The Cardinal Countdown...100 Days Until Kickoff

Oh yeah. We back.

I know, sneaks up on ya like a coach making a lateral move up I-71 in the dead of night, but the timing is never wrong. The calendar doesn’t lie. The numbers always check out. There are 100 Days Until Louisville football is back

Can I be honest with you? Lean in a bit closer…..this is my second attempt at writing this post. You see, I put together nearly 1200 words on how I’m feeling about the 2023 season, and if we’re being real with each other….they weren’t all super positive and motivating and may have, just maybe, tilted a little more towards some of the concerns I had for the year. Then, I said to myself “Self, what are you doing? We’ve got 100 days to over analyze, pick apart schemes, voice our fears, etc. But today….today ain’t that day”

You see for those of us who have been around these parts for a minute you know that today and the actual day the season kicks off are two of the biggest days on the calendar as it relates to Louisville football not only for me, but for thousands of others as well. The one hundred day mark lets out a collective warning that the timer has officially started and preparation for the 2023 Louisville football season has begun. Every. Single. Day. from right now until the foot meets the ball in Atlanta, you’ll have some new Louisville football content to chew on. Maybe it’s quick read on a particular player, or maybe it’s a whole post from me or other contributors talking about transfers, offensive schemes, or why Brian Brohm is most athletic of all the Brohm brothers... Whatever it may be, there will be something to read, watch, or listen to as part of your daily routine for the next 100 days, just as it’s been for what will now be twelve years in a row on this site.

While my excitement level for the season is already ratcheted up to about an 8.5 with all the new talent, new staff, new scheme, etc I’m really looking forward to a throwing a few new wrinkles in the countdown tradition this year. Yes, I’ll still provide daily player profiles, but those “Cards” may look slightly different in 2023, and you may get some new types of media to tickle your eardrums and eyeballs. For those who may not recall from past countdowns obviously my Cardinal fandom runs deep, by my diploma says PURDUE in big gold and black letters, so your boy has watched a lot of Jeff Brohm led football the last six years, and I’ve got some thoughts to share about what we can expect to see for hopefully a long time around here.

See, what I’ve found over the last decade plus is that my comments or opinions in May or early June are often outdated by the time the season rolls around due to roster alignment, transfers, injuries, etc so devoting a few hours of my day on each player to watch film, review highlights, and read articles may not be the best time utilization to bring you the most substance when it comes to offseason Louisville football. What if instead of a few paragraphs on each player everyday you still got the meat of the information, but then that extra time was spent on providing a more detailed look at the offense, or how the defensive scheme fits with the player personal we have, or a dive into the influence of social media in today’s recruiting, for example? These are topics which can be more insightful to you the reader/listener than my opinion on June 5th about how the third string tight end benched 395 in high school but likely won’t break a redshirt this year. So I’m busting out the Febreze and doing a refresh on what the Countdown looks like day to day, and I think you’ll enjoy the new look and taste feel of it (sorry, things got weird there for a second).

Whatever your excitement level is for this season and beyond, I’m here for it. Writing these daily posts has become a notable piece of my routine during the summer for quite some time now, and I hope, at least for a few of you, you feel the same. The fun part in doing this is that I’ve sat down and put finger to the keyboard after some amazing seasons such as the 2012 run to the Sugar Bowl, the twelve win season that followed, or the 2016 run which had us all thinking about the playoffs in July. But we’ve also had 2 win seasons, and 4 win seasons in this same time period (which would generally put a damper on the hype train for the following year), but without failure, every May, when we hit the one hundred day mark hope springs eternal. Every team is undefeated, and every team is excited about what the new season has in store. While my bias is showing a bit, I personally can’t think of a better way to ramp up the excitement than to count down the days until the fun begins. While I do plan on mixing it up this year and throwing some new things at you, the core remains the core….put some focus on the players and spend the whole summer getting fired up for the return of Jeff Brohm, and the return of nationally recognized Louisville Cardinals football. We got a freakin’ Heisman Cardinal at the 50, guys!

100 Days Until Kickoff.

Let’s Go!