It was less than an hour before kickoff on Nov. 29, and Louisville athletic director Tom Jurich was standing on the top row of the press box at Rutgers Stadium with a chagrined look on his face.
Louisville star Teddy Bridgewater was on the field, trying to warm up despite a broken left wrist and severely sprained right ankle. He looked more mummy than quarterback.
“I just don’t see how he can play,’’ Jurich said. “He couldn’t really walk this week.’’
The game kicks off and Bridgewater is on the bench. His team is struggling offensively, trailing 14-3. Bridgewater grabs his helmet and goes on to grab the game by the throat.
He completes 20 of 28 passes for 263 yards with two touchdowns and one interception as Louisville rallies for a 20-17 win that sends the Cardinals to the Orange Bowl.
“I don’t think he’s the toughest quarterback in the country,’’ Louisville safety Preston Brown said this summer. “I think he’s the toughest football player in the country.’’
If that’s the case, then the toughest college football player in the nation is afraid of needles. Therefore he couldn’t take a pain-killing injection before the game. It wasn’t until the adrenaline kicked in once he took the field that Bridgewater was able to block out the pain.
“It was obvious he was really hurting and we went after him, clean, but we went after him,’’ Rutgers linebacker Kevin Snyder said. “He’d take a hit and have trouble getting up. You could hear him moaning. But he kept getting up. You have to respect that.’’
Respect is exactly what this Louisville team is after, and the quest begins today (3:30, ESPN) at home against a well-coached Ohio team accustomed to winning under Frank Solich.
Louisville is a 20 1/2-point favorite, and we’ll give the points. The Cardinals went 11-2 last season and have 14 starters returning from a team that blitzed Florida, 33-23, in the Orange Bowl.
Yet Louisville couldn’t crack the Top 10 in either preseason poll. The only one pleased by that is coach Charlie Strong, the former Florida defensive coordinator who quickly has built Louisville into a national championship contender.
“We’re not even close to being in that conversation,’’ Strong said.
Strong has reason to doubt. Louisville blew consecutive games last season to Syracuse and Connecticut. And with a non-conference schedule that is weaker than Anthony Weiner’s poll numbers (Ohio, Eastern Kentucky, at Kentucky, Florida International), combined with conference strength that took a hit on Thursday with losses by Rutgers (52-51 in overtime at Fresno State) and, more troubling, UConn (33-18 at home against FCS Towson), even an undefeated season won’t guarantee Louisville a spot in the BCS title game.
But if you’re looking for a team that can run the table and that no team from a BCS conference wants to face in a bowl game, look no further than Louisville. If you’re looking for Heisman Trophy candidate not at the top of every list, look no further than Bridgewater.
“We don’t fear any team,’’ Bridgewater said. “We respect each opponent. Whether or not they respect us, well, we can do something about that.’’