AP writer Gary Graves thinks that despite being ranked in the top 20, Louisville still has a reason to being playing with a chip on its shoulder. Despite eight teams, who are ranked ahead of them, losing this past weekend, Louisville still sits at #18 in the AP poll. Graves points out the Charlie Strong just wants his team to stay focused and motivated now that conference play is beginning.

The Cardinals want to win the Big East and clinch an automatic Orange Bowl berth. But they will probably have to finish undefeated to have even an outside shot of being considered for the Bowl Championship Series title game.

The first BCS standings will be released on Sunday.

But coach Charlie Strong said first things first.

“Now we start the real season, which I call the real season because it’s the conference season,” Strong said earlier this week. “Everything from here out counts.”

Graves also acknowledges that, with West Virginia gone, winning may not be enough for top Big East teams Louisville, Rutgers, and Cincinnati against a severely diminished conference. They may need to put up the type of performances on the field that attract the attention of the national media.

But now No. 5 West Virginia is a member of the Big 12. Next season Pittsburgh and Syracuse will join the Atlantic Coast Conference. What’s left is an image of a foundering conference lacking strong teams.

That sounds strange considering three Big East teams — Louisville, No. 20 Rutgers (5-0, 2-0) and No. 21 Cincinnati (4-0, 1-0) are all ranked in this week’s poll. Nonetheless, the remaining Big East teams seem to have to prove their worth — simply winning is not enough.

“Because of what’s happened to the conference over the last seven or eight years, I think the perception is that the Big East is a step or two beneath the other conferences that are out there,” ESPN college football analyst Kirk Herbstreit said. “And yet, here they have three teams that are ranked.

“For Louisville, Cincinnati and even Rutgers I just think they’re getting attention for the first five or six weeks and now that they’ve gotten some attention, people are going to sit back and evaluate them and take into consideration whether they’re a top-15, top-10 or eventually a top-seven or -eight type of team. All three will need a lot of help to move up the BCS standings.”

Especially Louisville, further hampered by opponents’ poor record.

Graves notes that a chance of a perfect season for Louisville rests on the players improving over the next few weeks.

Safety Hakeem Smith said,

“We haven’t really shown our abilities the last few games, but we know we have that ability. We’ve got to use all our talent and blow teams out, put up numbers, basically just showcase everybody’s ability. We have to prove ourselves, and things will fall into place.”

If Louisville plays the way it should against lowly conference opponents like Temple, Syracuse, and Connecticut and takes care of business against top Big East teams like Rutgers and Cincinnati, the national media is sure to take notice, and Charlie Strong’s team will receive the respect they deserve.

Due to the MLB Playoffs, the LSL radio show isn’t on ESPN 680 this week, so the guys decided to go the old school route and post a podcast.  For your enjoyment, the UofL story lines that were discussed were:

-The Pitt game: what we want to see and what needs to happen for the Cards to get the win

-Football recruiting: is it time to panic?

-The Red-White game preview

-Coach Pitino on not retiring anytime soon

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 37:47 — 34.6MB)

-The first 3 people to name the intro song get a LSL shirt (hit us up in the comment section and twitter with the song name and shirt size)

-We should be back on the airwaves next week.

As if you didn’t have enough content on this site from Louisville head coach Rick Pitino already, here’s one more thing to hold you over until Saturday’s scrimmage. Pitino spoke for nearly 30 minutes today and addressed a sold out crowd at the downtown Louisville Marriott during UofL basketball’s annual tip-off luncheon. Here’s the video, courtesy of the Courier Journal.

Quick programming note: Due to the extensive nature of the MLB playoffs, Louisville Sports Live got the bump this week and will be back on the ESPN 680 airwaves next week. However, we’re gonna head back to the basement and roll out a podcast later this afternoon / early evening. We don’t have any guests lined up (mostly because we just rolled out the idea of this podcast about ten minutes ago) but we still plan on talking about Rick Pitino’s possible contract extension, the upcoming red-white scrimmage and of course preview the Big East opener between Pitt and Louisville this Saturday. The podcast should be uploaded to the site sometime tonight or, at the very latest, first thing tomorrow morning. Since we can’t take calls, feel free to shoot us tweets about whatever is on your mind. Contrary to what you might think, we read em’ all. Unless they’re death threats. We just kind of skim through death threats.

