ESPN College Football

Posted by ESPN.com's Brian Bennett

Steve Kragthorpe very nearly broke out the old Herm Edwards quote this week when talking about the struggles of his Louisville football team.

"You play this game to win," Kragthorpe said.

Except that hasn't been the case for the Cardinals (1-3, 0-1 Big East), who last beat an FBS opponent on Oct. 25, 2008. That's a string of eight straight defeats, five of them by double digits.

	Andy Lyons/Getty Images
	Victor Anderson is expected to get more touches Saturday against Southern Mississippi.

While Kragthorpe and his players continue to say that they're just a few plays away or that they've beaten themselves with mistakes, a losing streak like that comes down to more than just a couple of bad breaks. So expect to see some changes this Saturday when Louisville plays host to Southern Mississippi.

For starters, Kragthorpe is promising to get Victor Anderson more touches. Makes perfect sense, since Anderson -- the Big East's newcomer of the year last season after rushing for more than 1,000 yards as a redshirt freshman -- is the team's best player. Yet after carrying 19 times for 110 yards at Kentucky, Anderson got only 10 carries for 22 yards at Utah and ran it just 12 times for 51 yards last week against Pitt.

Anderson was dealing with a groin injury and some other bumps and bruises last week, Kragthorpe said. But he should be healthier now, and he needs to be a major part of the game plan.

Of course, Anderson can only do so much when the offensive line is not opening holes.

When asked to name which players were performing well up front, Kragthorpe could only point to center Mario Benavides and right guard Mark Wetterer. Junior Jeff Adams, who started at right tackle last year, could supplant left tackle Byron Stingily this week. Adams was slated to start there in the preseason, but he had a bout with the flu that caused him to lose almost 20 pounds in fall camp. Massive junior college transfer Joe Evinger (6-foot-6, 330 pounds) arrived late in fall camp but is now sufficiently up to speed to where he could start seeing some significant time as well, Kragthorpe said.

Another problem area for the Cardinals has been the secondary, which was burned by long touchdown passes against Pitt. Safety Terrence Simien's kidney injury forced some shuffling around, and Chaz Thompson moved over from safety to start at cornerback for the first time in his career last week. Kragthorpe said he would look at some other options back there, including pulling the redshirt off true freshman Shenard Holton.

Louisville is the most penalized team in the Big East and seems to find the absolute wrong time in each drive to draw a flag. Kragthorpe said he planned to tape his offensive linemen's wrists this week to prevent them from getting their hands outside a defender's body. And others who committed penalties last week had to run as punishment.

It remains to be seen whether any of these changes are more than cosmetic against a Southern Miss team that has some issues of its own. The Golden Eagles lost starting quarterback Austin Davis to a season-ending injury last week in a loss to UAB. Junior Martevious Young will start in his place. They will get back running back Damion Fletcher and receiver DeAndre Brown from injuries this week.

The Cardinals left old rival Southern Miss and Conference USA behind when they moved to the Big East; losing to the Golden Eagles at home would be yet another black mark for a program that's gathered too many of them lately. With two Big East away games up next and road trips still left to West Virginia and South Florida, Louisville can't afford any more slip-ups.

"A win would sure lighten the mood up," Benavides said. "Nobody likes losing."

Posted by ESPN.com's Brian Bennett

New Rutgers co-offensive coordinators Kirk Ciarrocca and Kyle Flood have to fill several holes, especially at quarterback and wide receiver, Tom Luicci writes in The Star-Ledger.

"Obviously, it's a real challenge right now," Ciarrocca said. "We're racing against the clock to get a lot of guys ready who haven't played in a meaningful college football game.

"We're confident in their ability. They have a tremendous work ethic and ability. But they're young and they don't have much experience."

• Pat Bostick is trying to stay positive, but so far it looks like he's the odd man out in Pitt's three-way quarterback battle, Paul Zeise says in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

• True freshman receiver Dwayne Difton, UConn's prized recruit in the Class of 2009, could be a starter on opening day, Desmond Conner writes in the Hartford Courant.

