Louisville coach Bobby Petrino shares his thoughts on the challenges of facing Alabama
By Keith Farner
Published:
Many people are interested in the Alabama quarterback situation and how it will be deployed by the Crimson Tide coaching staff. But Louisville coach Bobby Petrino and his staff are the ones who must figure out a way to stop Jalen Hurts and Tua Tagovailoa.
Petrino admitted recently that among the challenges in preparation is Tagovailoa only played one half of the national championship. So building a portfolio of defenses that work best against him is impossible at this point in his career. However, Hurts and Tagovailoa are similar in style, according to the coach.
“They both can run, and are both big, 220-pound guys that can run with big hips that are hard to tackle,” Petrino said, according to video posted by BamaInsider.com. “So the thing we have to do is get in position to make the tackles when they do run. And do a great job of form tackling and getting extra guys to the ball.”
Defensive coordinator Brian VanGorder is in his first season at Louisville, and he’s perhaps noted for his work at Georgia, he’s most recently been on staffs at Notre Dame and the Atlanta Falcons.
Petrino added that the quarterbacks themselves may be only one of a host of issues facing the Cardinals defense.
“They’re very sound on everything they do, protection, run game, their RPO game that they do,” Petrino said. “We’ve got to be able recognize splits and formation and tips and try to have an idea of what’s coming before the ball is snapped.”
Petrino is familiar with facing Alabama, but he went winless in four meetings as coach at Arkansas.
The meeting in Orlando is set to kick off at 8 p.m. ET on Saturday on ABC.
Louisville Head Coach Bobby Petrino on preparing for both Alabama quarterbacks pic.twitter.com/smAgsZ9x6g
— BamaInsider.com (@bamainsider) August 28, 2018
A former newspaper veteran, Keith Farner is a news manager for Saturday Down South.
