerned with just one returning starter from a year ago.\u00a0 Center Mario Benevides has started 24 of Louisville\u2019s last 25 games.\u00a0 Strong insists that the unit will be fine and will be relying on a pair of seniors at the tackle positions.<\/p>\n

A lot of the team\u2019s offensive success is going to ride on running back Victor Anderson, who ran for more than a 1,000 yards in 2008, but has been plagued by numerous injuries.\u00a0 He has all-conference potential if everything comes together.<\/p>\n

Sophomore tailback Jeremy Wright also figures to play an important part, rushing for 327 yards and averaging 5.5 yards per carry.<\/p>\n

The receiving core was left barren with the departures of Doug Beaumont and Cameron Graham, which has led many to believe that the Cardinals will score nowhere near the 26.4 points a game it did in 2010.<\/p>\n

Defense<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Definitely a strength in Strong\u2019s first year on campus, as the Cardinals were 14th nationally in total defense by surrendering 311.7 yards per game.<\/p>\n

The defensive line is one of the best group\u2019s in the conference, returning three starters and sophomore B.J. Butler has been getting a lot of attention, after finishing with 23 tackles and 2.5 sacks last year.<\/p>\n

Both starting cornerbacks from 2010 are gone from a group that ranked ninth nationally in pass defense.\u00a0 2010 Big East Rookie of the Year safety Hakeem Smith will be the key man to focus on.<\/p>\n

Special Teams<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Both kicking responsibilities will be handled by senior Chris Philpott, who ranked seventh in the conference in scoring and eight in punting last year.<\/p>\n

Wright is a major weapon in the return game and averaged 30.6 yards on kickoff returns.\u00a0 Louisville could win the field position game more than once this year.<\/p>\n

Against the Spread<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Definitely watch the college football lines page if Louisville is favored on the road this year, as the squad was 3-0 ATS in that situation a year ago.<\/p>\n

Bet On<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Playing at North Carolina in Week 4 will likely present a betting opportunity, as the Cardinals have covered the last three meetings in Chapel Hill.<\/p>\n

Fade Away<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Playing host to Syracuse is likely to be disastrous with a look-ahead game against West Virginia dead ahead.\u00a0 The team is 0-3 ATS when hosting the Orange.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Louisville Cardinals \u00a0 2010 record:\u00a0 7-6 overall, 3-4 conference 2010 Bowl Game:\u00a0 31-28 win over Southern Miss in the Beef \u2018O\u2019 Brady\u2019s Bowl 2010 ATS:\u00a0 7-6 2010 O\/U:\u00a0 7-6 Returning starters:\u00a0 10 total (4 on offense, 6 on defense) Over the month of August, our team of writers will be previewing the top teams heading […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":5552,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[200,1444],"tags":[5211,2497,1237,5208,5212,5209,556,5210,5207],"class_list":["post-17002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-football","category-headlines","tag-b-j-butler","tag-big-east-conference","tag-charlie-strong","tag-dominique-brown","tag-hakeem-smith","tag-jeremy-wright","tag-louisville-cardinals","tag-victor-anderson","tag-will-stein"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17002"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17002\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17004,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17002\/revisions\/17004"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}