• South Florida running back Mike Ford, who has been suspended for the first two games, has to earn back his coaches' trust, Brett McMurphy says in the Tampa Tribune. McMurphy also speculates that Jamar Taylor might be out for the year with a knee injury.

• CBSSports.com's Dennis Dodd picks Rutgers to win the Big East but focuses on Cincinnati in his league preview. (Sorry for the earlier mistake; you'd think I'd highlight it when somebody joins me in the Rutgers pick).

• Speaking of the Bearcats, homegrown products Andre Revels and Craig Carey could make a big impact on this year's team, Bill Koch writes in the Cincinnati Enquirer.

• West Virginia is using some of its height -- like 6-foot-8 Wes Lyons and 6-5 Robert Sands -- to put together a potentially dangerous field goal block unit, Mike Casazza writes in the Charleston Daily Mail.

• Chaz Thompson has finally found his niche at strong safety with Louisville, C.L. Brown says in The Courier-Journal.

Posted by ESPN.com's Brian Bennett

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- I stopped by Louisville practice today to get my first summer glimpse of the Cardinals. They were in full pads for the morning session and have another workout scheduled for this evening, marking their first two-a-day of camp.

Here are some quick impressions based on what I saw:

• Let's start with the most pressing issue: quarterbacks. Justin Burke got the snaps with the first team as coach Steve Kragthorpe continues to rotate him and Adam Froman at No. 1. I thought Burke played a little better in the spring, but I've been hearing that Froman has maybe inched ahead so far in camp.

Well, it wasn't a great morning for either quarterback, as there weren't a whole lot of completed passes. Neither one has a great arm, which can be overcome by accuracy and timing. Still, the deep ball just wasn't there today. Receivers had to wait or even come back on those long throws, and wind was not a factor. Third-stringer Zack Stoudt, who has the best arm of the three, didn't get many reps today.

• The biggest depth-chart development is on the offensive line. Junior Byron Stingily is now the starting left tackle, while Greg Tomczyk has shifted over to right tackle. Jeff Adams has been bumped down to second string. The 6-foot-5, 293-pound Stingily was a junior college transfer last year who redshirted for the 2008 season.

Kragthorpe said Stingily has really improved in his understanding of the game and position and has quick feet. But he said that "we're still moving guys around" on the offensive line. The Cardinals had hoped to work huge (6-6, 330) juco import Joe Evinger into the mix on the line, but he's yet to practice because of some academic administrative issues.

• Receiver Scott Long did not wear pads or participate in any contact work. Louisville is trying to bring him along slowly after his offseason knee injury. Long, who was wearing an ice pack on his right knee toward the end of practice, was supposed to practice tonight. The Cardinals are a far, far better team when he is healthy.

• Fellow receiver Josh Chichester also was held out of contact work. First-string fullback Joe Tronzo was in a walking boot.

• The first-string defense had William Savoy and Greg Scruggs at defensive ends, L.D. Scott and L.T. Walker at the tackle spots, Jon Dempsey, Antwon Canady and Brandon Heath at linebacker, Karldell Dunning and Johnny Patrick at corner and Daniel Covington and Chaz Thompson at safety. The defense as a whole looked better than it did at times in the spring, but again the offense struggled.

• Speaking of struggling, the Cardinals' goal-line drill did not go well. The first play was a botched quarterback-center exchange. Then there were a couple of offside penalties. Froman threw a pass to Troy Pascley that was about 5 yards out of the end zone, prompting Kragthorpe to yell, "We're not in Canada!"

• It's hard not to notice newcomer Tim High, a 6-foot-2, 310-pound mountain of a defensive tackle. The junior college transfer played with the second team and looked like he could use some conditioning work.

• Mike Fennerty and Cameron Graham were running with the first team at tight end, a position Kragthorpe would like to use. Graham had a tough day catching the ball.

• Kamran Joyer, the former South Florida signee who was released from his scholarship over grade concerns, saw some time on the third team offense. The one time I noticed him, he got yelled at for missing an assignment. That will happen with true freshmen.

I'll have more from Louisville practice a little later on.