Football Preparing for Thursday Night Spotlight Against Rutgers
October 07, 2013 | Football
Oct. 7, 2013
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Charlie Strong: Video | Audio | Transcript 
Teddy Bridgewater: Video
Jake Smith: Video
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - It's been a long time since a Thursday night University of Louisville football game at Papa John's Cardinal Stadium mattered as much as this weekday contest does versus Rutgers.
The Cardinals, who are 5-0 overall, including a 1-0 record in AAC play, will face a determined Scarlet Knights squad that hopes to end a three-game losing streak to Louisville.This will likely be the last time the two schools face each other in the near future, as Rutgers is scheduled to leave the American Athletic Conference this summer for the Big Ten Conference.
Memorable mid-week games are no strangers to this rivalry. Last season, the Cardinals clinched a BCS berth with a 20-17 win on a Thursday night at High Point Solutions Stadium in Piscataway. Playing with a fractured wrist and a high-ankle sprain, Teddy Bridgewater came off the bench and threw for 263 yards and two touchdowns as the Cardinals came back from a 14-3 deficit and won it with 1:41 left on a field goal by John Wallace.
It was a great win for the Cardinals, but it was also big for Bridgewater to perform well under those physical limitations and lead the Cardinals to one of their biggest wins in school history.
"It was just his performance,” head coach Charlie Strong said. “When you think about it, a lot of people would not have played in that game because of what he had. He had a wrist that was heavily taped, then he had an ankle, so he really couldn't scramble around. Just to watch that performance and watch how he competed, that just truly spoke to who he is."
In 2006, an undefeated Louisville team traveled to Rutgers and raced out to a 25-7 lead. The Scarlet Knights battled back and won the game in the final seconds with a field goal by Jeremy Ito. The loss spoiled the Cardinals' perfect season, but the decision didn't prevent Louisville from earning its first BCS bowl berth.
"The last few years have seen great battles, great matchups and yeah, we have so much for respect for their program and I know they feel the same way about us,” Strong said. “You look at the tremendous job these programs have done. You're going to lose that now that we're going into different conferences. That's going to happen when you start moving all these teams around to all these different conferences; you lose all of these rivalries."
Thursday's match-up will feature two potent offenses, which are averaging more than 40 points per game, and feature two pocket passers in Bridgewater and Gary Nova. However, the battle could be won in the trenches, where the Louisville offensive line will try to run against the nation's fourth-ranked run defense and the Scarlet Knights will try to keep the ferocious Louisville pass rush out of the backfield.
"You just look at them offensively, they give you great balance with the run and the pass,” Strong said. “They give you so much play-action, and that's how they slow down the rush, because they don't let you just tee off and just go sack the quarterback. It's a veteran group and they do a great job with protecting Nova, and Nova is getting rid of the ball, so he's not taking sacks."
Louisville is ranked 16th in the nation in sacks and is coming off a four-sack performance against Temple in a 30-7 win. Junior Lorenzo Mauldin leads the Cardinals with 5.5 sacks and has teamed with Marcus Smith to pose a vaunted task for Rutgers, which is 101st in the country in sacks allowed.
This is a short week for both teams, which are coming off road wins, so preparation is crucial.
"You're just missing a day of preparation,” Strong said. “You miss Monday, so Monday's out now. Monday will be treated like a Tuesday, a Tuesday will be treated like Wednesday and a Wednesday will be treated like a Thursday."
The last time the Cardinals hosted a big-time Thursday night game was in 2006 when the Cardinals, ranked fifth in the country, outlasted third-ranked West Virginia, 44-34. That also was the game before Rutgers ruined Louisville's undefeated season.
However, this time, the Scarlet Knights will try to spoil Louisville's special season at Papa John's Cardinal Stadium.