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In an interview late Wednesday night conducted with college basketball writer Jeff Goodman of CBSSports.com on his SiriusXM radio show, Louisville basketball coach Rick Pitino discussed the hype surrounding the upcoming season, his son Richard and his new job at Florida International, and even reciprocated the praise Kentucky coach John Calipari gave him by talking about what a great recruiter and coach of young kids he is. Find that last part shocking? As disturbing as it is to see the two rival coaches who had such an infamous war of words last sesaon now exchanging compliments, the real highlight of the interview came later. The coach, whose current contract runs through 2017, said he has changed his tune recently and would like to sign an extension that would allow him to coach until his health will allow (please do yourself a favor and read the pathetic UK fan comments on that tweet). This is definitely a change from what many expected only a few years ago. Recruiting was not going great (he had been pickpocketed by Calipari for Marquis Teague), Calipari was stealing much of Pitino’s thunder, his very public extortion scandal had humiliated him and the program, and his disappointing/forgettable 2009 season followed by him saying 2010 was going to be a “bridge year” did not exactly give fans confidence for the future. There were whispers that the game had passed him by, and retirement did not seem very far fetched. Then he landed a top 5 recruiting class headlined by McDonald’s All-Americans Wayne Blackshear and Chane Behanan, took his 2011-12 team to a Final Four, and is a heavy favorite for the national championship this coming season. My, how things change.

Before going any further, it is important to note that this is not at all official. This is something Pitino merely mentioned to Goodman, who then reported it to fans via Twitter. Nothing has been signed, nothing has been agreed upon. It could mean something and it could mean nothing. Athletic director Tom Jurich would certainly be behind Pitino signing an extension. He has been a consistent backer of Pitino through the best of times and through the darkest of times. When fans were calling for Pitino’s head, he would come out and say the coach had a job as long as he wanted. If Pitino mentioned retirement, Jurich would have none of it. He recently said as much to Pat Forde of Yahoo! Sports. He said that Pitino now has more energy than most 35-year olds and would actually like to reward him with a 5-year extension. That would make Pitino the head coach until 2022 when he would be turning 70 years old. That is coming a long way from last December, when the coach said he would retire after his contract was up. Or did he? While he did say that he would only coach until his contract was up, no one really asked a follow up question. They just all assumed he meant he was retiring. At the time, maybe that was a feasible conclusion to jump to. After all, up until that point, the 2011-12 season was not living up to the preseason hype it received. The previous two seasons ended in first round tournament losses and recruiting was less than dynamic. The extension that Jurich awarded Pitino in 2010 could be arguably seen as premature and even undeserved after the way the team had been looking and especially after the embarrassment he caused the program with the extortion case. Maybe those in attendance when Pitino said he would coach only through the end of the contract had trouble believing he would even last THAT long. Then again, maybe they should have pushed for more clarification.

The world we live in is an oven society. When a coach or team is hot, they are on top of the world. When they are not…well…things are not so peachy. The idea of extending Pitino until he is 70 will likely draw mixed reactions from Louisville fans. There are those who would celebrate it, as he is coming off a Final Four, entering a season where the team is a national championship favorite, and is bringing in a very impressive 2013 recruiting class. Then there are those who cannot shake the dark days from their mind and think the idea of an extension after one great season and only what may be another is unneccessary. Maybe they will pine for a younger coach like Billy Donovan, Shaka Smart, Anthony Grant or whatever other hot name will surface. If the season goes like it should go, fans will likely be fine and supportive of the notion. If the team underachieves, then the fans will rip this idea to shreds. It is the nature of the beast.

So where did this sudden change of heart Pitino had come from? Gary Parrish of CBSSports.com suggests it may be just coach-speak, and he is just countering coaches who are using his retirement as a negative recruiting tactic against Louisville. More likely, though, it is the simple reason he is simply happier coaching than he has been in some time. It is not so much the past and potential win-loss records that are driving this decision, but the fact that he is recruiting players that he genuinely enjoys coaching and genuinely want to learn and do things the way he would like them to be done. From 2007-2010, recruiting times were rough. There was little star power in the 2007, 2009, and 2010 classes, and his 2008 blockbuster class that included 5-star big men Samardo Samuels and Terrence Jennings was not exactly living up to the hype. It was not that either were bad players (they were, in fact, quite valuable), but neither really developed under Pitino the way he had noped nor fully embraced his coaching philosophy. Samuels was a solid scorer, but always looked genuinely unhappy on the defensive side of the ball, did not run the court well at times, and was outworked on the glass more than a player his size should be. Jennings, on the other hand, never developed an offensive skill set that could match his athleticism, and he would get lost at times on both sides of the ball. Pitino was also had what he called a very high maintenance team to deal with that included players like Jerry Smith, Earl Clark, Terrence Williams, and Edgar Sosa. Maybe his thoughts of retirement were based on a thought in the back of his head that he could not connect with or deal with the new generation of college players.

