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Just two years ago this week, Louisville kicked off its college playoff campaign. Behind the future winner of the Heisman Trophy, Lamar Jackson, and a series of dazzling victories, the Cards ranked fifth in the playoff standings, defeating the last second against eventual champion Clemson being the only one to win. single defect.
Is it possible that Louisville defies conventional wisdom and defies conventional wisdom and could eventually make the CFP a non-losing champion of a conference? The debate lasted until Thursday night in Houston. Louisville looked like a team lost, disorganized, indifferent and collapsed 36 to 10, winning not only his playoff hopes, but also his New Year's game.
It turns out that this match marks the beginning of the end for Bobby Petrino, sacked Sunday from his second stint in Louisville.
"If you want to say that culture is synonymous with effort, then something bad happened," sports director Vince Tyra said Sunday. "Because the effort has not been what it's been historically, players can not hide it, it's on the film."
It was hard to say at the time, of course. Jackson has lined up on the cracks that are now obvious with hindsight. Jackson became a focal point, from his Lamar Leap at his speed, to his ability to turn a career part into breaking records, the only conversation about Louisville began and ended with him.
In fact, Louisville had major problems that Petrino did not want or could not solve, and no one really took the trouble to go further for two reasons. Not only did Jackson help to hide the weaknesses of the team and the program, but the sporting director Tom Jurich has been touted as the powerful protector of Petrino. Although Petrino burned Jurich the first time he coached in Louisville, Jurich rehired him in 2014, awarding him a $ 4 million contract with an extremely generous redemption clause (Louisville). owes more than $ 14 million now), and has repeatedly promised this time to be different.
But inside the locker room, another story emerged. The assistant coaches started to leave, some for lateral movements, after problems with Petrino.
Louisville closed 2016 with three consecutive losses, finishing with an embarrassing performance in the Citrus Bowl against LSU, scoring only nine points. Defense coordinator Todd Grantham, who has clashed with Petrino several times, has left for the state of Mississippi. Petrino hired Peter Sirmon from the state of Mississippi and this hiring revealed that the situation in Louisville may not have been as optimistic: during Sirmon's only season as a defensive coordinator in Starkville, the Defense ranked 103rd.
Meanwhile, Petrino hired a longtime friend, Mike Summers, to correct the team's biggest weakness, the offensive line. When Jackson won the Heisman in 2016, he was sacked 47 times. But even a reorganized staff could not stop what was a disappointing 2017 year: a record of 8-5 that ended in another defeat.
In a nutshell, the Lamar Jackson era gave away zero division championships, zero conference championships, New Year games, and a bowl win.
Jurich was fired in the middle of the 2017 season. Petrino lost his biggest supporter on campus. By 2018, there were still many questions left. How would Louisville behave without Jackson? And how would the defense do with yet another coordinator, this time Brian Van Gorder, who was fired from his last position as defensive coordinator at Notre Dame? It was also difficult to ignore that Petrino's staff included his son Nick and two sons-in-law.
Petrino did not really help when he told ACC Kickoff's reporters that he expected his offense to be better this season with the new quarterback Jawon Pass.
"I'm waiting for us to be better," said Petrino at the time. "I'm expecting us to be more balanced, to be able to involve more players, especially in the running, I really like the return of our receiver body." is one of the strongest bodies coming back.
The players did not help, either, when they spoke in Alabama before the start of the season.
On a rainy night in Orlando Orlando, Louisville entered the field to start the 2018 season, clearly confident. But Alabama buried them in an avalanche of points, winning points 51-14. It became obvious that this team was not better with Pass Center. Two weeks later, Louisville needed a late return to defeat western Kentucky and Petrino had no clear answer to the quarterback as he let himself go between Pass and Malik Cunningham.
The offensive line has remained a blatant weak point and a lack of player development in five seasons says more about the staff. The team has not established a halves or racing game. The defense looked exactly like the expectation of a unit playing under its third coordinator in three years.
Then the game of ACC started and Louisville looked like a team without direction, without competitive shooting or without leadership. The rookies began to disengage and two leading players – cornerback Russ Yeast and quarterback Jordan Travis – announced that they would be transferred.
On the first Saturday of November, Louisville visited Clemson. The last time the Cards played at Death Valley, they came in as favorites, with Jackson as quarterback. They beat quarterback and quarterback deep in Clemson territory during a heartbreaking loss of 42-36.
But this time, Clemson was chosen as a favorite with about forty points while speculation revolved around whether Petrino would survive or not the season. At half-time, Clemson led 35-3. Sports Director Vince Tyra was sidelined in the first half, listening to the defense group, and entered the locker room at half-time.
During a quiet moment in his dressing room before the start of the third quarter, Tyra reiterated that he did not plan to make that decision when he took office as director of sports just a year ago. All he wanted was a momentum, a better execution, a willingness to win that seemed completely emptied of his schedule. Although Tyra did not say what he would do in one way or another, it was as if he had no choice.
Louisville lost 77-16, allowing 50 points or more for the third time in four games.
Subsequently, Petrino was tight-lipped when he was asked if he feared for his job security.
"I'm just trying to coach one game at a time," Petrino said.
Receiver Jaylen Smith hinted that this team was not mentally tough compared to the one that had almost defeated Clemson two years ago.
"Clemson has potentially like seven first-round players in their team, six in defense, so I think it's another mental thing, it's tenacity, being mentally tough, being able to withstand the storm and play against these guys and know that we can compete, "said Smith, who was part of the Louisville team in 2016." We are all in the same conference, we all have the same chances, we are all here for a reason, so use your platform to show your belonging. "
When asked to point out the biggest difference between Louisville at the time and today, Smith replied, "The execution is what it is." I would say that we were probably a bit more difficult at the time too, but the execution is essential. "Previously, we could adapt to all kinds of things and make things happen. different settings at half-time or on the drive, which is amazing.We also had one of the best quarterbacks to ever play football.He could do so many things, and it was just a desire to be awesome, the desire to make the next man better, so when you have five guys on the line who all want to be better each other, the competition and the performances are excellent on Saturday., defense too. "
Smith did not need to say more to paint a complete picture. Everyone swore that there would be no resignation in this team, but your eyes told you something completely different.
Earlier this week, just days after the embarrassing defeat against Clemson, Louisville lost 54-23 defeats to Syracuse – in the same dome as the one that started the Jackson, Heisman race in 2016.
At the time, no one could have predicted how all this would end. But once it went bad, it went really bad – and Petrino could not do anything about it.
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