The Cardinal Countdown: 29 Days Until Kickoff

Happy to announce that the overwhelming majority or people voted correctly in yesterdays poll, thus the ‘Countdown’ will continue as planned. And for you monsters that put jelly on top of your peanut butter…get some damn help.

You’re animals.

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Back at it.

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#29 Mason King

Class: RS Freshman

Ht/Wt: 6-3/205

Position: Punter

Hometown: Louisville, KY (Product of St. Xavier High School)

Twitter: @KingMason502

Thoughts: I don’t know Mason, I’m sure he’s a great guy, but he’ll never replace my man crush on Josh Appleby. Appleby had the guns, the hair, and last season had the wife to go along with it. Remember that one time you got real pissed at Appleby because he screwed the pooch on that punt? Yeah, me neither, because the man was consistent if nothing else, as his 69 punts (nice) were the most by a single player in over eight seasons, meaning he was reliable and he had a better average last season (40.45yds) than any punter at UofL since 2010. He was an afterthought on special teams, because you never had to worry about him blowing things up and that was a big plus for Petrino when field position is so critical.

Can Mason take over that role? I think so. While you can’t expect a RS Freshman to walk in and give you the maturity and dependability of a Senior like Appleby you can expect him to produce. The kid can kick. Mason was a three year starter for St. X and according to the most recent depth chart appears to be in position to win the starting punter gig for the Cards this season. I think the absence of Appleby will rear its ugly head a few times this season but ultimately King will settle down and be the man for the next 3-4 seasons…and of course fight aggressively to try and win my adoration away from Appleby. Good luck with that, King.  

Sweet Tweet:

Headed to CASHville to train with the legend #Akers

— Mason King (@KingMason502) March 16, 2016

Training with the man, the myth, the legend David Akers?!? Dude’s gonna bomb some punts, fo sho.

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#29 Javier Santiago

Class: Sophomore

Ht/Wt: 5-9/190

Position: Cornerback

Hometown: New Albany, IN

Twitter: NA

Thoughts: Not much floating around about Javier that I could find. Where in the world is Javier Santiago? (I know it’s Sandiego, don’t @ me) Appears he got the majority of his reps in high school along the line but has shifted to corner since arriving at Louisville last year. He’s a little undersized to play in the trenches for a D-I squad so probably a smart move (you have my seal of approval Coach Petrino).

Assume Javier will remain on the practice team this year as we have some solid secondary depth that I touched on a little yesterday. Good luck to Mr. Santiago this season.

Sweet Tweet: No tweets for Javier so this gives me an opportunity to rehash the poll I posted back on Day 90 asking your thoughts on our projected record this season. Let’s break this thing down right quick…

The overwhelming majority of fans went with the somewhat safe 10-2 record, assuming that most anticipate a loss to both Clemson and Florida State but running the table the rest of the way. This is basically what I expected to see.

The interesting part for me was going to be which way others swayed from the 10-2 “baseline” if you will. Would they be optimistic and think we could steal one of those victories (11-1) or lean towards a more pessimistic outlook thinking we would drop an additional game (9-3) somewhere along the way.

And then you gave me nothing.

Another virtual tie (19% to 18%) between these records only shows me that the fanbase as a whole is feeling pretty dang good about a 9 win season, at least (97%), which of course realistically means absolutely nothing....but confirms that the expectations for this team are as high as they’ve been in quite some time.