Okay, this story’s premise just made no frickin’ sense to me.

Louisville’s high-powered passing game generates a lot of buzz by producing a lot of points. But that doesn’t mean Pitt’s defense will overlook tailback Michael Bush when the teams clash Thursday night.

“He doesn’t fly underneath my radar, not with 800-some yards on the season,” Panthers defensive coordinator Paul Rhoads said.

“The tailback position is averaging 200 yards a game, and he leads them with 116. He’s big, he’s fast, he runs over you. Even if they’re passing for over 300 (yards), you’d better be able to control that run game if you’re going to have a chance.”

Bush, a junior, is the Big East’s leading rusher in his first season as a starter. In fact, he was not even a full-time tailback until last year.

“He’s still kind of learning the position,” Louisville quarterback Brian Brohm said. “He’s such a great athlete; he can do just about anything.”

Are you kidding me about even pretending to overlook Mike Bush? The guy is the leading rusher in the BE (#12 in the country) and averages 5.5 yards/carry. He and USF RB Andre Hall are the only non-QBs on the BE leader board in terms of total offense. He has a total of 999 yards running and receiving in 7 games, or 142.7 yards/game in offense (#23 in the country). And you even want to pretend Pitt would be overlooking Bush? Sorry, that is just a dumb premise for a story on how good Bush is.

This article, though, looks at how Louisville Coach Petrino landed both local products Mike Bush and QB Brian Brohm. It mainly ends up focusing on how Petrino somehow managed to keep Bush — who came to Louisville to play QB — from transferring once Brohm signed and converted him to Running Back.

Louisville is playing for more than just pride, given their BCS dreams are dead. They want a shot at playing in a real bowl.

“We could go to the Gator Bowl and play an ACC team,” tailback Michael Bush said. “To me, that’s a step above the Liberty Bowl.”

For Pitt, it is confirmed that DT Thomas Smith is out for the game and Freshman Rashaad Duncan will get his first start.

Naturally, despite being a nearly 21 point underdog on the road, Coach Wannstedt likes the team’s chances.

But Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt said yesterday that the Panthers are confident and he can tell by their approach this week that they believe they can win the game.

“We’ve had a good week of practice,” Wannstedt said. “I think as a head coach you tell them what it is going to take to win and then I think you stand back. Then, as you stand back and watch them practice, you really get a feel for their mental focus, for how physical they are practicing and that gives you a good idea if the players believe or not.

“And, like I said, our practices have been good. We know that Louisville is a really good team, but we’ll show up and give it our best shot.”

The Louisville paper goes with the theme of Pitt trying to salvage this season from the high hopes to crushing reality.

The University of Pittsburgh football season has followed a script that will seem very familiar in these parts — huge preseason hype drowned by some disappointing losses, leaving the team in salvage mode.
…
Linebacker H.B. Blades is coming off an 11-tackle performance against Syracuse, and that’s his average per game, leading all Big East defenders. The Panthers have the top-ranked red-zone defense in the conference, allowing just 10 touchdowns in 22 opponent chances inside their 20. They’re also allowing opponents to convert just 28 percent of their third downs. U of L’s opponents have converted on 41.3 percent of their third downs.

“They’re big and physical on defense,” Petrino said. “They have two 300-pounders inside that are hard to move around. They’ve got a really good middle linebacker and have been playing very good defense. Offensively, you’ve got to contend with Palko, who not only can throw the ball downfield but also can run. So we’ve got a lot of preparation ahead of us. Both teams will come in ready to play. They certainly have to feel they’re right in contention at 3-1 for the conference championship, and we want to win at home.”

Pitt’s players, who know something about turning slow starts into big finishes, said the early season was less about losing than learning.

Palko likened the early games this season to “being a rookie again,” but promised, “I’m starting to settle in. It won’t be long before that guy you remember from last year is back.”

Pitt will need that guy.