The Collision Course Has Moved

As mentioned a few weeks ago, please note that the Collision Course blog has moved to the Bloguin network. You can find us at www.collisioncourseblog.com. Thanks for all of your support and go Cards!

Louisville 2010 Media Guide Now Available - Thoughts

The 2010 Louisville Football Media Guide is now available. You can read the entire thing in .pdf format. Most of these media guides are fluff and filler. For the average football junkie like myself, all I'm ever concerned about is the roster, depth chart, and the biographical information on the coaches. That being said, when looking over the sections on the 2010 signees, roster and post-spring depth chart, I noticed the following things:

The Collision Course on AM 1350 and Other News...

First, a big thank you to Haven Harrington and Main Event Sports for having me on yesterday for the entire hour to discuss new Louisville head coach Charlie Strong, recruiting, the upcoming season and the future of Cardinals football. This was a major opportunity for me and the blog to get some exposure and the professional folks at AM 1350 made it a fantastic experience for me and I hope for their listeners. If you don't already, please be sure to tune into Main Event Sports every Saturday from 6:00-7:00 for a discussion of local sports news. When a link to the podcast is available I'll post it. Here's hoping for future opportunities to talk Cardinal football on the radio in the future.

Second, Keith Niebuhr of Florida's Rivals.com site took a series of pictures around Florida's Ben Hill Griffin Stadium and posted them to Twitter. Of particular note is a display of the Florida coaches over the years. See if anyone on there looks familiar:

He might be hard to make out in the picture, but in the bottom right hands side is none other than Louisville head coach Charlie Strong. Strong was officially Florida's interim head coach for one game after the firing of Ron Zook in 2004. Strong coached Florida in the Peach Bowl (a loss to Miami).

Double Dose of Good News on the Recruiting Trail

Charlie Strong continues to have success on the recruiting trail. Today, another piece was added as Memphis, TN offensive lineman Ryan Mack (6'6, 315 lbs.) committed to the Cardinals and coach Strong while on campus for a visit. Mack is rated as a three-star prospect by both Rivals.com and Scout.com and had offers from in-state rival Kentucky, Memphis, and Southern Miss. Mack's size and mobility impressed the coaches at one of Charlie Strong's football camps in June. With a whopping eight senior offensive linemen on the roster, replenishing the offensive line is the top priority for Strong. In February, Louisville signed two offensive linemen (Jake Smith and Chris Acosta) and will welcome two more as greyshirt candidates in January (Zachary Hundertmark and Chase Petersen). For the class of 2011, Mack and Port St. Lucie, FL prospect Mike Romano are the only offensive line commitments. Look for Louisville to sign at least five offensive linemen in the class of 2011. Mack is Louisville's 14th commitment for the class of 2011.

Louisville Needs a Strong Dose of Stability

Since the day Steve Kragthorpe was fired as head coach at Louisville, fans, rivals, and pundits have debated and discussed just what it is that Louisville football needs to do or needs to have happen for it to both recover what was lost in the dreadful three years of Kragthorpe and achieve even greater success in the future. Some of the answers are automatic: great coaching, recruiting, facilities, even luck. But those things are true of any football program at any time be it building, rebuilding, or maintaining. Louisville has had it's share of each of those at times and has flourished when enjoying them simultaneous (think of the coaching of Bobby Petrino and luck of having two recruits the stature of Michael Bush and Brian Brohm in your own back yard). Despite having enjoyed some level of success, the answer for Louisville is even more mundane than any of those things. What Louisville needs right now is what every perennially successful program has had at one time or another: a period of successful stability.

The Long, Hot Days of Summer

Those hopelessly addicted to college football find July to be the absolute worst month of the year. No college football anywhere near in sight, national signing day is in the distance, and the worst part is if your team shows up in the headlines now it is guaranteed to be bad news (see the slew of arrests at Georgia and Tennessee for a reminder that only bad news happens for college football programs in July). Nevertheless, we press on knowing that in roughly three weeks teams will be practicing, the lingering questions over which recruit will or won't qualify will be answered, and then thankfully there will be actual news to report instead of mere projections and predictions. So hang in there, Cardinals fans. We're less than two months from kickoff in an expanded Papa John's Cardinal Stadium against Kentucky and what we all hope will be a return to the quality football we knew the decade prior to Steve Kragthorpe's disastrous three seasons at the helm.

Some things to keep an eye on as we head toward fall camp:

• Almost all of Louisville's 2010 recruiting class will be in school starting this week. They'll take a summer class or two, workout with the team, and get a month's jump on the transition to college. Using UofL e-mail and various social media outlets, there are only lingering questions about the qualification/arrival or QB Dominique Brown, DT DeAntre Rhodes, and late signee Demar Dorsey. Dorsey just Tweeted tonight that the Louisville admissions department gave him tasks to perform before admitting him and that he was committed to performing those tasks and being on the team come fall. Rhodes and Brown remain a mystery but there's still time I suppose.
• C.L. Brown recently wrote in The Courier-Journal on Louisville's unsettled QB situation heading into fall. If it's true that "if you have two quarterbacks, you don't have a quarterback", then the Cardinals are in trouble since they have three QBs who started games in 2009. The good news is, they all got experience in crucial games, the bad news is none of them were particularly effective when they did. Coach Strong has said he'd like to name a starter before the team enters fall camp so keep an eye out for an announcement at any time. After watching Justin Burke, Adam Froman, and Will Stein in person at spring practice, my money's on Froman winning the job because he presents the biggest threat with his legs which will be a key component of a Mike Sanford offense.
• It now seems unlikely that any other USC players will transfer to Louisville. There were swirling rumors that an additional player would be coming with linebacker Jordan Campbell. Now it appears Campbell will be the only one but he's a big one.
• Scout.com has the early football classes of 2011 ranked. Louisville's class is currently ranked #25. The turnaround on the recruiting trail has thus far been nothing short of miraculous. Look for more good news in the very near future from TN offensive lineman Ryan Mack. Mack performed will at Louisville's camp in June and has told the coaches when he comes back on a visit with his family this weekend he will commit. If so, it'd give Louisville another coveted big body for the offensive line to go with Mike Romano out of Florida.
• We'll have a collaborative piece with The BullGator blog concerning new Big East head coaches Charlie Strong and Skip Holtz some time this week. If you want to keep up with the Bulls, The BullGator is a fantastic source and one you'll want to check daily.
• In the near future you might see a slight change in the layout of the blog. This is due to my being picked up by the Bloguin network which hosts several of my favorite college football blogs like In the Bleachers, Blatant Homerism, and MizzouRAH. I'm excited about the chance to keep writing but in a more organized network with people I've come to know and respect. The Collision Course has a bright future for a blog that has only just begun to write.

Thoughts on The 2010 Cardinal Roster - Now Including Freshmen

The 2010 Louisville football roster is now available. The roster includes the 2010 signees, most of which are already on campus to begin taking classes in the 3rd summer session. A player's inclusion on the roster doesn't mean they've necessarily qualified. There are a number of observations and questions I have after looking at the roster.