The Louisville Cardinals are heading into the 2013 season with national ambitions on various fronts, with the team looking like title contenders for the BCS and quarterback Teddy Bridgewater looking like a contender for the Heisman Trophy and after winning 49-7 to open the season against Ohio, those expectations are being realized.
The Cardinals pulled off a big upset last season by getting into the BCS through the Big East and defeating the Florida Gators to win the Sugar Bowl and now head coach Charlie Strong has the team as a top 10 contender, coming in ranked number 9 to start the year. The Cardinals aren't looked at as a national title favorite, that is reserved for teams like Alabama, LSU, Oregon and Stanford, but the team could actually be the biggest sleeper of them all, as they have the schedule to go undefeated.
The Cardinals best chance to make it into the BCS will be to go undefeated, as they have no top 25 teams on the schedule currently and the Big East is not looked at as a power conference like the SEC or even the Big Ten and Big 12. With players like Bridgewater and running back Michael Dyer as well as a number of returning starters, the team has the chance to go undefeated with their schedule and the hardest game on the calendar doesn't come until the final week of the year.
The team took care of Ohio easily and the next two games are against easy opponents in Kentucky and East Kentucky, while Florida International should not be scary at all. The Cardinals are much better than Temple and the first truly challenging game will come against Rutgers in October. After that the schedule isn't exactly easy, but it's not an SEC type schedule with teams like UCF, South Florida and Connecticut before plating home against Houston and Memphis. The final game against the Bearcats on the road could end up having national implications for the Cardinals.
Bridgewater opened the season with a very nice game of 355 yards passing and five touchdowns with just one interception, while Dyer finished with 48 yards and one touchdown rushing on the ground.