Football Tidbits from Brian Bennett Big East Blog

April 13

I hit Louisville's first two practices way back in mid-March. The Cardinals took a week off for spring break and are wrapping up drills this week. I'm planning to visit on Tuesday to see how far they've progressed this spring.

Among the things I'm hearing that I'm interested to check out:

• Justin Burke and Adam Froman have apparently moved to the front of the four-way quarterback derby. Neither has the strongest of arms, but Burke is accurate while Froman can run.

• Speedy track star Jacques Caldwell has been moved from receiver to cornerback.

• Tight end Rock Keys is working out on the defensive line, where the Cardinals lack depth and experience.

• Brandon Heath has had a big spring at rover, a new position on the defense where's he's allowed to make plays as an outside linebacker.

April 15

Louisville quarterback derby features lot of bumping

At most spring practices, the quarterbacks wear a brightly-colored jersey and are treated like precious family heirlooms. If defensive players get within sneezing distance, the whistle is blown and the play is dead.

Not so at Louisville, where the bubble wrap has been taken off the quarterbacks. At Tuesday night's practice, the defense was sacking signal-callers and taking them all the way down to the ground, like in a real football game.

It's part of the Cardinals' search for a new starting quarterback this spring. The coaching staff figures they need to see what the candidates can do under actual game conditions.

"Competition breeds that," quarterback Justin Burke said. "I'm not saying we're expendable, but it's one of those things that's testing our moxie. It's kind of showing us who's going to compete, take a shot and get up and compete the next time."

Head coach Steve Kragthorpe doesn't seem too concerned about injuring his quarterbacks. He wants to find guys who make plays on the move, and it's hard to do that when they're wearing yellow jerseys.

"They're getting thumped," he said, "but we're also giving them a chance to make some plays with their feet, which you saw out here tonight several times."

Burke says he welcomes the early-year contact.

"The whistle gets real short when we've got those yellow jerseys on," he said. "When we're sacked, we want to know we're sacked, because sometimes a defensive player will be on us and we can kind of shimmy them off and make a play."

<!--more--> Louisville went into the spring with a four-way battle at quarterback. With the spring game set for Friday, it appears that Burke and junior-college transfer Adam Froman have separated themselves from the pack. They split reps with the first team on Tuesday night, with Burke the first one in for the 11-on-11 two-minute drill that ended practice.

Neither Burke, an NC State transfer, nor Froman have especially strong arms. If either wins the job, it will be quite a change from last year, when Hunter Cantwell boasted perhaps the best pure throwing arm in the Big East. But Froman is quick on his feet, while Burke delivers the most accurate ball of all the candidates.

"People wouldn't even think about saying I have as strong an arm [as Cantwell's]," Burke said. "But there are a lot of guys who've made a lot of money without a rocket arm who throw it accurately and on time. That's almost more important than anything.

"I wouldn't sell my arm short, now. I can get the ball where it needs to go. It's nice to be able to throw it 75 yards, but that's not a requirement."

Some other observations from the Cardinals' practice:

• Tyler Wolfe, who appeared to have a slight edge going into camp because of his experience in the program, looks to be third in line in the quarterback competition now. Zack Stoudt has had a rough camp.

• There's little doubt about who the best player on the team is. When Victor Anderson gets the ball, he can make something out of nothing.

• Louisville spent a lot of time on two-minute drills and hurry-up situations. Several times, the offense stalled in long field goal range. I still don't know if the Cardinals have anyone who can hit a clutch field goal.

• Cornerback Johnny Patrick went out with an ankle injury, leaving converted wide receiver Jacques Caldwell in with the first-team defense. Caldwell, who's also a track star, not surprisingly showed the ability to stay with any receiver. Whether he can make plays on the ball or be physical at the line of scrimmage remains a big question mark.

• Rock Keys, who was a tight end until a few days ago, was indeed working out at defensive tackle. Keys, who's listed at 248 pounds, clearly needs to add a lot of weight to be an effective player there in the Big East. But the Cardinals need bodies there right now just to have competitive practices.