Now, however, that thought process, if it even existed, is long gone. He has once again found  his niche in the game and understands the type of player he needs. Perhaps seeing just how well a player like Gorgui Dieng has developed under his tutelage reaffirmed his faith in his abilities and reminded him there are still kids out there willing to learn. He is clearly very happy with this team and thoroughly enjoys coaching them. Now that he knows what kind of recruits will best adapt to his style of coaching, things are going much smoother on the recruiting trail. He has an outstanding class coming in for 2013 that will include SG Anton Gill, PF Akoy Agau, PG Terry Rozier, PG Chris Jones, and C Mangok Mathiang (on the team now, but likely to redshirt). Is it going to be as good as the UK recruiting class, which will likely include half of the top 10 players in the class? No, but it does not need to be. The way Pitino is recruiting, he will not need to have a freshman be the best player on the team right away to win. He will have experienced veterans who understand and thrive in the system where a freshman can learn. The recruits he is targeting he is making sure are willing and  anxious to learn. If he continues to land these types of talents, Louisville will continue to be a competitive top 5 team for years to come.

Again, this is all extremely speculative and nothing is set in stone. The only thing that is a fact right now is that Pitino is more excited about coaching than he has been in years. This is arguably the most excited he has been since he has it Louisville and the future only appears to be getting brighter. A lot will depend on what happens this year, but if things go as planned, it should surprise no one that he wants to stay as long as his health permits him (go easy, Russ), nor should it give fans anything but confidence in the future.

To listen to Pitino’s interview with Goodman, here is the link.

Freshman Linebacker Keith Brown / 247 sports

When Louisville takes the field against Pitt on Saturday morning, they’ll try to snap a 4-game losing streak – their longest to any current opponent. The Cardinals will bring their #19 ranking into Heinz Field during homecoming weekend and the Panthers have found themselves with their backs squarely against the wall. After taking a surprising loss to Syracuse Friday night, Pitt stands 2-3 on the year and are fighting for their bowl-game life. Meanwhile Louisville looks to finally put a full game together and remain undefeated at 6-0. We”ll have our full opponent breakdown and preview tomorrow, but in the meantime let’s see what the local Pitt papers and national publications are saying about Saturday’s match-up

• Athlon Sports says that Louisville’s biggest weakness is their lack of a sustained pass rush, however, three of their 4 experts still pick the Cards to win the game.
• Nice piece here from The Pittsburgh Tribune on Teddy Bridgewater.
• Andrea Adelson of ESPN is tempted to pick the Panthers but stays with the Cards in the end, 27-20. She says her biggest concern is the lack of consistency from Louisville.
• Despite only rushing for 27 yards against Syracuse on Friday night, Pitt head coach Paul Chryst told the Pittsburgh Post Gazette that he won’t abandon the run.
• Cardiac Hill gives us the top ten quotes from Pitt head coach Paul Chryst’s weekly press conference. They also wrote about how a decreased workload for star running back Ray Graham might be exactly what he needs to thrive.
• UofLsports.com says that the Cards’ offense is still looking for their identity.
• Here’s a football notebook from Panthers Digest that includes quotes and a look ahead to Louisville.
• Really good piece from Mike Rutherford of Card Chronicle on the misfortunes of Louisville and their Big East openers throughout the years.
• Pitt’s official school website gives you a full primer and breakdown of the game.

**UPDATE**

Despite early reports from yesterday, Marquez Valdes is currently not a part of Louisville’s 2013 class. Charlie Strong and the coaching staff have yet to decide whether or not they will accept his commitment. According to Mike Hughes of Inside The Ville, the Louisville staff are still recruiting him and he’s expected to make an official visit in January.

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Marquez Valdes, a 6’3, 184-lb WR out of St. Petersburg, Florida, gave Charlie Strong his tenth commitment in the 2013 class. Although Valdes’s only other BCS offer comes from Iowa State, he receives high praise for his size and strength for a wide-out.

