Stripling stripped of his Louisville uniform

By Darrell Laurant  |   Monday, May 19, 2008  |  Comments( 0 )

Louisville Cardinals
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For three years, the stat line for University of Louisville running back George Stripling has been in free fall. Last week, it hit bottom.

After Stripling missed all of spring practice because of a suspension, Cardinals coach Steve Kragthorpe finally just told him to clean out his locker (maybe Kragthorpe was waiting to see how potential replacements performed in April drills).

His crime was the ubiquitous "violation of team rules," which can cover everything from tardiness to manslaughter. The Louisville blogosphere is full of speculation, if you're interested.

Fortunately for U of L, the Cardinals didn't need Stripling this season, anyway. He had slid to fourth string, behind Brock Bolen, Bilal Powell, and Victor Anderson, and was being challenged by some younger players behind him.

As a freshman, the 6-foot, 184-pounder from Jacksonville stepped up admirably after Heisman candidate Michael Bush went down with a broken leg in the season opener. Stripling rushed for 137 yards against Syracuse, 117 against Cincinnati and 96 against Rutgers. His trademark dreadlocks bouncing underneath his helmet, he finished with 621 yards, seven touchdowns and a 7.9 per-carry average. The future looked bright.

The next year, however, it all began to come apart. Stripling found himself in Bobby Petrino's doghouse, both for the "team rules" thing and an increasing tendency to fumble. Louisville had an outstanding season, but Stripling's contributions were more limited -- 459 yards, five touchdowns, a 5.7 average.

In 2007, playing from behind most of the time, Louisville's offense was all Brian Brohm and Stripling managed only 238 yards and a per-attempt average barely over 4.0. Notice a trend here?

And now, we can already pencil in Stripling's Louisville numbers for 2008 -- zero rushing yards, zero touchdowns, 0.0 per carry.

The good news for Stripling is twofold -- he's still fast, and he has a year of eligibility remaining. Whatever his problems may be, perhaps he can transfer to a small school, run roughshod over weaker opposition, and get a shot at the NFL through the back door.

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