Previewing the Class of 2009: Linebackers
LB Coach (also Def Coordinator): Brent Guy

Previous 8 years coaching experience: HC, Utah State ('05-'08); DC, Arizona State ('01-'04)
Its no secret that Defense has been an achilles heel for the Cards over the past few seasons. As Defensive Coordinator, Ron English made noticeable improvements in recruiting and on the field during his one year stint last season before moving on to take the head coaching job at Eastern Michigan. Since then, another DC was hired...and then he transferred before anyone knew his name. The new DC and fourth man to fill the position in 14 months time, Brent Guy, has experience coaching teams with high-powered offenses and so-so defenses, including stops at Boise State and Utah State. If you glaze past his Kragthorpe-esque tenure as HC of Utah State, Guy has had some prior success as DC at Arizona State, where he coached now-Baltimore Ravens DE Terrell Suggs. Hopefully, he's returning to his niche in Defense and we'll see some progress in the development of promising prospects such as MLB Mike Privott, OLB Jacob Geffard and OLB Horace Miller. Guy's biggest win so far was witnessing new Secondary Coach, Larry Slade, successfully woo Miller away from UNLV and convincing Privott to honor his commitment to UL after English bailed. Hey, we'll take wins where we can find 'em...Moral victories--It's happening here.
*** #51 MLB Mike Privott (5' 10", 230) Lake Taylor HS; Norfolk, VA

Favorite Player: Ray Lewis
Why he signed: Ron English, Trager Center (facilities) and opportunity to get some PT his freshman year. Privott was recruited by English and after he left, those close to the program, including Jody Demling, thought Privott was gone. But credit Slade for closing the deal.
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2009-2010 Big East Mens BBall Schedule
Courtesy of UofL:
The University of Louisville's 2009-10 men's basketball season in the BIG EAST Conference will include a challenging slate of 18 games, including two games each against Connecticut, Syracuse and St. John's.Louisville's home conference opponents will include Cincinnati, Connecticut, Georgetown, Notre Dame, Rutgers, St. John's, USF, Syracuse, and Villanova. The Cardinals' nine league road games will be at Connecticut, DePaul, Marquette, Pittsburgh, Providence, St. John's, Seton Hall, Syracuse and West Virginia.
At first (preseason) glance, it's a tough road schedule. I'm glad we only play WVU and MU once. Also, I'm interested to see who the final home game is for the last year of Freedom Hall. I guarantee we'll have to win that one in a dogfight to the end: a fitting tribue to 'the Hall'. I know this guy will be there.
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Better Know A Cardinal: Meet Your New Defensive Tackles
The staff of Card Chronicle has been commanded by Mike put our collective heads together and decided that a good way to pass the days until the first practice on August 6th would be to get to know the newest members of the Louisville football Cardinals, especially since many of them will likely be logging significant minutes this season. We'll start our journey with the new Defensive Tackles, JUCOs all.
Peni Fiu'angaihetau
And who better to start with than our only 4-star recruit according to Scout.com, the Ari-Wolfe-Is-Never-Going-To-Pronounce-My-Name-Right-Award-Winning Peni Fiu'angaietau. Sound it out, Ari. Anyway, Peni comes to us from Phoenix CC and will have two years of eligibility. At 6-2, 270, Peni would seem to need to bulk up a bit to be effective in the middle, but because LT Walker can't play every down and be useful in the 4th Quarter and because the only other DT I'd heard of before starting this project is Tyler Jessen, I imagine we'll hear announcers valiantly trying to prounounce Peni's name a lot next year. With reported offers from Cal, Oregon and Utah, I believe Peni is also the most-sought-after recruit to commit to us, so beating out those schools is somewhat of a coup for Krag & Co.
Peni's stats are somewhat impressive, as he was third on the team in total tackles and second in sacks. He was tied for 2nd on forced fumbles....with 6 other dudes...with 1 each. For what it is worth, the leading tackler on the team signed with BYU and is also a two-star. There are no videos of Peni available at press time.
