Louisville Cardinals: The losses that define the fanbase

Chopping wood splintered my heart

Presley Meyer (@Meyer_Presley)

Louisville football had hands down the best roster in school history, and perhaps one of the best in the country in 2006, but for whatever reason, the football gods did not favor the Cardinals during their historic run.

The Cardinals mowed through the Big East conference, which, at the time, was much stronger than what many perceive it as looking back. Louisville defeated Cincinnati, South Florida, Pitt, and UConn with ease. They also dismantled a top 15 ranked Miami team, exacting revenge from a missed opportunity two years prior.

Louisville met then-No. 3 West Virginia in the seventh game of the season and pulled off one of the more memorable wins in school history in front of a raucous sell-out black out crowd.

Even after the loss of star running back and Heisman candidate Michael Bush during the first game of the season, the Cardinals had things clicking on all cylinders. They finished the 2006 season averaging 37.8 points per game, while only allowing 16.3 points per contest. They scored more than 40 points on six occasions while holding opponents to 17 points or less nine times.

You will not find a more dominant Louisville football team with a more impressive resume than the 2006 Cardinals. They went on to win their second major bowl game, and first New Years bowl game of the BCS era. They were literally one play away from making an appearance in the national championship game- That’s not hyperbole.

That’s why the one black eye on Louisville’s season is perhaps the toughest for myself, and most Louisville fans to swallow.

I remember heading into the season, Louisville fans had the West Virginia match-up circled on their calendars. The year prior, the Mountaineers and head coach Rich Rodriguez sprung the upset after taking Louisville to triple overtime when back-up quarterback Pat White entered the game and was an unstoppable force. It  was a classic game and a great emergence for White, but left Louisville with a bitter taste in its mouth.

The West Virginia game and the pomp and circumstances surrounding that match-up and eventual win took away from the significance of a tough match-up with Rutgers the very next week.

The Scarlet Knights entered the game undefeated amid one of their best seasons in school history, and they were out for blood.

However, Louisville began the game efficiently and effectively. The Cardinals raced out to a 25-7 lead midway through the second quarter, and Louisville looked like it was well on its way to yet another win over a ranked conference foe.

Things began to turn in Rutgers’ favor towards the end of the first half as the Scarlet Knights scored to pull within 25-14 at the half. Then, the Knights just began to muck things up. They turned the game on its head by pounding the rock with star running back Ray Rice, and shortened the game with lengthy drives. On a cold Piscataway, New Jersey night, Louisville’s offense was stifled. The Cardinals couldn’t get things going whatsoever on offense, and couldn’t even get off their own side of the field.

Rice scored a touchdown and Rutgers converted on a two point try late in the third to get within a field goal.

Then, in the fourth quarter, it was the Jeremy Ito show. The Rutgers kicker knotted things at 25 all early in the fourth quarter. The same back-and-forth ball-control game with Rice pounding the rock ensued for the rest of the game until Rutgers got into field goal range with 13 seconds left in the game.

The rest is history. Ito choked big-time, yanking a 28-yard chip shot to put Rutgers up three, but Louisville jumped offsides giving the Scarlet Knights another try. Ito was true with his next attempt, located the ESPN sky cam, and gave it a nauseatingly annoying finger-point like he didn’t just totally blow the game 30 seconds prior. The entire state of New Jersey rushed the field, and two hours after controlling its own destiny and potentially moving one step closer to securing a spot in the national title game, Louisville had blown the season.

Mad props to Rutgers for going out and losing two of its next three, allowing the Cards to still sneak into a BCS bowl game in the end. Still, at the time, it was an absolutely gut-wrenching loss. Basically 30 bad minutes of football did away with all of the work that the Louisville football program had put in over the last decade-plus to get back to that moment.

What hurts the most thinking back is that is the closest Louisville has ever been to fulfilling Howard Schnellenberger’s prophecy.

“The University of Louisville is on a collision course with a national championship. The only variable is time,” the former coach and savior of the football program said in 1989.

14 years later, the Cardinals are no closer than they were with that 25-7 lead in Piscataway back in 2006.