Cardinals blow over Miami in ACC football debut

Monday night was supposed to be a party for the University of Louisville.

It was supposed to be a celebration of the school's new membership in the Atlantic Coast Conference. It was supposed to be a welcome-back occasion for coach Bobby Petrino.

And in those ways it was everything U of L wanted.

But on a night when U of L's offense was supposed to be the show stealer, it was the Cardinals' defense that starred in a 31-13 win over the University of Miami in front of a school-record crowd of 55,428 at Papa John's Cardinal Stadium.

U of L held star Miami running back Duke Johnson, a preseason all-ACC first-team selection, to 90 yards from 20 carries. Take away Johnson's runs of 24 and 21 yards, and Miami totaled 35 yards from 25 rushes.

"They had a great plan and they played really fast," Petrino said. "We tackled well and got a lot of guys to the ball. We were able to get after the quarterback and get off the field on third down."

Logic implied that perhaps U of L's defense would take a step back from last year. Louisville led the nation in rushing and total defense, finished second in scoring defense and fifth in passing defense.

The entire coaching staff left. So did three NFL draft picks and three other starters.

New defensive coordinator Todd Grantham changed the team's defensive philosophy, too, switching U of L from a 4-3 to a 3-4 base. In layman's terms, it turned the speedy defensive ends in last year's defense into outside linebackers this year.

Those outside linebackers did their jobs on Monday night. Seniors Lorenzo Mauldin and Deiontrez Mount combined for nine tackles, including three for a loss of yardage. They had one sack and two quarterback hurries.

They seemingly popped up at the most pivotal moments.

Mount's 11-yard sack in the fourth quarter derailed Miami's most important drive, a fourth-quarter move into U of L territory that could have cut the Cards' lead back to one score.

Mauldin's tackle on Miami tailback Gus Edwards suffocated a third-and-1 rushing attempt on the Hurricanes' first drive of the second half. The hit halted Miami's attempt at rekindling the momentum it had discovered in the second quarter.

And it wasn't a two-man show.

James Sample's interception set up that 28-yard John Wallace field goal gave Louisville a 24-13 lead.

Andrew Johnson's two early open-field tackles set up a key pass breakup.

James Burgess crunched freshman Miami quarterback Brad Kaaya on an early passing attempt, shaking the young signal caller in his first career start. Kaaya finished 17 of 29 for 174 yards, with two interceptions and a touchdown.

In all, Miami conjured up just 12 first downs. The Hurricanes converted one of 13 third downs, and they totaled 174 passing yards.

"It was a team effort," Petrino said. "Everybody on defense did their job."

That set up the offense to finish the job, though at times it was a shakier-than-expected performance. Petrino's known as an offensive guru, a coach whose offenses at Arkansas and Louisville ranked among the best in the country in most of the seasons he's coached.

It'd be hard to blame him for new quarterback Will Gardner and his offensive line's struggles, though.

Gardner, a redshirt sophomore, finished with solid numbers — 20 of 28 passing, 208 yards, two touchdowns — but he still his shaky moments. He twice lost fumbles inside Louisville's own 20-yard line.

The offense gave up four sacks and eight tackles for loss, with several different plays blowing up at the snap.

Those issues, like the handful of special teams miscues, will be the focus on practice and film study in the coming days as Louisville prepares for Murray State on Saturday.

"He had a couple mistakes, not taking care of the football," Petrino said of Gardner. "You ask, 'Should we have let him get hit in practice?' He had three years without a hit ... He's going to learn from that. You talk about poise and competitive spirit."

They didn't undo Louisville on Monday.

Dominique Brown ran for 143 yards and a touchdown off 33 carries. His 15-yard scoring run in the third quarter gave U of L an eight-point cushion.

His nine rushes for 38 yards on Louisville's final drive, a 14-play, nearly eight-minute series, swept away Miami's chances of a comeback.

Corvin Lamb's 97-yard kickoff return for a touchdown gave Louisville a lead it wouldn't relinquish late in the second quarter.

Seniors Eli Rogers (five catches, 65 yards) and Gerald Christian (six catches, 59 yards, TD) were Gardner's most popular targets. Christian's touchdown catch on that clock-killing, fourth-quarter drive made it 31-13 in favor of Louisville.

And in a most fitting end to the game, Gerod Holliman snapped up the second interception of the night.

Reach U of L beat writer Jeff Greer at (502) 582-4044 and follow him on Twitter @jeffgreer_cj.