The Louisville football program has produced less wins than the year before in three consecutive seasons for the first time since the 1973-1975 stretch.
Tuesday afternoon's kickoff luncheon at the downtown Marriott drew the largest crowd in the history of the event.
I'm not saying it's all because of Charlie Strong, but I am saying the man deserves the lion's share of the credit. He's done just about everything you can do but win football games at this point.
Check out his 20-minute address to Cardinal nation below:
For those who hate embeddable videos, here are the highlights:
--Strong's opening: "Thank you. 18 days, two and-a-half hours."
--The program was in awful shape academically when he arrived, but he goes over the program-best classroom stats the players accumulated over the spring semester.
--Seven freshmen had 4.0 GPAs, and only three had below a 2.5.
--Players are now expected to follow five core vaules:
1) Be honest
2) Treat women with respect
3) No drugs
4) No stealing
5) No weapons (added)
--A quarterback hasn't been named yet, but will at some point over the next few days. Mentions that Dominique Brown has come in and done a good job.
--Cameron Graham and Nate Nord are having a great camp at tight end, but Pete Nochta is nursing a knee injury. No mention of Josh Chichester.
--"Bilal Powell will be the face of Louisville football."
--Boner.
--Still need playmakers at the wide receiver position; a guy who can take a five-yard out and turn it into a 60-yard touchdown.
--Staff is comfortable with the offense because of the strength of the offensive line.
--Received a note when he got here about Brandon Heath being a guy who didn't want to go to class. He brought Brandon into his office, called his mother and told him to come help her son pack his bags because he was going home. He's now becoming the team's leader.
--"Johnny Patrick needs to step up and have a really big year for us."
--Here's the money statement: "I can't make any promises here, I can't say how many games we're going to win or what we're actually going to do. But I can say this to you: we will be an exciting football team. We will play hard. We will play hard. Guys, understand that. We will play hard."
That's all we can ask.