Low 70’s, light breezes, and only a slight chance of a shower in Derby City tonight as the Louisville Cardinals host Connecticut.  Both teams are playing on a weeknight for the second straight week.

Louisville is favored by 3.5 (the total is 51) off a strong performance against Kansas State last week, where they outgained the Wildcats 577-343.  Following a 53-yard rushing performance in a dreadful home loss to Kentucky (their only other 1-A opponent), the Cards exploded for 303 yards on the ground against KSU.  While their offensive running game has been uneven, the defense held UK and KSU to a combined 93 rushing yards on 2.1 yards per carry.

Tough to tell if the ‘ville is ready to be consistent and offer another good performance, as they were 4-7 in their previous 11 games against 1-A opponents before the Kansas State game.   Maybe now that Steve Kragthorpe swept out a lot of bad guys left behind by Bobby Petrino, things are on the upswing for the Cardinals.  Or maybe it simply says more about Kansas State’s readiness last Wednesday night.

Connecticut was outgained by a Baylor 377-350, but managed to win the game 31-28.  But that’s nothing new, as the Huskies were outgained in four of their nine victories last year, and were outgained on the season despite that nifty 9-4 record.

One of those yardage loss/scoreboard win games came against these same Cardinals thanks to college football’s only fair catch punt return for a TD last season. That may provide a little motivation here, but it isn’t like UConn is such a monster program that they don’t get fired up every time they’re on TV themselves.

Is Louisville’s favoritism an overreaction to one game, especially considering the fact that UConn is 4-0 after a 9-4 season last year?  Maybe, but Randy Edsall’s team has a definite pointspread personality. Since the start of the 2005 season, UConn is 14-5 against the line at home, but the Huskies are only 4-11 to the pointspread on the road.

Enjoy the game tonight. Be sure to check out our news and notes on this weekend’s college and NFL football below.