ESPN’s scouting report on Valdes reads:

Valdes is a possession receiver with natural, strong hands coupled with good body coordination. Has the size and athleticism for the wide receiver position at the major level of competition. His frame appears capable of supporting additional bulk over time; his quickness and all out playing speed must also improve.

Marquez Valdes is the type of prospect who could be a diamond in the rough when it is all said in down. He has the size and athletic ability to be an Andrell Smith type player down the road. Valdes finished his Junior season with 28 catches for over 600 yards and 6 touchdowns. He is rated a three-star by most national scouting experts.

In an interview with CBSSports.com’s John Rothstein, Rick Pitino gave some insight on the players’ progression and how the team, as a whole, is coming along.

Here are some quotes from Pitino.

• “We’re high on our potential but until we start practicing every day we don’t have a real feel of what we are yet.”

• When asked about Louisville’s depth, Pitino said, “We have 10-11 guys that can play. The only difference between our 1st and 2nd team really is Gorgui Dieng.”

• On Kevin Ware, “He’s made a significant jump. He’s a totally different player. He’ll start for us at two guard.”

• On Luke Hancock, “He was named co-captain without ever playing a game. That should tell everyone what we think of him.”

• On Wayne Blackshear, “The fact that he’s healthy heading into the season is crucial.”

• On Peyton Siva, “He’s one of the top five people I’ve met in my life. He was a combo that we made into a point guard.”

• On Gorgui Dieng, “He will be one of the premier shot blocker’s in the country. He’s up to 248 pounds.”

• On Chane Behanan, “He had a great ending to last season. We’ll see how he progresses as a sophomore.”

• On Russ Smith, “He’s not just a great offensive player. He didn’t play a stitch of D when he got here + now he’s a great defender.”

• On Montrezl Harrell, “Unless someone is Anthony Davis, you have no idea how a freshman is going to play in college.”

• On the team in general, “We have so many weapons. We’re not sure who will come to the forefront on a night to night basis.”

• Pitino’s projected starting lineup–Peyton Siva, Kevin Ware, Luke Hancock, Chane Behanan, Gorgui Dieng.

• On Big East, “DePaul is going to much improved. I think they’ll make a jump similar to what South Florida made last year.”

For the second time in three days, Louisville head coach Rick Pitino appeared on a local radio show to talk all things Cardinal basketball. This time he came on the Early Birds program with Drew Deener and spoke about this weekend’s scrimmage, the health of the team, high expectations and how the players are progressing. Here’s a summary and you can check out the full podcast of the interview here.

- As he mentioned the other day, the starting five right now remains Kevin Ware, Peyton Siva, Wayne Blackshear, Montrezl Harrell and Gorgui Dieng. The second team is Russ Smith, Luke Hancock, Angel Nunez, Chane Behanan and either Zach Price or Stephan Van Treese in the middle.

- On Luke Hancock’s rehab and current health: “You’re never 100% coming off an injury like that. He hasn’t played organized basketball (in a game setting) in two years and you have to get in basketball shape…he’s very rusty. I’d like to see him get 20-22 minutes on Saturday and just ease him back into things”

- On the severity of Hancock’s injury and whether it was similar to Blackshear’s from a year ago: “It was much worse. He shattered the entire thing. He’s now had both shoulders surgically repaired. When Wayne came back, he was out of shape. That’s not the case with Luke. He’s been running stadium stairs like Rocky  and he’s thin and in good shape – not basketball up and down shape – but good overall shape. We’ll probably give him 2 days off each week and build him into the team slowly.”

- On whether one guy has dominated his position: “Nobody, including Peyton, is dominating their position. Peyton has to go against Russ every day and Russ isn’t going to be dominated by anyone. I never thought I’d say that, but he’s become that good defensively. Wayne has to go against Luke, Montrezl against Chane. It’s great competition for these guys. If anybody is sticking out, it’s Kevin Ware. Athletically he’s just been tremendous.”

- On Ware’s development: “He’s worked really hard on changing his jump-shooting form, something I wish Chane would do more. He’s keeping the ball out in front of his head and he’s releasing it at the proper point. Russ, Wayne and Chane all have “dart” shots that have very little arc and have flat trajectory towards the rim. Kevin had it too, but he’s worked hard to correct it.”

- On where the shooting will come from this year: “We’re not gonna be a great shooting team. But now we have way more playmakers. Kevin, Wayne, Russ and Peyton can all make plays off the dribble. We should still make 6-8 three’s a game, but we’ll be a different looking offensive team, this year. We shot a low percentage last year primarily as a jump-shooting team, so this year we’ll change things up.”

