I will be the first to admit that I didnt like how things were looking going into next season following Bobby Petrino's exit, and Michael Bush declaring for the NFL draft. At that point, I could see the Dominoes falling......and I just knew that the next things to happen would be Brohm and Urutia going pro, and all of our recruits backing out of their commitments. Luckily, that has not happened. Both Brohm and Urutia are back, and Michael Bush is basically the only thing we are losing on the offensive side of the ball, and we didnt have him last year anyways!!! At RB next year we will have Anthony Allen back, who is nicknamed Michael Bush Jr. as he is very similar size wise, and scored 13 TD's as a true freshman. We are also adding a 4 star recruit in top 25 RB prospect Dale Martin, who is more of a slasher, and will fit great into our offense. We only lost 1 recruit over this whole thing, Matt Simms, and there are even rumors that he is considering re-commiting after talking to Coach Kragthrope. This leaves me feeling very good heading into next season. We lost Amobi Okoye off of the defense, and he is going to be a top 15 pick in this years NFL draft. Luckily, unlike years past, we have the players to replace a guy of his talent. Our two DE's, Earl Heyman and Peanut Whitehead are going to be two of the best in the country. Our secondary, which was our weakness of last season, is going to be much improved next year with LT Thomas being one year older, getting Brandon Heath back from injury, and we just picked up a commitment from a scout 4 star CB, Woodny Turenne, who is going to make an immediate impact. We also just picked up a commitment from Willie Williams, who just two years ago was the #1 LB in the country coming out of high school. I appears now that he has finally gotten his head on straight, and his talent has never been a question. A LB of his size, and that has 4.4 speed is just rediculous. The guy is an absolute monster. That being said, after going into and coming out of depression and re-evaluating everything, I honestly think we are going to be better offensively (If thats possible), better defensively, and just as good on special teams being that we arent losing anyone there either. This whole thing has gotten me thinking that we could actually have a better year next year than we did in our Orange Bowl Championship year that just ended!!!
Now the negative side to this. We really blew our chance last season. All we had to do was beat Rutgers and we would have been in Arizona, taking our shot at the National Title. Now next year, we not only have to run the table in the Big East, which wont be easy with a big road game at West Virginia, but we have to hope that all but one team from every other major football conference has at least one loss. While I am very confident that a UofL team with a perfect record would be just as good as anyone in the country, I am also realistic. This means that I realize that if there are undefeated teams from the SEC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac 10, or ACC, they will be given the bid to the title game over the Big East, if not for any other reason, just because of voter bias. The chance of all of those teams except one having at least one loss are pretty slim. It happened this year, and we controlled our own destiny only to fall a little short. I just hope we are lucky enough to have that opportunity present itself again..........and this time capitalize on it.
Fortunately, I think I am just going to need one team to get Upset to make this dream a reality. I think every team in the SEC, Big Ten, and ACC will have at least one loss. I think the two teams that can, and probably will run the table are USC and Texas. I am just going to spend my free time praying that one of those schools manages to screw up one game, and give my Cards a chance to reach a whole new level....A NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP.
Now the negative side to this. We really blew our chance last season. All we had to do was beat Rutgers and we would have been in Arizona, taking our shot at the National Title. Now next year, we not only have to run the table in the Big East, which wont be easy with a big road game at West Virginia, but we have to hope that all but one team from every other major football conference has at least one loss. While I am very confident that a UofL team with a perfect record would be just as good as anyone in the country, I am also realistic. This means that I realize that if there are undefeated teams from the SEC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac 10, or ACC, they will be given the bid to the title game over the Big East, if not for any other reason, just because of voter bias. The chance of all of those teams except one having at least one loss are pretty slim. It happened this year, and we controlled our own destiny only to fall a little short. I just hope we are lucky enough to have that opportunity present itself again..........and this time capitalize on it.
Fortunately, I think I am just going to need one team to get Upset to make this dream a reality. I think every team in the SEC, Big Ten, and ACC will have at least one loss. I think the two teams that can, and probably will run the table are USC and Texas. I am just going to spend my free time praying that one of those schools manages to screw up one game, and give my Cards a chance to reach a whole new level....A NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP.
