This is a preseason feature ordinarily reserved for baseball sites, but you don't achieve a position of power like this without periodically breaking the mold, so that's exactly what we're going to do beginning this morning.
Whenever the mood strikes me (power), we'll focus on one particular member of the 2010 Louisville football team and all predict (or project, if you will) how he'll fare statistically in the upcoming season. We'll then average all of our prognostications and come up with a community projection. In the end, nothing of any real value is going to have been achieved, but you will have spent that much more time focused on college football instead of convincingly forcing laughter, wondering if anyone screwed up badly on The Price is Right, rehearsing for a scene with Gwyneth Paltrow, or whatever it is you would have been up to otherwise.
We'll begin, naturally, with perhaps the player whose 2010 season is currently the most difficult to forecast.
No Cardinal entered 2009 with more hype than Victor Anderson. The 2008 Big East Rookie of the Year, Anderson was the first U of L back to rush for more than 1,000 yards since Michael Bush had achieved the feat in 2005. Unfortunately his sophomore season was plagued by a shoulder injury, forcing him to miss most of the second half of the year and limiting his final numbers to just 473 yards and five touchdowns
Making his junior year even more difficult to envision is the fact that Anderson underwent surgery in the offseason, forcing him to sit out all contact drills during spring practice.
If healthy, Anderson would seem to be the best fit for the spread attack that Charlie Strong is hoping to install, but Vic will be fighting for carries with senior Bilal Powell and freshman Jeremy Wright, who was reportedly the star of spring practice.
Here are the St. X product's production numbers to date:
| 2008 Regular Season Game Log | Rushing | Receiving | Fumbles | |||||||||||
| DATE | OPP | RESULT | ATT | YDS | AVG | LNG | TD | REC | YDS | AVG | LNG | TD | FUM | LST |
| 8/31 | Kentucky | L 27-2 | 12 | 31 | 2.6 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 9/6 | Tennessee Tech | W 51-10 | 12 | 114 | 9.5 | 20 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 9/17 | Kansas State | W 38-29 | 18 | 176 | 9.8 | 56 | 3 | 2 | 6 | 3.0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 9/26 | Connecticut | L 26-21 | 19 | 100 | 5.3 | 19 | 1 | 1 | 18 | 18.0 | 18 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 10 /10 | @Memphis | W 35-28 | 15 | 81 | 5.4 | 24 | 0 | 2 | 12 | 6.0 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 10/18 | Middle Tennessee | W 42-23 | 19 | 161 | 8.5 | 88 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 3.0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 10/25 | South Florida | W 24-20 | 18 | 64 | 3.6 | 17 | 0 | 1 | 15 | 15.0 | 15 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 11/1 | @Syracuse | L 28-21 | 23 | 113 | 4.9 | 19 | 1 | 3 | 28 | 9.3 | 16 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 11/8 | @Pittsburgh | L 41-7 | 17 | 73 | 4.3 | 17 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 4.0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 11/14 | Cincinnati | L 28-20 | 13 | 60 | 4.6 | 37 | 1 | 3 | 14 | 4.7 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 11/22 | West Virginia | L 35-21 | 8 | 61 | 7.6 | 40 | 0 | 3 | 8 | 2.7 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 12/4 | @Rutgers | L 63-14 | 9 | 13 | 1.4 | 9 | 0 | 1 | -7 | -7.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
2009 STATS
2009 Regular Season Game Log
Rushing
Receiving
Fumbles
DATE
OPP
RESULT
ATT
YDS
AVG
LNG
TD
REC
YDS
AVG
LNG
TD
FUM
LST
9/5
Indiana State
W 30-10
14
93
6.6
14
2
2
12
6.0
8
0
0
0
9/19
@Kentucky
L 31-27
19
110
5.8
35
1
0
0
0.0
0
0
0
0
9/26
@Utah
L 30-14
10
22
2.2
6
0
0
0
0.0
0
0
0
0
10/2
Pittsburgh
L 35-10
12
51
4.3
8
0
4
24
6.0
12
0
0
0
10/10
Southern Miss
W 25-23
14
90
6.4
26
1
4
47
11.8
15
0
0
0
10/17
@Connecticut
L 38-25
5
58
11.6
37
1
1
5
5.0
5
0
0
0
10/24
@Cincinnati
L 41-10
12
56
4.7
20
0
0
0
0.0
0
0
0
0
10/31
Arkansas State
W 21-13
Did Not Play or did not accumulate any stats.
11/7
@West Virginia
L 17-9
Did Not Play or did not accumulate any stats.
11/14
Syracuse
W 10-9
3
-7
-2.3
0
0
1
1
1.0
1
0
0
0
11/21
@South Florida
L 34-22
Did Not Play or did not accumulate any stats.
11/27
Rutgers
L 34-14
Did Not Play or did not accumulate any stats.
So how will Mr. Anderson's junior campaign play out? The categories we're looking for here are carries, yards and touchdowns (rushing and receiving combined).
I'll say the young man stays healthy, gets 165 carries, racks up 832 yards and scores nine touchdowns.
What say you? Feel free to be as honest as you like, because he's not going to read this.
We love you, Vic.