Louisville's 15 minutes of fame

By Mike Gibson
Lousiville was the No. 1 football team in the country last Saturday.
Huh?
Right now, you've got to be thinking, "No. 1? Isn't Louisville No. 13?"
And you'd be right.
Yet in the context of a casaul remark made on a huge stage, Louisville was No. 1 for a few minutes last week.
It was made in the middle of a busy day by ESPN college football studio analyst Mike Gottfried.
And it came about 15 minutes before star running back Michael Bush was injured in the big win over Kentucky enough to be out for the season.
"I think, right now, Louisville is my No. 1 team," Gottfried said.
Gottfried went on to explain his reasons, but Louisville fans had to be happy at being at least mentioned as a No. 1 in a marquee sport not named basketball.
And they were for at least a few hours in Gottfried's mind.
Whether they are No. 1 or No. 13, an elite team is coming into Philadelphia for a noon showdown with Al Golden's Temple Owls.
Most people don't think the Owls are ready, but that's why the games are played on the field and not in the newspapers or even through the eyes of ESPN color analysts.
Nobody is giving the Owls a chance and they might be right.
But football is played with a ball that takes some curious bounces at times and should quarterback Adam DiMichele be able to get the ball into the right Temple playmakers, Tim Brown, Mike Holley and some of the Owls' talented wide receivers in the kind of space where they can make plays, it could be interesting.
This much is known: In a week when Bush gets injured, the talk on the Louisville board is dominated by this response to a creative post from Temple fan MH55. As of midnight tonight, 36 Cardinal fans have responded to Mark's post, the most of any on that site's first page.
The defense will have to be even more physical than it was in Buffalo in order for the Owls to shock the world.
Or at least the part of it where Mike Gottfried lives.