Big East Notebook
Louisville has to take on Big Blue before Big East Louisville linebacker Brandon Johnson acknowledges he went a little overboard earlier this month when he compared the Cardinals’ rivalry with Kentucky to the street-gang feud between the Bloods and the Crips.
“I think that’s been taken a little out of context,” said Johnson, a senior. “I was just trying to emphasize the passion of the rivalry. Maybe it wouldn’t have been so bad if I had said the Hatfields and McCoys.”
The No. 12 Cardinals open the season in Lexington on Sunday. Louisville has taken over the annual series, winning five of the last six meetings, including a 28-0 victory last season.
The Cardinals are heavily favored again this year and are expected to make a big splash in their first season in the Big East.
To keep his players’ minds on the Wildcats, coach Bobby Petrino has repeated a simple mantra through most of fall practices: Big Blue before Big East.
“I think what they’re doing is focusing on the Kentucky game and not worrying about it,” Petrino said. “I hope that’s what they’re doing. And if they’re not, I’m certainly going to remind them that’s what they need to be doing.”
Sophomore quarterback Brian Brohm thinks his teammates already understand the significance of Sunday’s opener.
“This is probably the most important game to the fans and it is the most important game to us right now,” said Brohm, who grew up in Louisville. “They always say ‘Beat Kentucky,’ you know. The other games might not matter as much to the fans. They matter all equally to us.”
I KNOW YOU: Dave Wannstedt and Charlie Weis have crossed paths numerous time during the past 15 years in the NFL.
On Saturday, Wannstedt makes his debut at Pittsburgh against Weis and Notre Dame.
“Just through our acquaintance through the NFL we probably know each other better from an Xs and Os standpoint than a personal standpoint,” said Wannstedt, the former Dolphins and Bears head coach. “You can only do what your players execute. For me to think we’re going to do the same things the Miami Dolphins do is unrealistic. He’ll be facing the same thing. Can the players go out and execute? We’ll see.”
The Pitt-Notre Dame series dates back to 1909 and the Fighting Irish lead with a 43-18-1 record. The Panthers won last year’s meeting 41-38 at Notre Dame Stadium. Pittsburgh quarterback Tyler Palko threw for 334 yards and a Notre Dame stadium record five TD passes.
Since then Wannstedt has replaced Walt Harris, who is now at Stanford. Weis, the former Patriots offensive coordinator, takes over from Tyrone Willingham, who was let go three years into his six-year contract.
BEARCATS FOCUS: Cincinnati’s home opener this week against Eastern Michigan might be just the diversion Bearcat fans need after the tearful goodbye last week of longtime basketball coach Bob Huggins.
He agreed to step down and take a $3 million buyout of his contract after the school warned he’d be fired if he didn’t resign. Huggins’ arrest and conviction for drunken driving last year upset new president Nancy Zimpher, who wanted Huggins and his coaches to be better role models and recruit studious players who would stay out of trouble.
“I think it was a tough situation for a lot of the people in the city of Cincinnati,” football coach Mark Dantonio said. “Coach Huggins has been here for 16 years and for many people, for half their life have known him as the coach. We tried to stay focused and not become distracted. We’ll see how it all shakes out with the general public.”
Dantonio begins his second year with the Bearcats, one of three new football members in the Big East. His 7-5 record was second-best of any of the 13 first-year Division I-A coaches in 2004. Only Texas-El Paso’s Mike Price (8-4) was better.
The Bearcats are among one of the youngest teams in the conference. They will be led by Dustin Grutza, a redshirt freshman quarterback. He replaces Gino Guidugli, who threw for 2,633 yards and 26 touchdowns in his senior season.
Dantonio has continued the school’s tradition of taking the team to a preseason camp, surrounding the players with each other and football. Just what a young team needs, he said.
“It was a great setup for us,” he said. “It just allows everybody to grow together. I played pingpong with some of the players. You’re just in a unique environment. We’ve got a lot of youth. We just need to get them some game exposure.”
LAYING LOW: Growing up on an island, Connecticut defensive lineman Deon McPhee is all too familiar with the storms.
The senior co-captain, who’s from Abaco, Bahamas and later attended high school in Florida, watched the news reports as the rest of the nation did on the evacuations from Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama caused by Hurricane Katrina.
“In the Bahamas it’s a lot different. We just board up and stay inside,” he said. “When I went to school in Florida we had an evacuation process and it took us 8 hours to get 15 minutes down the road on a regular day. Everybody (in the Bahamas) has plywood. They just pull it out, pull the shutters and lock down.”