Bobby Petrino’s sad-sack Louisville team appears to have given up the ghost for 2018. The main factor that might keep Petrino on the Louisville sideline in 2019 is a combination of a large buyout and a cash-strapped UL budget.
Matt Colburn has to be one of the country’s happiest football players in the country this week after his latest star turn reminded Petrino of a classless maneuver in Colburn’s recruitment. Louisville had offered the prep running back from South Carolina only to rescind the scholarship offer at the very, very, very last minute. Colburn’s consolation prize was Wake Forest.
Fast forward to last Saturday’s Louisville game at Wake Forest. Colburn torched Louisville’s miserable running defense (Georgia Tech can definitely attest!) for 243 rushing yards in a Demon Deacon romp. Colburn is among the top 10 running backs in Wake Forest history. Last year, in Louisville, Colburn’s 134 rushing yards were key to Wake’s 42-32 upset win.
Given Petrino’s stealth exit from the Atlanta Falcons and the way he handled his motorcycle fiasco at Arkansas, some poetic justice exists in Colburn’s excellence against the Cardinals. And if Colburn’s payback did not suffice, maybe the fact that the biggest underdog on the board tomorrow is Louisville +38.5 as it heads to an execution at Clemson’s version of Death Valley.