- On whether he thought this team would be so highly ranked: “Any time you win your conference tournament, go to a Final Four, have the nation’s number one field goal percentage defense and return most of your key players, this sort of thing happens. Last year I think the media thought we were counterfeit when we got up to like 4th in the country in the polls, but this year it seems legit given the players and experience.”

- On Mangok Mathiang redshirting: “He’ll probably redshirt. At this point he’s just not ready to play. He’s just like Gorgui was when he came in as a freshman. We don’t totally need him because of Gorgui, Montrezl, Stephan, Chane and Zach, so this would give him time to work on his body and improve. He’s one of the fastest guys on the team, and we have an outstanding recruiting class coming in next year so now he can join them and have four years of eligibility left.

- On Mike Marra’s role: He’ll be rehabilitating with the team and recently Scotty Davenport came to me and asked if he’d be willing to go to Bellarmine for two years and play and work on his master’s degree. Mike’s still scared of tearing his knee for a third time so right now he’s not in that basketball-playing mentality. But I told him to think about it and wait several months before making a decision. Once he begins to rehab he might end up missing the game and you only get to play once in your lifetime. So, we’ll wait on it for a bit and then see what he thinks in the spring. This is a special group of young men and he wants to be around them.”

On Saturday morning at the early playing hour of 11:00 am, the Louisville Cardinals football team will take the field against the Pittsburgh Panthers hoping to do something they have not done since October 27, 2007: beat them. That was then-head coach Steve Kragthorpe’s very forgettable first year on the job where the team still had talents like Brian Brohm, Harry Douglas, and several others who were apart of the previous Orange Bowl winning team. Since then, the Cards have lost from 2008 through 2011 by scores of 41-7, 35-10, 20-3, and 21-14. Needless to say, Pitt has owned the Cards for nearly half of a decade, and no games aside from the most recent one have been close. This coming Saturday, the Cards will set out to end that losing streak, and while they will certainly be out for personal redemption after losing four straight, the team has plenty more incentive to make this a statement game.

For those that have failed to notice, the Cards have looked less than dominant the past few games. They had chances to be dominant against teams like Kentucky and North Carolina, but for whatever reason, the coaching staff chose to slam on the brakes all too early. The UK game left a bad taste in the fans’ mouths, and the strategy nearly (and honestly should have) cost the team the game against UNC. The two games following against mid-majors Florida International and Southern Miss, the Cards just squeaked by with wins. Bad weather was a factor in each, but the games were still too close for a team with BCS aspirations. Despite these performances, the Cards are still undefeated, ranked 16th and 18th in the Coach’s and AP polls, but are beginning to slide down the Big East power rankings and are definitely not considered a lock to be the Big East representative in a BCS Bowl. This weekend is the opportunity the Cards need to remind the football world that it is the class of the Big East by taking it to Pitt early and never letting up.

Pitt is a bit of a mystery this year. There has been the Pitt team that was embarrassed at home by FCS team Youngstown State (a 31-17 loss), blown out at Cincinnati 34-10 and most recently beat by the always abysmal Syracuse 14-13 at Syracuse. That is not the resume of a team anyone, especially the 5-0 Cardinals, should fear. Then there is the team that smacked an overrated, but still solid, Virginia Tech in the mouth 35-17. They are still going through the growing pains of a new head coach in Paul Chryst after former head coach Todd Graham spit in the team’s face when he announced to his players via mass text he was leaving for the oh-so-glorious job of Arizona State (really). They have the talent and have recruited consistently well for years, but just have not put it all together this year. The running back tandem of Rushel Shell and Ray Graham is one of the most dangerous in the country when properly utilized. The Cards defense has missed several tackles over the past few games and cannot afford to make those kind of fundamental mistakes against Graham and Shell or they will pay. QB Tino Sunseri has been a model of inconsistency and for the better part of his career has been flat out terrible. Yet, the one-time Louisville commit did come to Louisville last year and beat the Cards on their own turf (without Ray Graham, mind you). If the Cards do not come to play on the defensive side of the ball, an area where they have been less than stellar thus far, it could be a rough day.

