Miami still clinging to credibility; Louisville wants it

By Darrell Laurant  |   Friday, September 15, 2006  |  Comments( 1 )

Louisville Cardinals
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The way Nate Harris is talking, Saturday's football game at Papa John Cardinal Stadium in Louisville is Muhammad Ali versus Sonny Liston -- and guess which role the University of Louisville linebacker is playing.

"They're not the Miami they used to be," Harris said earlier this week as he and his unbeaten Cardinal teammates prepared to take on the 1-1 Miami Hurricanes.

"We're on the same level as they are," chimed in quarterback Brian Brohm.

It may be a non-conference game early in the season, but the 3:30 meeting Saturday between the No. 12 Cardinals and No. 17 Hurricanes is huge. A loss for Miami would probably send the Hurricanes tumbling out of the Top 25 for the first time since 1999. Louisville has two watershed games on its schedule, and this is one of them (West Virginia being the other). The Cardinals are after credibility.

Two years ago, Bobby Petrino's team had Miami, then ranked No. 3, down by 17 points at the Orange Bowl, only to lose 41-38. Indeed, the Cardinals always seem to be just on the cusp of becoming an upper-echelon program, only to fall just short in big games.

But 41-38 would be a low-scoring game by Papa John Stadium standards. In the course of running up a 17-1 home record under Petrino, Louisville is averaging a shade over 50 points and 540 yards in total offense. This season, the Cards beat Kentucky 59-28 (despite a late-game letdown after star running back Michael Bush broke his leg) and Temple 62-0.

Miami generated virtually no offense in an ugly 13-10 opening loss to Florida State, then took it out on outclassed FAMU (not a killer whale, but an acronym for Florida A&M University) a week later, 51-0.

The 250-pound Bush is out for the season, but Brohm sees the fact that the Cardinals will now be throwing a committee of running backs (notably Kolby Smith, George Stripling and Sergio Spencer) at the Hurricanes as an advantage.

"Each one will give them a little different look," he said.

Harris has been trash-talking all week, and for him the game is personal. A Miami native, he had signed with the Hurricanes three years ago, then got arrested and convicted for serving as the lookout in an armed robbery. Miami pulled his scholarship, and after a stretch in teen boot camp and two years at Dodge City Community College, Harris wound up in Louisville.

"They (Miami) turned their back on me when I got in trouble," he says now, although admitting the enormity of his youthful mistake.

Last season, the 6-1, 232-pounder had 66 tackles and 11.5 tackles for loss on behalf of the Cardinals.

Despite Harris' war of words, however, Miami coach Larry Coker was playing it cool. He even likes Papa John's pizza, he said, ordering it for his staff meeting earlier in the week.

"I think it was free," he said.

But a victory on Saturday, for either team, won't be.

Get more on the Miami Hurricanes and Louisville Cardinals at RealFootball365.com
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