Cards bemoan errors, pledge unity

LOUISVILLE — A loss to archrival Kentucky began a downward spiral for Louisville last season. A top-10 team going in, the Cardinals proceeded to lose games and their sense of unity en route to a disappointing 6-6 record.

After losing 27-2 to UK on Sunday in a game as ugly — from U of L's point of view — as the score indicated, the Cards vowed to stay together and make the most of this season.

"We're not going to divide," said Coach Steve Kragthorpe, already embattled as his second season in the job began. "We're not going to let people divide us. A lot of people will want to try to divide us now. But we're not going to let that happen."

The dividers succeeded in splintering Louisville's football team last season. Early last week, defensive tackle Earl Heyman noted how in 2007 an offense that gushed yardage and points got "salty" with an inept defense.

The third-largest crowd in Papa John's Cardinal Stadium history (42,696) watched the reverse happen. Only a safety enabled U of L to avoid its first shutout loss since 2000 (23-0 to Florida State). And under the guidance of a new coordinator, the fiery Ron English, the Cards' defense limited Kentucky to 63 rushing yards, the fewest allowed since Grambling ran for 60 on Sept. 9, 2000.

Senior quarterback Hunter Cantwell, a career backup replacing the heralded Brian Brohm, acknowledged the blame headed his way.

"Obviously, a lot of fingers will be pointed from outside the team," said Cantwell, who completed 20 of 43 passes for 152 yards. "I, myself, probably deserve that."

In his well-deserved self-deprecation, Cantwell targeted his fourth-quarter performance. All three of his interceptions came in the final 15 minutes, when Kentucky scored 17 straight points.

"Just throwing it up," Cantwell said. "If I could go back and do it over, (I would) not be too greedy, not try to take over the game."

Cantwell said he tried to force passes against a UK defense stacked with three safeties to thwart any big-play intentions.

Kragthorpe and the players at the post-game interview room lamented mistakes. Besides the interceptions, Louisville also fumbled the ball away twice. Kentucky, which did not cross the 30-yard barrier in rushing until the first play of the fourth quarter, returned each for touchdowns.

"Fumbles, interceptions, missed blocks, missed assignments, dropped passes," senior center Eric Wood said. "What we call drive-killers. And we had a whole lot of drive-killers today you can't make and win."

The Cardinals talked about correcting the mistakes in practice.

"I wish we were practicing tomorrow," Wood said.

Except for watching video of the defeat, Louisville will take off Labor Day. U of L plays again on Saturday against Tennessee Tech.

"Luckily, we have a short week," Kragthorpe said. "I don't think Saturday can come too fast. When you play as poorly as we did offensively, you want to go out and rectify the situation as fast as you can."

Louisville saluted UK's defense. But there was a limit to how much credit the Cards gave Kentucky.

"I'm not going to sit up here and tell you guys they killed us," Wood said to reporters. "Because they didn't."

Overall, rather than dwell on the credit due Kentucky, Louisville sounded more concerned with the blame it expected headed its way.

"Oh, it's deflating," Kragthorpe said of the loss. "You're not human if you're not deflated. We have to inflate them tomorrow. Certainly we're deflated. I'm going to call apples apples and oranges oranges."

What Kragthorpe doesn't want to identify in future news conferences is his team as a sour mishmash of players because of this loss to Kentucky.

"I'll just tell you we're going to fight and battle," the U of L coach said. "We're never going to give up.

"No retreat. No surrender."