By Russ Brown
NKyTribune correspondent
LOUISVILLE — Considering that Alabama coach Nick Saban claims he didn’t even know last Tuesday was election day because he was so focused on his team’s next game, it should come as no surprise that Louisville’s Bobby Petrino also has tunnel vision, albeit in a different area.
We don’t know about Petrino’s political knowledge, but when it comes to the College Football Playoff rankings, he would have you believe he is just as clueless.
With UofL rising to No. 3 in both major polls this week — equaling its highest ranking ever — speculation is that the Cardinals (9-1) could move into the top four, or what would be the playoff semifinalists, when the new ratings are released Tuesday night on ESPN following the Kentucky-Michigan State basketball game.
Louisville, which trails Alabama (10-0) and Ohio State (9-1) in the polls, is currently No. 6 in the CFP rankings. Three teams ahead of them — Clemson, Michigan and Washington — all lost over the weekend. But, with a short week of preparation before the Cards travel to Houston (8-2) for a Thursday night game (ESPN, 8 o’clock EST), Petrino insists he isn’t thinking about any playoff scenarios, or anything else for that matter, although we assume he does know that Donald Trump is the president-elect. Maybe.
“We probably don’t know a whole lot about what’s going on in the rest of the world besides getting ready for the Houston game,” he said. “Whatever happens, happens. We can’t control any of that. We’ve just got to go play the way we’re capable of playing.
“Obviously, we know it’s on national TV and nobody else is playing and everybody will be watching it. But those are the type of games we like, something that’s fun as a team and something that we feel like has always helped us in recruiting.”
Petrino says he and his staff haven’t had time to reflect on how the losses by Clemson, Michigan and Washington would impact UofL in the days since his team’s come-from-behind win against Wake Forest Saturday night.
“We just had full steam ahead for this game, he said. It’s a real short turnaround for our players and coaches. it required us to do some work last week on Houston.”
Petrino said he normally lets his assistants take their children to school Friday morning and get into the office later than usual.
“This week we were in the office at 7 a.m. working on Houston,” he said. We had to adjust schedules.”
Aside from the playoffs, the Cards will have another motivation against Houston. The Cougars stunned them 34-31 in the second game of last season in a game where they had four turnovers — two fumbles and Lamar Jackson’s two intercpetions. UH quarterback Greg Ward, who is back this season, passed for 238 yards and three touchdowns and added 98 yards rushing as the Cougs compiled a 462-395 advantage in total offense.
Ward has been dealing with an injured shoulder, but is expected to play. Ward is No. 17 nationally in passing yards (289) and is also a threat on the ground.
“He made some plays against us where it looked like we had him boxed in and looked like we had everybody covered,” Petrino said. “And he was still able to create room and run out and make conversions. His ability to run the ball was the way they won the game in the fourth quarter.”
But this is a much different Louisville team, and the Cards are among the nation’s best both offensively and defensively.
“Right then we were trying to even find out who we were and what we were doing and everything was new to Lamar when he was out there,” Petrino says. “He made some really good plays in the game and also made some mistakes in understanding the difference in high school football and college football.”
Petrino said the Cards will have to have a full-game effort defensively like they did in the second half against Wake Forest, when they shut down the Demon Deacons both on the ground and in the air.
“We’ve got to do a good job being disciplined like we were in the second half last week,” he said. “We didn’t give any lanes, we got push inside, and great speed off the edge. The other challenge they (Cougars) present you with is they’ll throw a bunch of balls out there quickly to their receivers and block and run. They get a lot of big plays just by throwing the ball out, getting a block, and taking off and running. That combination of a quarterback runner and a quick throw to the receivers with guys blocking in from of them is something we will have to defend.”
Houston, opened this season in the top 10, but fell out of the rankings after upset losses against Navy and SMU. Still, the Cougs own the nation’s third-longest home field winning streak at 14 games in 3-year-old TDECU Stadium.