Louisville Football: The players aren’t quitting and you shouldn’t either

Louisville football took a bad beat down on Saturday and moved to 2-4 on the season. The players aren’t giving up, and fans shouldn’t either.

With exactly one half of the season gone, things for Louisville football haven’t gone anywhere close to the way they were “planned to go.” Though the national media picked the Cards to finish fifth in the Atlantic division of the ACC, everyone locally thought that all the pieces were there for the Cards to continue on their upward trajectory.

Sure there were a lot of questions marks about this team, some that fans and the coaches probably should have taken a bit more seriously. Honestly, it probably would have helped temper expectations. I mean Louisville did lose Lamar Jackson and Jaire Alexander, two NFL first rounders in 2018, along with numerous other veterans from both sides of the ball. They also brought in a class that featured 20+ recruits to mix in with the 2017 class of 20+ recruits, all of which were going to be asked to play key roles in a transition year.

Even with that being said – with a guy like Puma Pass taking over and Bobby Petrino ready to move back to his traditional “Bobby Ball,” a 7 or 8 win season seemed doable.

But here we are half way through the season and the Cards are nowhere near being a good football team. With just two wins under their belt to lowly Western Kentucky and Indiana State teams, and four losses (three of which were blowouts), we are now left to wonder what has happened to the Louisville football program we knew.

A lot of the problems hampering this team can be placed on Head Coach Bobby Petrino.

Petrino’s comments in the preseason about the offense being better and his team being “really good” probably moved expectations to a point they shouldn’t have been. But on the field his offense has statistically been one of, if not the, worst in his career.

His third defensive coordinator in three years, Brian VanGorder – who was out of a job after being fired at Notre Dame- has struggled mightily over the last two weeks. The Cards have had issues plague them that all shouldn’t be present in the fifth year of Petrino’s second stint at Louisville.

Saturday’s performance was awful, there’s no way else to describe it. Losing to a below-average Georgia Tech team by 35 points at home during a ESPN prime time game can likely be described as “rock bottom” in Louisville.

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The attendance was horrible, or embarrassing, at Cardinal Stadium Friday evening. However, while some fans have criticized other fans for being “fair weathered,” I’ll never be one to do that. People spend a considerable amount of time and hard-earned money at Cardinal Stadium expecting to see a good product out on the field. Fans have been extremely patient with Petrino and his coaching staff the last few seasons. In year five, those who drop thousands of dollars per year are 1000% entitled to make a statement about their displeasure by not attending.

However, what sucks is how it affects the players.

Even with the team being destroyed, I was one of just a few thousand fans who stayed until the clock struck zero. I don’t say that to brag, I say it because I knew I had to. These players, who range from 18-22 years old, spend hours each day doing their best to become better football players. The blood, sweat, and tears that go into being a collegiate athlete are something I can’t even begin to fathom. To think about them running onto the field with adrenaline pumping through them only to see thousands of pinkish spots throughout Cardinal Stadium absolutely crushes my soul.

And then, I heard the comments from Dez Fitzpatrick during the post-game press conference when he was asked about the fans, and it shook me to my core.

"“Support. That’s the biggest thing. For us players to run out the tunnel and see spots of red,  a lot of spots of red or then after halftime it’s growing even more, that does something to us. They probably don’t even know that. I’m asking coach, ‘Why are our fans keep leaving? Why can’t they just support?’ He’s like, ‘I can’t tell you anything.’ Someone asked me, ‘If you was a fan, would you stay?’ Honestly, probably not.”"

Fitzpatrick wasn’t done. The redshirt sophomore receiver went on to talk about what this team is going to do about their struggles and the outlook on the rest of the season. It was these comments that gave me hope, and reminded me of why I love this University, these players, and this team.

When asked about the outlook of the rest of the season and what the team could do to improve he said:

"Not quitting. Not giving in. Keep playing Cardinal football. At the end of the day, obviously you have to lose at some point. So when you lose, Coach Petrino always said that’s when you test the measure of a man. And when you get knocked down, how fast and how strong can you come back? The last couple weeks, we’ve taken some losses we shouldn’t have. We’ve just got to bounce back up."

They aren’t quitting, and neither should you. I’m just like you in many ways. I bleed red through and through, and I want what’s best for this program all the time. I want the best coaches, the best players, and the best results. Yes, we’re in year five of the Coach Petrino era and this program should no doubt be in a better spot. I know that the success hasn’t been what we all thought and I understand that fans want answers and change, now.

But what I ask that you remember is who you’re there to support and the reason we do this whole cheering thing. It’s the players. They are the ones who came here to be a part of something special. Over the years a lot of them have mentioned how special this fan base was and how big of a role it played in their commitment.

These guys desperately need our support, no matter what the outcome is. With just six games remaining, three of them against highly ranked teams and two more against extremely competitive teams,  there’s not much time to turn things around. This season may not be what we hoped it would be, but that doesn’t mean it’s over. The Cardinals may not come close to sniffing the expectations that were placed before them by the media, fan base, and even the coaching staff, but that doesn’t mean it’s time to quit.

CardNation, the players aren’t giving up on this season and we shouldn’t either.