Red Rage Pigskin

Great article Sheriff. I love how you summed it all up.

I remember so many games as a kid in Old Cardinal Stadium. Freezing in those Red, Yellow and Green seats. Wondering if the program will ever grow into a power. At the time, I could not imagine what I was able to take part of in NOLA this past week. You could just tell momentum was on our side from the pep rally, bourbon street, Cards March and crowd at that stadium. What a great time and to more great times to come. "It is great, to be, a Louisville Cardinal"!!!

Thanks for the great article.

Funny as I watched the end of that game and coach Strong and Jurich hug my mind did the exact same thing. My mind took me back to the day I watched Howard say those words that most people laughed at.."The only variable is time". I remember watching his teams struggle against Murry St. I remember Ron Steiner telling me that Howard was so distraught after just a few practices. Telling him that we had 3 division one players on the entire team. I remember going to entrance 4, where there is a hotel now, and watching UL practice. No reason to close practice because it was me and may 30 to 40 other people on a good day. I remember Howard not taking recruits to the football field (baseball stadium) and selling the city and his dream. I remember when Howard said he wanted to build a stadium for UL football and again many people laughed. "You can't sell out Cardinal Stadium, how can you sell out a larger stadium"? Then the fans give 15mil as a down payment and the construction began. I remember driving by that construction at least once a week to see the progress and thinking that it will never be done.

So many memories of the building of Louisville football program since 1985. The big wins, the bad losses, the coaches coming and going. I don't think most fans understand how huge it was for Coach Strong to finally say "NO, I am good here at Louisville". That in itself is another huge step towards the "pipes" dreams for UL.

While Howard started this run to the national title game, Tom Jurich grabbed that torch and has built onto that dream to make it even more of a reality. This is going to be a fun ride people, get on this train and enjoy.

GO CARDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I vividly remember the Penn State early lead during the 1-10 season. I was a student at the time and was happy to have season tickets. The only team we beat that year was winless Illinois. The year after, I transferred to Urbana-Champaign.

My wife became a fan after we met a few years ago, and I told her when she wondered why I was so excited after this game, that she has NO idea where the program was 15 years ago. Seeing how far we've come in that time, from a bottom-feeding C-USA team, to the team who built ESPN weeknight games into a profitable venture, to the team who could compete with the Miami's and FSU's of the world (props to both schools for playing us when few big name teams would after 1997), to the team who was a FG away from playing for a National Championship, to the team who shocked everyone by beating the #3 ranked blue-blooded SEC school - a school who our rivals to the east haven't beaten in 20+ years. We only needed one game.

Also, how about that OOC schedule in 1997? Who wouldn't love to have that type of schedule these days? UK, Utah, Illinois, Penn State and Oklahoma?

Man that was awesome!

Sheriff - I met you at Pat O's in NOLA (longtime friend of CrumsRevenge) before the game. Good to meet you and very happy to read this piece. Great work!

Cardland: You go back a little further than I am able to. I wish I knew more about that time. But as a kid my stream of consciousness (for football at least) starts in 1988-89. Perfect timing. It's been a long road. Taken a lot of perseverance, but here we are.

Rugersp101: Definitely. The turnout in NOLA was beyond expectations. UofL kept its coach from going to the SEC, took more fans to the Sugar Bowl than the SEC. Whipped an SEC team in the Sugar Bowl. I'd say it was a good month.

Deep3Card: Oh yeah that brief lead against Penn State was incredible. The stadium was going nuts! And then it was over.......I'd love to have an OOC schedule like that one, but the ACC in 2014 will be great too!

SmokyBar: Paul was actually reading Qs off-the air and he looked up and said: "do you really want me to read this?" And Cooper encouraged him to read it. Then it came out.

baseballcard1: It was great meeting you at Patty O's! I'm glad you liked it.

flyercard: Thank you. We've come a long way.