Football Looks For 3-0 Start
September 18, 2003 | Football
Sept. 18, 2003
Louisville, Ky. -
The University of Louisville seeks a 3-0 start to the 2003 football season when the Cardinals host UTEP on Saturday, Sept. 20. Kickoff at PJCS is 3:05 p.m.
The Cardinals enter Saturday's contest with the momentum of last weekend's 30-20 win over Syracuse, U of L's first ever over the Orangemen. The Cardinals look for its first 3-0 start since the 2001 campaign.
UTEP is 0-3 after dropping a 34-0 home decision to San Diego State.
Louisville enters the game boasting one the nation's most balanced offensive attacks. The Cards are averaging 212.5 yards on the ground and 223.0 through the air. Sophomore Eric Shelton ranks seventh in the country in rushing yards at 143.0 per game, whiler junior quarterback Stefan LeFors leads Conference USA in passing efficiency. LeFors is coming off his best game of the year,throwing for a career-best 266 yards and three touchdowns.
CARDINAL HEADLINES *Sophomore Eric Shelton became the first back to rush for back-to-back 100-yard games since teammate T.J. Patterson accomplished the feat in 2001 against Cincinnati and Tulane. Shelton scampered for 135 yards and averaged a hefty 5.6 yards a carry. * The Cardinal offense is clicking on all cylinders, averaging 35.0 points per game and 435.5 yards of total offense. The Cardinals have scored on 12 of 21 possessions this season. *Head coach Bobby Petrino becomes just the fifth Louisville head coach to win their first two games as head coach of the Cardinals, and the first since Ron Cooper won his first two games - also on the road - in 1995. *The Cards have gone 36 games without being shutout (most recent: 9/23/00 at Florida State, 32-0)
THE SERIES This is the first meeting between these two schools.
BROTHERLY LOVE UTEP head coach Gary Nord has many ties to the University of Louisville. First, he's the brother of current Louisville assistant head coach Greg Nord. Second, Gary was a three-year letterwinner for the Cards from 1977-79 and also served on the Louisville staff from 1981-94. As a player, Gary caught 27 passes for 319 yards and two TDs.
LOUISVILLE VS. THE WAC Louisville is 12-18-1 all-time against teams from the Western Athletic Conference. Louisville and Tulsa have played 26 times, with the Hurricanes owning a 14-12 mark. The Cardinals are 1-0-1 against San Jose State, but have dropped two games to SMU and one to Boise State and Louisiana Tech.
HOME OPENERS IN PJCS The Cardinals begin their sixth season in Papa John's Cardinal Stadium when they host UTEP on Saturday. Louisville is 3-2 in home openers at PJCS, and have won three of their last four home lidlifters. Last season, the Cards dropped a 22-17 decision to Kentucky, but have defeated New Mexico State (45-24) in 2001, UK (40-34 ot) in 2000 and Tennessee-Chattanooga (58-30) in 1999. 1998 - Kentucky 68, LOUISVILLE 34 1999 - LOUISVILLE 58, Chattanooga 30 2000 - LOUISVILLE 40, Kentucky 30 OT 2001 - LOUISVILLE 45, New Mexico State 24 2002 - Kentucky 22, #17 LOUISVILLE 17
CARDS ENJOY OPENING AT PJCS The Cardinals have enjoyed an offensive explosion in home openers since moving into PJCS in 1998. Louisville has averaged a hearty 38.4 points per game in home openers. In the first game at PJCS, the Cards posted 34 points against Kentucky, and followed that up with a 58-point explosion the next season against Chattanooga. The Cardinals outlasted UK, 40-34, in overtime in 2000.
CARDS LOOK FOR FIRST 3-0 START SINCE 2001 The Cardinals will try to go 3-0 for the first time since 2001 when Louisville hosts UTEP on Saturday. With a win, the Cardinals will be just the 11th team since 1946 to open the season at 3-0. The 2001 squad, who won the Conference USA title, opened the year at 3-0, before falling to Illinois, 34-10, the following week. The 2001 team went on to win a school-best 11 games and won the Liberty Bowl trophy with a 28-10 victory over BYU. Prior to the 2001 squad winning its first three games, the 1993 squad was the last to do it.
PETRINO ATTEMPTS TO BE THIRD COACH TO WIN FIRST THREE GAMES Head coach Bobby Petrino will be just the third first-year Louisville head coach to win their first three games if the Cardinals can defeat UTEP on Saturday. Petrino would join Frank Camp and Tom King as the only other two coaches to accomplish the feat. Camp won his first three in 1946, while Tom King won all eight contests in 1925.
LEFORS REACHES CAREER-HIGH AT SYRACUSE Stefan LeFors is doing exactly what head coach Bobby Petrino wants out of his starting quarterback- make the smart read and don't turn the ball over. LeFors had his best game at Syracuse last Saturday, completing 16-of-25 passes for a career-best 266 yards and three touchdowns. He opened the game completing his first six passes for 109 yards, including a 40-yard touchdown pass to J.R. Russell on the Cardinals' first drive. LeFors improved to 2-0 as a starter and has run the offense efficiently. The 6-0 left-hander has completed 62.5 percent of his throws for 446 yards and four touchdowns, and has an efficiency rating of 159.72.
SPREADING THE WEALTH Head coach Bobby Petrino's offense relies on spreading the football around, and he helped make that happen on Saturday. Quarterback Stefan LeFors completed 16 passes to seven different receivers. J.R. Russell led the Cardinals with six catches for 133 yards, while Broderick Clark tallied four for 48 yards.
RUSSELL BREAKS OUT AGAINST ORANGEMEN J.R. Russell is rapidly becoming one of the new big-play weapons for the Cardinal offense. The 6-3 wide receiver has caught a pass in 13 straight games, which is tops on the team. In the 30-20 win over the Orangemen last Saturday, Russell established new career-highs for receptions and yards. The junior caught six passes for 133 yards and averaged a healthy 22.2 yards per catch. For the season, Russell leads the team with a 19.8 per catch average.
IRON MAN One name you can always count on to be in the starting lineup is senior center Dan Koons. Ranked as the No. 15 center by the Sporting News, Koons, one of the team's captains, has started an impressive 22 straight games, which is the most since Dewayne White had a string of 29 consecutive starts for a Cardinal dating back to the 2000 campaign.
OH BROTHER The 2003 Louisville roster features four sets of brothers in Robert and J.T Haskins, Travis and Bobby Leffew, Eric and Thomas Miller, and Brandon and Antoine Sharp. Robert and J.T. each play on opposite sides of the football, as Robert will see time at wide receiver and J.T. at cornerback. The Leffews hail from Danville, Ky., and are a pair of talented siblings. Bobby is a junior defensive tackle, while Travis is penciled in at offensive tackle. The Millers, a pair of freshmen, who hail from Palm Beach, Calif., are both defensive backs. The Sharps are also a talented pair of brothers. Brandon is expected to see action in the secondary, while Antoine, who transferred from the University of Florida, will sit out this season.
BUSH SCORES FIRST TD Local product Michael Bush showed that he needs to be on the football field when he recorded his first career-touchdown pass. No, it wasn't of the throwing variety, but it was a 24-yard reception from Stefan LeFors to put the Cardinals ahead, 27-10, in the third quarter.
