Revamped defense gives Louisville hope against Jameis Winston, Florida State

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – In the Louisville football weight room last Friday, video screens flashed picture after picture of Florida State’s best players, over and over, in an endless loop. Just in case the Cardinals had forgotten who was coming to town Thursday.

The coaches needed no video bombardment reminder. A Florida State gameplan binder sat open on Todd Grantham’s desk, and Jameis Winston was on the defensive coordinator’s mind.

“Their quarterback is as good as I’ve seen in the five years I’ve been back in college ball,” said Grantham, who coached in the NFL from 1999-2009, and before that from 1990-98 at Virginia Tech and Michigan State.

Grantham’s defense might also be the best Jameis Winston will face as a college quarterback.

That is certainly the case statistically: Louisville ranks first nationally in total defense, surrendering 245.8 yards per game; first in rushing defense at 68.8 yards per game; second in interceptions with 15; second in yards per play at 3.91; second in pass-efficiency defense; fourth in scoring defense at 14.6 points per game; tied for fifth in sacks per game (3.5); 10th in passing yards allowed at 177 per game; and tied for 12th in total takeaways with 18.

The fact that the Cardinals even had a defense was deemed inconsequential coming into this season. When prodigal coach Bobby Petrino came back to Louisville last January, the fan base greeted him with open arms because of the belief he would put points on the board at the same spectacular rate as when he was the head coach from 2003-06. And that was the storyline throughout the next nine months – wait until Petrino lights up the Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium scoreboard again.

But the reality is this: Louisville is 6-2 – and 10 points shy of 8-0 – because of defense. While Petrino has been waiting out the return to health of star wide receiver DeVante Parker and running back Michael Dyer; while he’s been trying to camouflage weaknesses in the offensive line; while he’s been juggling inexperienced quarterbacks in search of a hot hand – Grantham’s unit has been a rock of consistency.

From the fourth quarter at Virginia on Sept. 13 through the final gun at Clemson on Oct. 11, Louisville did not allow an offensive touchdown – a span of 17 quarters.

“That’s a hard thing to do in modern college football,” Grantham said. “With the number of snaps, the rules, the spread offenses, it’s hard to stop teams. Our guys took a lot of pride in that.”

That streak finally ended Oct. 18 against North Carolina State, but by then the identity of the Cardinals was well established. Even a Petrino team could be defined by defense.

Fact is, that was the best part of the 2013 Cardinals as well – even with Teddy Bridgewater at quarterback. Head coach Charlie Strong and coordinator Vance Bedford built a defensive unit that ranked in the national top five in seven major statistical categories, and led the country in total defense (251.5 yards per game) and rushing defense (80.7 yards per game).

But the Louisville defense lost seven starters from 2013, including six of its top eight tacklers. The departed included a pair of first-round draft picks in safety Calvin Pryor and defensive end Marcus Smith. And the competition was taking a steep step up from the American Athletic Conference to the Atlantic Coast Conference.

In other words, it looked like a major rebuild.

Enter Grantham. Somewhat surprisingly.

Coaches don’t often leave the upper echelon of the Southeastern Conference for another college job. But the critics were barking at Grantham after his fourth year at Georgia, and Louisville made a boffo offer.

Part of the money athletic director Tom Jurich saved in hiring damaged-goods Petrino at a relative bargain salary went toward making a huge defensive coordinator commitment. Grantham got a five-year contract – virtually unheard-of for a coordinator – at $1 million a year. Along with that came wide latitude to do his job as he saw fit.

Petrino is pretty much from the Spurrier school: I coach the offense, you deal with the defense. So Grantham is halfway a head coach, with a hand-picked staff that includes his younger brother, Tony, as linebackers coach.

“When Bobby was here before, he won,” Grantham said. “He’s a proven head coach, so you know you’re going to win here. He won enough to get the Atlanta Falcons job, and he won at Arkansas. And the athletic director here is as good as any in the country – he’s going to give you what you need to do your job. Moving into the ACC, you’re given a platform to play for the national championship. I think you can win an ACC championship here, which will allow you to compete for a national title. The culmination of all that was exciting.”

So Grantham signed on. And by mid-August, SI.com was citing an anonymous source saying that he was feuding with Petrino. Both men denied that there was any rift.

“That was a left-field throw,” Grantham said with a laugh. “We hadn’t even played any games yet. I don’t know where that came from. [Petrino] is the one who actually told me about it, and I kind of laughed. You have to take it with a grain of salt. I did get a little chuckle out of it.”

Grantham will admit to no redemptive chuckles in response to the Georgia fans who wanted him gone after last year. After some very good years, his fourth Bulldogs defense was his worst by far – a young unit (nine of the top 22 were freshmen, he said) matched up against arguably the best offenses in SEC history.

Successor Jeremy Pruitt – who came from defending national champion Florida State – has done well with the group he inherited from Grantham at Georgia, so he’s not been actively missed between the hedges. But neither has Strong nor Bedford been missed as defensive coaches at Louisville.

Grantham installed a 3-4 defense that has freed star senior Lorenzo Mauldin to move from end and play outside linebacker like a poor man’s Von Miller (his 11.5 tackles for loss is tied for sixth nationally). Safety Gerod Holliman, who did not start last year, leads the nation in interceptions with eight. Middle linebacker Keith Kelsey, another first-year starter, leads the team in tackles with 51, followed by August safety signee James Sample with 47.

Most of all, the Louisville defense runs and hits. And when it hits, offensive players go down.

“They can make a three-yard gain stay a three-yard gain,” Grantham said. “You’re taking the air out of a play, as opposed to allowing a double-digit [yardage] play.”

The biggest challenge yet arrives Thursday, in the person of Jameis Winston and the defending national champion Seminoles. But they’ll be challenged as well by a Louisville team that few expected to be led by its defense.