More photos » by Ed Reinke - AP

about 1 month ago: Louisville kicker Ryan Payne celebrates with Louisville's Cory Goettsche after kicking the game-winning field goal to beat Southern Mississippi 25-23 in their NCAA college football game against Southern Mississippi in Louisville, Ky., Saturday, Oct. 10, 2009. (AP Photo/Ed Reinke)

Browse more photos »

There's no part of me that wasn't happy that we won on Saturday night. The players on this team have dealt with a college career's worth of controversy in about two months, and they more than deserved to taste victory in front of their home crowd.

Still, it took a last-second field goal to beat a below average team from a below average conference playing without their starting quarterback in a game played at Papa John's Cardinal Stadium. I'm just saying...not exactly a call to roll out the "we can still win the Big East" schtick.

Goettsche, Payne and Rock Keys in the same photo: hello background.

Couldn't feel better for Scott Long. Anyone who's watched him with even moderate closeness is aware of his talent, and it's nice to see him finally compile some numbers that might turn a few heads nationally.

The man has everything necessary to play in the league.

How aweseme is Vic Anderson? Seriously. Not only does he fly over people for touchdowns and make one-handed snags out of the backfield, but you really get the sense that he cares about winning and the U of L program as much as anyone who's ever played here.

No. 20 deserves a postseason before he gets paid to play the game.

I can see why the team and coaching staff sort of rallied around Froman in the preseason. He's a tremendous leader and really does come off as a guy whose sole interest at Louisville is seeing his team win.

Still, if he's the guy then the offense needs to be catered even more to his strengths (rushing, short passes) and away from his weaknesses (throws more than 25 yards downfield). He simply doesn't have the arm to make the throws we're used to seeing Louisvill quarterbacks make and letting him take shots down the field is going to kill us against teams with decent secondaries.

The Long bomb and Payne's game-winner were obviously the two most noteworthy plays of the game, but the moment that really seemed to energize the squad and turn the tide was Bilal Powell's 15-yard touchdown run to open the scoring in the second half. Louisville had to take advantage of Southern Miss' porous run defense to win, and Powell contributed his best effort of the season to help take a bit of the load off Anderson.

More like Byron Holdily. Am I right???

Trent Guy probably had a thousand people tell him that he was going to help win a game for his team after the fumble against Kentucky, and it's awesome to see that pick-me-up come to fruition.

L.D. Scott, Johnny Patrick, Chris Campa...yes.

I hate Larry Taylor, I hate the guy that shushed the crowd last year at PJCS, and I don't care for Geno Auriemma.

Beat UConn.