Louisville presents a big football challenge

This is a team picked among the top-20 nationally and as the favorite to win Conference USA.

This is a team that defeated Florida State just a couple weeks ago.

This is a team the Horned Frogs need to beat to gain national credibility and an edge on the C-USA crown.

Louisville may have two losses, but they came by a total of eight points to very underrated Kentucky and Colorado State teams. Also, the Cardinals are undefeated in conference and remain the defending conference champs everyone is gunning for.

Louisville is led by their Heisman candidate quarterback Dave Ragone and their offense has been running on all cylinders the past couple games. Now it’s up to the Frog defense to knock Ragone and company off their perch.

Last year the Frogs soundly whipped a Louisville team that was ranked 17th nationally in Amon Carter Stadium. But this year the venue lies in Louisville with a hungry Cardinal team looking for revenge.

The Frogs may be 5-1, but the fact of the matter is they’ve played about as cupcake a schedule as one can get so far this season. In fact, some Division II schools have faced stiffer competition than the Frogs so far (not to fault the scheduling, most top teams always avoid TCU).

Senior receiver Adrian Madise said the team can’t get overconfident based on its record.

“Sometimes we might feel like we’re just a little better than we actually are. That’s where coach (Gary) Patterson comes in and makes sure we know that although we’re 5-1, we’re 2-1 in conference,” Madise said. “That’s what really matters. The non-conference games are fine, but we really want to win Conference USA. Louisville is the next step.”

So, this game will finally show fans, coaches and players alike what this team is really made of. Are they content to just beat up on teams beneath them or will they go into a quality team’s home and steal a victory?

Senior linebacker LaMarcus McDonald said he thinks the team is peaking at the right time.

“The mood of the team is at a high point,” McDonald said. “We’re all happy and we’re ready to go. We’re ready to stop all the talking and go into action.”

So maybe that’s what I should do: stop all this talk and let’s just see what this team can really do.

Jordan Blum is a senior broadcast journalism major from New Orleans. He can be reached at (j.d.blum@tcu.edu).