Stock up, stock down for Louisville football after Virginia

Bobby Petrino’s hot seat

If you asked fans last week if the seat of Bobby Petrino was hot, I think a lot of them would have said yes. It was probably premature, but it was starting to look as if this team had a lot of flaws, majority of them coming from the Head Coach. After a 27-3 blowout to a team picked to finish last in the ACC coastal division the seat in which Bobby Petrino sits on is officially heating up.

Programs with more prestige and success than Louisville have had their fair share of “down years” or “rebuilding seasons,” so I would understand the Cards experiencing some early growing pains as they try to replace one of, if not the, greatest college football players in history. But that’s not what’s happening here. All offseason we were being sold a “good” football team that would look much better without Lamar Jackson, a QB who was ready to be “the guy,” more speed than the team had ever had before, blah, blah, blah, blah.

The tests are in, and those statements were all revealed to be lies.

Through four games the Bobby Petrino led Louisville offense is ranked 118th out of the 130 FBS teams. If that statistic isn’t bad enough, here are a few more courtesy of ESPN:

Total Passing – #109

Total Rushing – #103

3rd Down Conversions – #126

# of First Downs – #105

Offensive Efficiency – #124

Let me pose this question to you… Would an offense that’s supposed to be better, faster, stronger, more consistent, etc. be ranked 100+ in every major statistical category? Easy answer, no.

This is a hard pill to swallow, especially considering the Louisville head coach entering YEAR FIVE, has been labeled “an offensive guru” throughout his long career in football. Maybe it’s a down year, maybe it’s the talent, maybe it’s the years of poor relationship building that’s beginning to catch up with him in his coaching hires. I don’t know the answer. What I do know is this has to turnaround, and it has to happen now, or else the Louisville administration will have 118 reasons to move on from the longtime Louisville coach.

Jordan Travis

I’ve heard it said before that the best QB is the QB you know the least about, and currently that guy is Jordan Travis.

We all know that Travis was a highly rated and sought after recruit in the 2018 class, and many on the Louisville staff believed he could be the future at the QB position for the Cards. But now after three games of inconsistent (that’s putting it lightly) QB play by Puma Pass and Malik Cunningham, the best guy for the job very well could be Travis.

What are the two things that seem to be missing the most from Puma Pass and Malik Cunningham? I would be willing to say a strong arm and really good instincts. We’ve heard a lot of arid statements this summer and fall from Coach Petrino, and this very well could be another one of them, but the deep ball I saw earlier this season against Indiana State from Jordan Travis is enough for me to want him to get a chance to play.

If Pass isn’t your guy long-term, and Malik Cunningham continues to show that his lack of arm strength/instincts are limiting the rest of the offense, moving to a guy like Travis could be extremely beneficial.

Well what if he’s not ready to play?

I would say that’s a fair question. Petrino mentioned that the freshman QB, who didn’t arrive on campus until the summer, had a lot to learn throughout fall camp. But if Travis is even 25% comfortable with the playbook I say, throw him out there and let him figure it out just like Lamar Jackson did back in 2015.

Saturday was ugly ladies and gentleman, and today many Cardinal fans are in a head space they did not expect. With the commitment of David Johnson, Samuell Williamson, and Jaelyn Withers in recent weeks for Chris Mack a lot of Louisville football fans have begun asking the question we’ve plastered other fan bases for asking in years past, “Is it basketball season yet?”

We’ll get basketball underway officially this weekend, but football is nowhere near it’s end. Unfortunately for all of us, and the players, things may get far worse before they get any better.