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Louisville trounces Murray State in Kragthorpe's debut

Aug 31, 2007 - 5:12 AM LOUISVILLE, Kentucky (Ticker) -- Brian Brohm made Steve Kragthorpe's Louisville debut a laugher.

Brohm passed for 375 yards and four touchdowns as the 10th-ranked Cardinals erupted for a 73-10 rout of Murray State on Thursday night.

Louisville went 12-1 under coach Bobby Petrino last season, winning the Big East Conference and then defeating Wake Forest in the Orange Bowl.

But Petrino was hired by the NFL's Atlanta Falcons days later, and the Cardinals turned to Kragthorpe, who had guided Tulsa to three bowl games in four campaigns.

The high-powered Cardinals clearly have no plans of slowing down under the 42-year-old Kragthorpe, as Brohm engineered an offensive attack which posted Louisville's fourth-highest all-time scoring total.

"We had a few mistakes that we'll need to take care of to be the team we want to be," Kragthorpe said. "But it was a great effort tonight and a great job by our team."

Brohm, who was convinced by Kragthorpe to spurn the NFL and return for his senior season, completed 16-of-21 attempts. His favorite target was fellow senior Harry Douglas, who hauled in five receptions for 151 yards and two scores.

"I thought we executed well on offense," Brohm said. "We still have a lot of things to work on for improvement. I always expect big things from Harry. He did a great job today."

"A lot of people thought we would have a drop off with a new coach," Douglas added. "We just wanted to come out here and show everybody what we could do and get better as a football team. We just picked up where we left off last year."

Tight end Gary Barnidge, a 6-6 senior, chipped in 46 yards and two TDs on four receptions for Louisville (1-0), which improved to 11-6 all-time against Murray State.

Despite the offensive explosion and the ridiculous numbers, Brohm admitted that the blowout victory was not an accurate indication of Louisville's capabilities.

"It's hard to tell as of right now, but when we go back and watch some film we will see some things we need to improve," Brohm said. "A lot of those guys did a good job. We really didn't show a lot of our offensive package today."

Brohm gave Louisville the lead right away, finding Douglas for a 44-yard scoring strike with 13:17 left in the opening quarter.

"I knew it was a play that I could score on," Douglas said. "One thing that I worked on during the offseason was catching the ball and scoring instead of catching the ball and falling down."

Murray State forged a 7-7 tie five minutes later on Jeff Ehrhardt's six-yard TD pass to Derrick Townsell, but the Cardinals rolled from there, scoring three more touchdowns in the quarter.

Anthony Allen gave Louisville the lead for good with a nine-yard TD run with 5:06 left in the quarter, and Brohm found Barnidge for a 12-yard scoring strike two minutes later to make it 21-7.

George Stripling rushed for 92 yards on 14 carries while Sergio Spencer chipped in 61 yards and two scores on just six carries for the Cardinals, who amassed 654 yards of total offense.

"We were able to get a lot of guys in the game," Kragthorpe said. "We got the entire second-team offensive line in the game, and it's really good to see those guys play."

Ehrhardt had a rough day after his first-quarter TD pass and finished 12-of-20 for just 87 yards. Paul McKinnis rushed for 72 yards on nine carries for the Racers (0-1), a member of the Football Championship Subdivision - formerly Division I-AA.

"You've got to give credit where credit is due," Murray State coach Matt Griffin said. "Offensively we came in this game with a plan - that's get the ball away quick. I think Jeff did a nice job doing that."