Football Making Most of Bye Week
October 03, 2012 | Football
Oct. 3, 2012
Charlie Strong | Calvin Pryor
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Head coach Charlie Strong always uses the bye week to focus on his team and work on the fundamentals. Practices are tempered down to working on technique and players are focused on getting better individually.
Despite being 5-0, the Cardinals know they have to play better and get back to playing the type of football they were playing early on. Louisville has struggled a bit in the last two games on the road, but was still able to sneak out with a pair of victories.
Fortunately, the Cardinals bye week came at the perfect timing, as Louisville is just a week away before playing its BIG EAST opener at Pittsburgh, a team that has won four in a row against the Cardinals, on Oct. 13.
Strong gave the players Monday off before bringing them back the last two days for practice in full pads.
"We had two good days of practice," said Strong. "What we are trying to do during the open week is get time to refine the fundamentals and the technique. We have two weeks to get better before we play Pittsburgh."
The Cardinals are preparing for their eighth season in the BIG EAST Conference after being labeled as the preseason favorites in July.
After going through the non-conference slate with five wins, the Cardinals know that every game is critical if they are going to re-experience a BCS game.
"Every game now is a new season and every game counts from here out," said Strong. "We have to improve and have to play better than what we have been playing. All these games coming up are very critical because it's a one game season."
After playing Pitt, the Cardinals can settle back in with three-straight league games at Papa John's Cardinal Stadium.
Louisville returns home on Oct. 20 to face USF, the Cardinals' first home game in almost a month. Strong knows his team must continue to get better because he admits that his team might not be where it needs to be right now nearly halfway through the season.
The Cardinals, despite their youth, are still searching to reach and maintain the talent of which they are capable of playing. Sophomore safety Calvin Pryor knows his team needs to find a way to correct the mistakes that have hurt them thus far.
"We have a young football team," said sophomore Calvin Pryor. "We have people are still making the same mistakes and we are giving up the big play. If you take away some of the big plays, some teams really haven't done much against us."
Strong reiterates to his football team that bye week doesn't mean vacation time. He will give the team off Friday and Saturday before returning for preparations against the Panthers.
"What I tell the players this week, that this is no time to take the week off," said Strong. "We are going to practice and we are going to go. They need to understand that I am going to get it out of them. If you don't want to practice hard, we are going to walk back out of the gate and start practice over. We are going to get the time that we need."
The Cardinals have a tough stretch with five games over the next five weeks - all in the BIG EAST, which looks like it's going to be very balanced again with three teams in the Top 25 this week.
"It's about respect," said Strong. "The league is getting the respect that it deserves. A lot of people say the BIG EAST doesn't have anyone, but having three teams ranked speaks volumes for the success of this league."