The Cards were on bye week this past week, and it could not have come at a better time. It is unusual to hear so much pessimism and uncertainty surrounding a team that is undefeated and considered one of the best 20 teams in the country. Yet, the Cards have been less and less convincing each week this season, and with the continued progression of Big East challengers Rutgers and Cincinnati, the team badly needed a break to address some areas of concern. Charlie Strong, regarded as a defensive coach, and his defensive coordinator Vance Bedford have not put the defensive product on the field most were expecting. Sure, there have been some flashes. Safety Calvin Pryor has been a stud and leads the nation in fumble recoveries. Freshman linebacker Keith Brown impressed in the Southern Miss game. Others have stood out as well, but the unit has yet to put together a dominating performance as one, something they are certainly capable of doing. Pass coverage has been lacking, the 3rd down D needs improvement, and more pressure needs to be put on the opposing QB. All fixable problems. All things that were likely addressed this past week. The front seven will especially need to be at its best if it hopes to contain the two-headed rushing attack of Graham and Shell.

The offense has been less of a concern. Teddy Bridgewater was arguably playing as well as any QB in the country the first three games, including West Virginia’s Geno Smith. The two-headed running monster of Senorise Perry and Jeremy Wright was looking phenomenal. The wide receivers were playing extremely well on all ends, and the offensive line, though it did struggle at times, has been productive. The last two games, however, given that they were played in bad conditions and then downright dangerous conditions and a lot of it can be excused, there was also a lot left to be desired. Still, though, Bridgewater needs to continue to play to the level of excellence we have seen, the O-Line needs to consistently protect and open up holes, and the receivers need to catch the ball. Speaking of receivers, Devante Parker appeared set for a huge game after his opening touchdown catch against Southern Miss, but one crucial drop and a monsoon later, he became quiet. He needs to be further utilized like he seemed to be in the beginning of that game. Bridgewater will hit receivers like Charles Gaines in stride almost every time on downfield seam routes, but throwing the ball up to Parker deep down the sideline seems too obvious of a play not to call. He is big, fast, athletic, and can outjump nearly anybody. Bridgewater can get him the ball, he just needs the opportunity. A lot of that will fall on Shawn Watson, too, the man who is calling the plays. His playcalling this year has been effective, but very plain and predictable at times. He needed the bye week to regroup just as much as his players did.

Of course, more than anything, the team needed the bye week to rehab from injuries. Several players seemed to experience some bumps and bruises the last several weeks, some (John Miller, Daniel Brown, James Burgess) worse than others. This was a good week for them to focus on getting healthy. Coach Strong hinted in his press conference that Dominique Brown could become available if anything happens to Jeremy Wright or Senorise Perry. Having Brown back and healthy would provide a major boost to the offense, but if Perry and Wright continue to produce, it would not be the worst thing in the world to redshirt him. If the team really wants to go all in, they could play Brown, but if it is only for a few games, why throw a year of eligibility away? It will be interesting to see if he dresses Saturday or not.

Strong admitted in his press conference, as reported by C.L. Brown of the Courier-Journal, that Pittsburgh’s smashmouth style of offense will be a much welcomed change from the no-huddle offenses they had been facing. The Cards of course, will need to be able to handle the no-huddle as well and is something the team will surely address, but it appears Strong is very confident in his team’s ability to handle Paul Chryst’s conventional offense. It will come down to whether the Cards can match the physicality of Pitt, and they do not have the luxury of coming in overconfident or lax in any way.

Louisville is 1-6 in Big East openers since joining the conference (h/t to Card Chronicle for that note), has lost four straight to Pitt, is playing at Pitt, and has looked all too beatable the last three games. Perhaps all those reasons combined is why the Cards are being projected around only a 3-point favorite by Vegas Insider. This is an opportunity for the Cards to really put their foot down on someone. They chose not to do so against Kentucky and North Carolina for whatever reason, and as far as national perception goes, they may need to do so this weekend to display their postseason worth. Rutgers and Cincinnati are not going anywhere and should only get better. The conference is not a lock for Louisville, and going undefeated certainly is not. Laying down in the second half could potentially affect the young players’ attitudes eventually as well, showing them to go hard for 2.5 quarters and then put it on cruise control the rest of the game. That cannot happen, and it likely is not the mindset of the team or coaching staff, but it certainly makes one worry. They need to put any and all of that to rest this weekend and just completely stomp Pitt. The Sugar Bowl will look a lot closer at a team that fights to the finish rather than a team that fights halfway through the third quarter and then coasts. It will also be a sweet pleasure to stick it to the school that allegedly held up the ESPN TV deal only to sneak away to the “clearly superior” ACC.