Utah Utes football: Unhappy homecoming for Cards' coaches

On the field, it wasn't the happiest of homecomings for Louisville coach Steve Kragthorpe and defensive coordinator Brent Guy.

Kragthorpe, who lived in Utah when he was a kid while his father was an assistant coach at BYU, saw his Cardinals lose fairly convincingly to the Utes, 30-14, on Saturday night. Guy, who was fired as Utah State's coach at the end of the 2008 season, saw his defense allow 416 yards and force just one turnover in the team's defeat.

But away from the field, the two coaches were able to catch up with family members while they were in town. Kragthorpe said he was only able to get away from football for a short time.

"I saw my mom and dad, got to see my brother (Kurt)," said Kragthorpe, who was in Utah's football stadium for the first time since 1978 this week. "But no, shoot, not really. It's all football. That's the hard part about these trips. You come, get here and stay for 24 hours and you leave. It's definitely a business trip."

Guy, meanwhile, was able to see his wife and daughter. He said things are going well in his new job at Louisville.

"It's been an easy move for us," Guy said. "My daughter graduated (high school) and she's in Arizona. My son is in junior high. Now we just got to win football games like always."

In that regard, the Cardinals showed both some positive aspects to build on and some things they need to work on in their loss to the Utes.

Louisville got off to a great start, as its defense earned a three-and-out and the team's offense drove down the field fairly easily on its opening possession against the Utes. The Cardinals then stalled at Utah's 8-yard line and had a field goal blocked.

It was an uphill climb from there.

The Cardinals quickly fell behind 14-0, trailed 20-0 at halftime and never really threatened the Utes until making the score 23-14 with 8:51 remaining in the game. Louisville made it a nine-point game on a lucky play when a pass from quarterback Justin Burke ricocheted off receiver Scott Long and into the hands of Cameron Graham, who then scored a 16-yard touchdown.

Louisville was mostly upbeat after Saturday's loss, as hardly anyone expected the Cardinals to defeat the Utes. Louisville moved the ball well at times and recorded a key turnover on defense when safety Chaz Thompson intercepted a pass in the third quarter. But penalties and three turnovers really doomed the Cardinals against the Utes.

"We had a good game plan," Burke said. "I thought we did a good job at times exploiting what they do. We just have to make sure we can focus every play and finish drives and not kill ourselves like we did tonight."

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