All in all, our highest rated recruit happens to be at our thinnest position, which is good. Also, my goodness, look at that hair! Peni, we who are about to blog about you, salute you!
UPDATED:
Thanks to the alert readers in the comments, there is some question of whether or not Peni will actually make it to campus. According to Rivals, he is "Committed/Unsigned". I guess we'll just have to wait and see. On the bright side, Rivals lists one of the OL recruits as our only 4-star, so we at least have one 4-star who has signed. Oy.
Joseph Townsend #94
At the other end of the Scout.com rankings of our commits is Joseph "Joe" Townsend, a 6'3'', 285 pounder who was originally signed out of high school at Washington State for the 2006 season, then went the JUCO route and was signed by Butch Davis at UNC (impressive!) before last season and Nebraska (also impressive!) before the 2007 season. Grades and no doubt some bad luck prevented him from enrolling at any of those previous locales. I have no idea if his nickname is Joe but that would certainly make sense. Anyway, he seems to have worked hard and put his academic struggles behind him and also apparently has bulked up and grown an inch, since the official roster at uoflsports.com lists him at 6'4'' and 303 lbs.
I'm glad Mike cracked the whip we decided to do this little project because I am mildly excited about this guy now. Nebraska and UNC under Davis both get quality recruits, and if his size is somewhere between what Scout and Kenny Klein say then he at least starts out big enough, even if he's not huge. He comes from a solid football pedigree, as his older brother played DT for Nebraska on their MNC teams in 1994 and 1995 and made it to the NFL wth the New Orleans Saints. To the optimist in me, it sounds like he just needed a little bit of time to get his head on straight, and the coaches saw enough in his talent to make the effort to help get him there.
via media.scout.com
I can't seem to find any stats or specific proof of his abilities but according to his Scout.com profile he was first-team all league his senior year of high school and has bulked up since then. Again, DT is our thinnest position (not literally even if we are on the small side) and there might be some "diamond in the rough" potential with Mr. Townsend.
Tim High #97
Rounding out the round mounds in the middle is JUCO DT Tim High who checks in at a mountainous 6'2'', 310 lbs. His stats certainly look the part, even if he doesn't in this padless picture:
via media.scout.com
According to Demling, High took an unusual route, spending two years at UNLV before frustration wth playing time led him to El Camino Community College. There, he recorded 24 tackles, including 3 for a loss, good for 11th on the team but 2nd among DTs (and also a few behind linebacker Terrance Williams!), and the other DT was just ahead of him, so maybe they faced a lot of spread offenses or something.
Anyway, High should provide a breather for whoever provides a breather for LT, or, if we finally switch to the 3-3-5, be able to learn the system for a year. And hope that whoever replaces the current regime has a place for him.
Wow, 6'2'', 310 pounds. You can't teach size!
So those are the new DTs. The defensive line will need all the help it can get. Peni had some BCS offers, and Townsend clearly has talent and could have a WWI-type career here if he gets his grades in order. And Tim High sure is big. Just get pressure on that QB, fellas, and play hard. Welcome aboard!
(Author's Note: I am going to try to avoid writing anything critical about individual UofL players, especially ones who have never played a down, mainly because these guys are college kids who are just living their dream and who deserve nothing but our support unless they heinous commit crimes. That said, let's be honest, the recruiting is not where it needs to be and that falls on one guy and one guy only whose days are numbered, I hope.)
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T-Will being T-Will in Jersey
I miss him already.
Terrence Williams was introduced as the newest New Jersey Net during a press conference in East Rutherford this afternoon. He addressed the local media for the first time in a manner that should surprise no one reading this.
