Cards' loss to Kentucky led to more defeats last year
The Kentucky-Louisville opener on Sunday represents only one game, but the consequences can stretch beyond the first weekend of the football season.
Last year's game, which came in Week 3, reminded Louisville of the lingering effect.
The Cards lost 40-34 when Kentucky threw a 57-yard touchdown pass in the final minute. At a news conference on Monday, Coach Steve Kragthorpe suggested the bitter disappointment his team experienced in Commonwealth Stadium contributed to a shocking upset loss to Syracuse the next weekend.
"It took a little wind out of us, there's no question," Kragthorpe said of the loss at Kentucky last season.
Kragthorpe, then a first-year coach at Louisville, saw an autumn of high expectations (a top 10 pre-season ranking) yield a pedestrian 6-6 record.
"The wins are sweet, but the (losses) are so bitter, and people don't understand how devastating it is to lose any game," Kragthorpe said. "You've got to get yourself off the mat and get ready to go again. And we didn't do that last year."
When asked his memory of UK's winning touchdown, U of L defensive tackle Earl Heyman said, "I remember rushing the passer and just looking."
He sighed.
"But that's over," he said after a pause. "It's over. You can't go back to the past. All you can do is learn from it and get better, and I think we have done that."
Louisville sees Sunday's game as important, not only as a tone setter. It's against an arch-rival. It's nationally televised (ESPN). There is no conflicting football programming to divert attention.
Given all those factors, Kragthorpe returned to the idea of the first game having a palpable ripple effect.
"To win your first game gives you a little positive momentum, a chance to get things moving in the right direction," he said. "Hopefully that positive momentum continues to go throughout the course of the season."
Given the low expectations this year, Louisville could use some positive momentum. The Cards' lofty pre-season expectations of 2007 have given way to predictions of a second-tier finish in the Big East.
U of L players at the Monday news conference dismissed the predictions. The annual August soothsaying becomes immaterial once the season starts, and a team's fortunes ride solely on victory and defeat.
"Internally, guys don't really pay attention to that," quarterback Hunter Cantwell said. "We know what we have to do as a team, and we know how good we are.
"You listen to the talk radio and you read stories on the Internet, and you just have to laugh because you know what guys can do and who's playing well and who's stepping up. So as far as the outside influences, yeah, it's kind of a motivator. But we are excited about the team we have."
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