Cardinals Continue to Prepare for Hurricanes
December 25, 2013 | Football
Dec. 25, 2013
ORLANDO, Fla.- Christmas Eve is a time to spend with friends and families, but for the University of Louisville football team, it was just another day at the office.
Practice No. 2 is in the books, and the Cardinals look like they are ready to face the Miami Hurricanes on Saturday night in the Citrus Bowl.
Under sunny skies for the second-straight day, head coach Charlie Strong put the Cardinals through a fast-paced two-hour practice at First Academy in Orlando.
"We had a good day today," head coach Charlie Strong said. "I thought the players were focused and gave a good effort. We got after it today and I was pleased with the effort."
As it's been stated so many times since the bowl match-up was announced, the Cardinals are excited about taking on the Hurricanes - the favorite team of many the current Cardinals when they were growing up in Florida.
The Cardinals have 39 players on their roster, who played high school football in the Sunshine State. Louisville also owns 23 players from Miami/Broward County, the home of the Hurricanes.
"I was excited, senior wide receiver Damian Copeland said when he heard the Cardinals were playing Miami. "It was just crazy because we played the Gators last season. Just going back to when I was a kid, I always watch those teams and I never thought that when I went to the University of Louisville that I would play two Florida teams in back-to-back bowl games."
Copeland, who is the leading receiver, could be playing in his last game for the Cardinals, depending on if he wants to take the sixth year of eligibility he was granted in November. A Tampa, Fla., native, Copeland will have plenty of support for this great challenge.
"My favorite team growing up was definitely Florida State," Copeland said. "I will have a good 30+ people at the game. We know we are going to have a big challenge ahead of us, but I feel that we will be ready for the challenge that Miami presents to us."
Strong has an opportunity to do something one other coach has other done in school history - lead the program to a 12-win season. Bobby Petrino guided UofL to a 12-1 slate in 2006, and Strong knows to get to No. 12 on Saturday, the Cardinals will have to be at their best in all phases.
"We are playing a quality opponent," Strong said. "We are playing an opponent that now we are going into the ACC, will be on our schedule next season. It's going to be a measuring stick at just how far we need to go and just how much better we need to get."
Heading into a game with so many players from the state of Florida, and with so many players on the roster, who were recruited by Miami, the Cardinals are likely to have extra juice for this game. However, Strong thinks his team will be just fine.
"They have to understand that they can't get too high or too low for this game," Strong said. "We just have to stay even keel and prepare like we have prepared all season long."
If the Cardinals can play at the level they have all season, securing that 12th win could be within their reach, but the Louisville players know they are probably facing one of the best teams on their schedule this season.
