Score by quarters:
Louisville: 10 | 64 | 14 | 13 = 101
Opponent: 20 | 28 | 38 | 9 = 95
The question perplexed underclassmen and veterans alike on the University of Louisville football team's defense. Why is their fourth-quarter performance — they've allowed all of nine points this season — so much better than the first three quarters?
The answer may be mind control. That's right. The Cardinals have a Pavlovian response when the horn for the fourth quarter sounds.
“They instilled that when they first got here,” linebacker Brandon Heath said about coach Charlie Strong and his staff. “Our first session, they said we're going to be able to outrun teams and be more physical in the fourth quarter, and that's proven on the field.”
Only Eastern Kentucky has managed a fourth-quarter touchdown against the Cardinals (2-2) this season. Through four games last year under Steve Kragthorpe, they had allowed five fourth-quarter TDs — including the game-winner against Kentucky — and 41 points. For the season they allowed more points in that quarter than any other, as opponents outscored them 110-71.
“That's a very important stat,”
Strong said. “… It's a goal of ours not to give up points in the fourth quarter.”
There's a different mentality this season, and it has produced very different results.
Strong stressed to the defensive players from the moment he took over that the fourth quarter would belong to them. Strength and conditioning coach Pat Moorer reinforced that message while putting the players through their grueling offseason workout regimen.
“We get stronger as the game goes on,”
defensive coordinator Vance Bedford said. “I sit back and watch opponents. Sometimes they're cramping and rolling up and our guys appear to be getting stronger. I think it's our offseason program, the things that we did to prepare for that point and time.”
Ask any U of L defender the unit's mission in the fourth quarter and behold the Manchurian Candidate's answer.