Nearly seven minutes into the Friday press conference at the Nets Practice Facility in East Rutherford, following statements from Team President Rod Thorn, General Manager Kiki Vandeweghe and Head Coach Lawrence Frank, who introduced Terrence Williams as the newest Net, his turn had finally come. Head angled sideways and slightly up, Williams listened to Nets vice president of public relations Gary Sussman as the executive prompted Williams to discuss his excitement.Reorienting his focus to the microphone in front of him, Williams paused for a beat. Then another. He separated his folded hands, placing palms flat upon the table as he hunched slightly toward the mike.
"… Hello," Williams said, breaking into a wide smile as he leaned back. Laughs rolled through the room, and it became apparent that if the Louisville product’s timing is as good on-court as it can be in a quip, the Nets will have aced the 11th pick. Williams continued:
"I would like to say to the staff here, thanks for believing in me and the new direction that you’re trying to go in, and drafting me No. 11. A lot of people thought I was going to go somewhere else, but I felt when I first met them, when I went to lunch with them, I would like to be here because they’re straight shooters, like Coach (Rick) Pitino. This is a great situation for me, and so I’d like to really thank them for making that call to
David Stern and saying, ‘This is who we want,’ and it happened to be me. I want to start off by saying I really appreciate that from you guys."To everybody else: I know there are things that I need to work on. With my hard work and dedication to playing basketball, I will work on those things. I’m not coming here trying to be something I’m not, I’m coming here to try and help win games and listen to the coaching staff. I’m excited to be a New Jersey Net."

With Raefer Alston recently being traded to the Nets, T-Will also stated that he is making the switch from his familiar No. 1 to No. 8.
He closed the PC with a semi-NBA T-Willism.
And Williams’ good humor and dynamic personality will likely help to keep the locker room loose. Always one to put pen to page as an outlet, when it came time to choose a major at Louisville, Williams almost opted for creative writing rather than communications.
"I can write about anything," Williams claimed. "I was going to do that in school, but their creative writing was more structured writing -- it wasn’t creative, so I didn’t want to do that. But I like to write short stories, poems. So if you ever get into an argument with your girlfriend, I can write a love poem for you."
And a single tear rolls down the author's face.
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Louisville finishes year 32nd in Director's Cup standings
The University of Kentucky, if you happen to be interested, finished 34th. Thirty-second, if you happen to be interested, is better than 34th.
Stanford finished first for the 257th straight time.
3 days ago
Mike Rutherford
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Samardo Samuels spending the summer leading Team Jamaica in the CBC
The other four starters? You guessed it: Derice Bannock, Sanka Coffie, Junior Bevil and Yul Brenner.
Samardo Samuels scored a game-high 21 points to lead Team Jamaica to an impressive 107-56 win over a select NBL All-Stars team in the second game of their two-match practice series at the National Arena last Friday.
Andre Smith followed with 18 points and Kimani Friend with 11. Christopher Walker was the top-scorer for the NBL select team with 18 points.
The game drew the curtains in the team's one-week training camp in preparation for the June 30 to July 4 Caricom Basketball Championship (CBC) in Tortola, British Virgin Islands.
Team Jamaica also defeated the NBL side, 96-57, in the first game at the same venue on Tuesday.
The team also boasts Big East standouts Weyinmi Efejuku (Providence) and Mike Coburn (Rutgers), a pair of talented young players whose Jamaicanicity was learned by Mike Rutherford just moments ago.
And you're not the only one to get excited about that, I think the fans here have an extreme case of Jamaican fever.
Al, so do I.
Oh no, no, no, no...so do WE.
Rent Cool Runnings and start reading the blog again.
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Football Commitments thus far for 2010
So we have all been made well-aware of the lack of depth facing this year's team.
We're no Texas (apparently Texas high schools only produce 3 -5 star recruits), but It seems as if the recruiting is picking up a little compared to the last 2 years. Kragthorpe and his new band of merry men have actually pulled some good in-state talent as well as prospects from neighboring Ohio (what's high in the middle and round on both ends?). Sprinkle those in with a couple of JUCOs from out west, and you have what looks to be the beginning of a relatively good recruiting class. Here's a quick update on the 2010 commitments.
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