Sullivan | Bonnafon shows he's a fast learner

Next to the final score, the most important statistic from Reggie Bonnafon's first collegiate start is that the freshman quarterback finished it on two feet.

He could stand. He could run. Sacked and smacked and repeatedly forced into daunting down-and-distance predicaments by penalties and poor blocking, Bonnafon nonetheless sustained no significant injuries in Louisville's 20-10 victory over Wake Forest.

Since Will Gardner's status continues to be clouded by the knee injury he suffered last week at Florida International, preserving Bonnafon in one piece deserves top priority from Cardinals' coach Bobby Petrino. Since Bonnafon was promoted to the starting lineup within days of the funeral of his father, his ability to concentrate on the task at hand was equally important and reasonably remarkable.

"I thought about my dad pregame and stuff like that, about things he would probably tell me before the game," Bonnafon said after the game. "But once I got out there, all those other things just kind of go away. Football's kind of my safe haven."

Bonnafon's play Saturday evening was neither pretty nor consistently precise — the Trinity High product was party to three lost fumbles, one of which provided Wake Forest a go-ahead touchdown — but he was good enough under unenviable circumstances to lead Louisville to its fourth victory in five games, to give Gardner a chance to heal and Petrino more time to tinker with his erratic offense.

"He missed a whole week of practice when his father passed," Petrino said of Bonnafon. "I'm really impressed with him. Can't say enough about how much maturity he's shown in the last couple of weeks."

Those U of L fans who viewed Bonnafon's battlefield promotion as a welcome chance for a quarterback change might want to revisit their reservations about Gardner. Bonnafon completed exactly half of his passes — 16 of 32, for 206 yards — compared to Gardner's 56.2 completion percentage. But he also delivered the game's critical play with his legs, a run that underscored his unusual athleticism and enormous potential.

Trailing 10-7 and looking at a third-and-13 predicament on the first play of the fourth quarter, Bonnafon found a hole off the right side of the line of scrimmage and scooted 16 yards to sustain Louisville's go-ahead touchdown drive.

Sophomore Brandon Radcliff scored both of Louisville's touchdowns with runs of 29 and 16 yards, but Bonnafon's keeper and a rare shovel pass interception by Sheldon Rankins ranked atop the game's turning points.

"It was a speed option play," Petrino said of Bonnafon's run. "They were substituting their dime package in and they've been very good with their dime package through the season. We hit it one time there with a run for Radcliff for a run for a touchdown."

In footballese, a dime package is a defensive alignment featuring six defensive backs. It is standard strategy when a team expects its opponent to pass. It works best when the opponent's quarterback has fewer gears than does Bonnafon.

"I had to make a play," Bonnafon said. "That was a big moment in the game, so Coach Petrino trusted me to make the play and the offensive line and receivers did a great job of blocking. It was my job to move the chains."

Next, Petrino needs to teach him how to hold on to the ball.

That Wake Forest led into the fourth quarter, despite a total offensive output of 100 yards, was largely attributable to Louisville's lost fumbles — two of them charged to Bonnafon, the third the result of a botched exchange with running back Dominique Brown. And though some of this was attributable to the penetration and pressure of Wake Forest's pass rush, some of it was inadequate ball security.

Backed up against his own goal line midway through the third quarter, Bonnafon was separated from the ball by Wake Forest's Taylor Harris, who fell on it in the end zone for the Demon Deacons' lone touchdown.

"Reggie was very poised," Radcliff said. "I felt like he had been playing the whole year. He was hyped when we got that turnover down there. He came in and got the whole offense (excited) from the offensive line and running backs to the receivers. He just get us all hyped, jumped around, told us, 'We got this.' He knew he had time to go."

It might have been Napoleon who said he could defeat any enemy except time. Confident athletes are like that.

"The biggest thing is staying positive," Bonnafon said. "I've faced adversity playing football my whole life. Things like that are going to happen. The biggest thing is coming to the sideline, learning from the mistake."

Reggie Bonnafon will make mistakes. But he looks like a fast learner.

Tim Sullivan can be reached at (502) 582-4650, by email at tsullivan@courier-journal.com, and on Twitter @TimSullivan714.