LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – It was Rick Pitino who told me about the ice cream. He used to tell his players this story:
You’ve got a perfectly good bowl of ice cream. Maybe it’s vanilla bean. Maybe it’s Rocky Road. It’s cold, it’s creamy, it’s promising. Then someone plops a speck of, well, excrement into the middle.
Just a speck.
But nobody says, “Oh, it’s fine — just scrape that part off.” No, he told me, in his own way, what you’ve got now is a bowl of @#$%&! ice cream.
Which brings us to the University of Louisville football team.
This is a team with flavor. With potential. With something to look forward to most weeks.
But the problem with the Cardinals — after an exhaustive taste test — isn’t the ice cream. It’s the specks. The small, foul, momentum-killing specks.
Their first decent pass play Saturday against Virginia was a 16-yard gain to Chris Bell, which got them to the Virginia 40-yard line. Momentum. Energy. Then Bell popped up on the sideline and mimed firing a shotgun.
Fifteen-yard penalty. Unsportsmanlike conduct. Congratulations. You just fouled your own parfait.
Later in that same drive, Louisville faced fourth down, again at the Virginia 40. Maybe, if they’re 15 yards farther downfield, they kick a field goal. Instead, they toss the ball back to Isaac Brown, who bobbles it. Virginia scoops it, thanks them kindly, and goes 61 yards the other way for the game's first touchdown. Seven points lost.
Final play of the half. Louisville lines up for a field goal. Clean snap? Smooth hold? Upright kick?
Nope.
Something is off. The ball leaves the ground with the enthusiasm of a wet feather. No good. Ten points lost.
Third quarter. Game tied at 14. And then Miller Moss, trying to make something out of nothing, lobs a ball as he’s being taken down. Right into the grateful arms of Kam Robinson, who waltzes 47 yards the other way.
Seventeen points lost. All gift-wrapped. By Louisville. They should look into a Hallmark sponsorship. Maybe a little NIL.
“I was just trying not to take a negative play,” Moss said.
That’s understandable. But when the alternative is a pick-six, hitting ‘take sack’ feels like a much preferable button.
At this point, you feel like a basketball coach talking live-ball turnovers. "If you have to turn it over, just don't let them dunk it on the other end."
Sorry. I keep lapsing into basketball. But I won’t be the only one if Louisville doesn’t clean things up soon.
Here’s the maddening part: this team moves the ball. Moss threw for 329 yards and two touchdowns. Bell had 12 catches for 170 yards. You know what's better than those numbers? Having those numbers when you win.
Nobody’s asking for perfect football. They’re asking for responsible football. Value the ball. Limit turnovers.
Take the sack. Punt the ball. Let the defense play. There is no shame in a punt. There is only shame in a backwards toss that ends up on TikTok.
As Jeff Brohm put it:“The execution on certain things was really disappointing and shouldn’t happen. Dropping a ball on a simple toss to get a first down. Forcing balls when things aren’t there. Every play isn’t going to be open and work perfectly. You’ve got to take a sack. You’ve got to step up and run. A lot of things you can do. So, obviously, I’m not doing a good enough job of practicing those things for them to show up and to give the other team 14 points.”
The frustration is how fixable it all seems.
A 15-yard penalty you didn’t need. A toss you’ve repped a hundred times. A moment where you need composure, and instead, you offer chaos.
These aren’t talent problems. These aren’t matchup issues. Even with the offensive line limitations, we're talking about an unbeaten, nationally ranked team without a basket full of bad decisions. These are self-inflicted, bowl-soiling specks — and Louisville keeps serving them up.
Now comes a bye week. Then No. 3 Miami. Then the moment of truth.
Because right now, Louisville is doing a lot of things right — but still making the kind of mistakes that leave a bad taste behind.
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