White-out: Sharp bettors think Louisville can stop WVU

By Tim Roberts
Wed, Nov 1, 2006


After blowouts in their last three aired games, ESPN Thursday Night Football execs are begging that the West Virginia Mountaineers and Louisville Cardinals repeat last year’s 46-44 triple overtime shootout.

The Cards, losers of last year’s instant classic, hate that idea. With all three of last year’s losses and this season’s closest call sharing a common characteristic, they know exactly how to prepare for a different result.

“I`d be making stuff up if I said we haven`t been hurt at times by running quarterbacks,” Louisville defensive coordinator Kevin Wolthausen told The Louisville Courier-Journal.

And no quarterback in the nation can run like Mountaineers sophomore Patrick White, his team’s indisputable starter since engineering the comeback against Louisville in a relief role. In his 12 subsequent starts, White has racked up 1,267 rushing yards and 15 touchdowns on the ground. More importantly, West Virginia hasn’t lost any of them.

Louisville head coach Bobby Petrino told The Lexington Herald-Leader that White can be stopped if defenders stay in the rush lanes and avoid giving him big gaps. He’s also assigned one defender specifically to take White.

To that effect, Petrino used backup receivers Johnny Patrick and Pat Carter as Pat White stand-ins in recent practices. Both have been trying to replicate the quarterback’s raw speed in and out of the pocket.

“I think it’ll help,” says Sportsmemo.com’s Rob Veno. “It’s one thing to simulate it in practice and completely another to bring it on the field, but there are lots of returnees on the defense who saw White last year too.

“[West Virginia] are not going to beat you downfield. They complete most of their big passes off play-action, so if Louisville commits eight to the box and assigns a spy to White, then I think they’ll have trouble.”

Louisville’s other losses last year came at South Florida (with Pat Julmiste taking the snaps) and against Virginia Tech at the Gator Bowl (with Marcus Vick’s athleticism a key in another Louisville collapse).

The Cardinals are 7-0 this year but Cincinnati came within a tipped pass in the end zone of a massive upset. Bearcats quarterback Dustin Grutza channeled his inner Randall Cunningham to compile more than half of a career-high 75 rushing yards during a late drive.

“I think there`s a new era in college football of having running quarterbacks, and a lot of teams made late adjustments to it,” Louisville defensive tackle Amobi Okoye told the Courier-Journal. “Obviously, we`re one of those teams. But we`ve been working on it a lot, because it`s one of our flaws.”

In all four games noted above, the Cards failed to beat the number.

“[Louisville] is a fantastic pass rush team, geared towards pocket passers,” says Veno, explaining the troubles with athletic quarterbacks. “Just look at how they pounded [Miami quarterback] Kyle Wright earlier this year.”

Oddly enough, it’s the pass rush on the other side of the ball that has Veno leaning towards the Cardinals at home.

“West Virginia had no pass rush at all in their first five games and they’ve played nobody,” he says.

“Going into the Miami game, the thinking was that if you don’t pressure [Cardinals quarterback] Brian Brohm, you’ll get chewed up. I don’t see the Mountaineers reaching Brohm at all.”

The logic follows, then, that if the Cardinals can keep White and fellow jackrabbit Steve Slaton relatively in check, then they can establish another lead like they did last year. And that’s where the lack of downfield passing would hurt the most.

“If West Virginia has to play catchup, I don’t think they’ll do it this time,” Veno says.

The total for tonight’s game is set at 56.