Football Holds Wendy's Wonderful Kids Spring Game
April 14, 2012 | Football
April 14, 2012
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The University of Louisville football team concluded its spring drills with the Wendy's Wonderful Kids Spring Game on Saturday afternoon inside Papa John's Cardinal Stadium.
The game pitted the first-team offense led by sophomore quarterback Teddy Bridgewater against the second-team offense, which was manned by senior Will Stein. The second team offense was given 21 points to start. In the end, the first-team offense stormed back to take a 28-24 decision.
Bridgewater was lights out all afternoon finishing 19-for-21 for 257 yards and three touchdowns.
"What he continues to do is get better," said head coach Charlie Strong. "The thing about him is he is so easy to coach. A lot of times with guys that have had success so early, they get so full of themselves that they don't want to listen, whereas with Teddy, he's in the film room."
Stein finished 17-for-26 for 178 yards and a touchdown.
The first-team offense started slow when sophomore Lorenzo Mauldin sacked Bridgewater on the first play. However, two plays later Bridgewater found senior Scott Radcliff for 21 yards on third down to spark three straight plays of over 10 yards. Bridgewater capped the seven play, 65-yard drive with a 26-yard touchdown pass to sophomore DeVante Parker.
On the next drive by the first team offense, Bridgewater hit senior Nate Nord with a 16-yard pass before junior Senorise Perry plunged up the middle for 15 yards.Red-shirt freshman John Wallace missed a 47-yard field goal wide right.
Following the miss by Wallace, senior Andrell Smith kept the second team offense's next drive alive on third down breaking a tackle for a nine yard gain and a first down. Two plays later Stein found red-shirt freshman Corvin Lamb out of the backfield for an 18-yard gain to close out the first quarter. However, the first team defense stepped to stall the drive before Wallace drilled a 52-yard field goal.
After back-to-back punts, the first team offense stormed down the field after 18 -yard completions to Parker and Radcliff. Bridgewater capped the drive with a 29-yard touchdown strike to a wide-open Andrell Smith.
The first-team offense scored on their opening possession of the second half when Bridgewater found Radcliff twice for 21 yards, and connected with Damian Copeland for 14 yards before finding Dominique Brown on an 18-yard touchdown strike.
Stein took over at quarterback for the first-team in the fourth quarter and found Radcliff three times for 47 yards on his only drive. The senior then connected with DeMarcus Topp to give the first-team offense the lead with two minutes remaining.
Radcliff caught a game-high nine passes for 119 yards.
"In the position he plays, he is going to get a lot of catches," said Strong. "He catches the ball and moves the chains. The thing about him is he makes the tough catches. He doesn't have to run away from anybody, he just has to get open. Where he's placed is a lot of matchup. It's him on a linebacker or him on a nickelback. We feel like we can win that battle and it's an easy throw for the quarterback because he's an inside receiver. He can just see the lanes open up."
Defensively, red-shirt freshman Jermaine Reve led the second-team defense with six tackles while seniors Adrian Bushell and Daniel Brown each made five stops for the first-team unit.
Louisville opens its 2012 season against Kentucky on Sunday, Sept. 2 at 3:30 p.m. in a game that will be televised nationally on ESPN.
