Louisville Will Face First Big Test

Despite Louisville’s best start in eight years and a rare ranking in the Top 25, coach John L. Smith has yet to see what he wants in the Cardinals.

“I don’t think we’re very good,” Smith said Monday. “We haven’t proven we’re a Top 25 team.”

The Cardinals (3-0) are off to their best start since 1993, when they finished 9-3 and won the Liberty Bowl. But Smith has found something to criticize in each of Louisville’s three victories:

He criticized the defense after it gave up 544 yards in a 45-24 win over New Mexico State.

He lamented the team’s lack of discipline after it committed 14 penalties and gave up a punt return for a touchdown in a 36-10 win over Kentucky.

He chastised the defense again after Saturday’s 31-7 win over Western Carolina, in which the Cardinals were beaten by 12 minutes in time of possession and 19-18 in first downs.

“We haven’t been consistent for an entire game,” he said

Smith, however, said his team won’t get away with the same mistakes Saturday at Illinois, a game he calls Louisville’s first major test. He also said a victory would legitimize Louisville’s ranking, the first time they have been in The Associated Press Top 25 since a No. 22 spot in the final regular season poll last year.

“This is real competition for us. It’s time to step up and find out if we’re worth a darn,” Smith said.

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A Tennessee car salesman who allegedly delivered $20,000 to a former Alabama football recruit said Monday in Tuscaloosa, Ala., that he has no ties to the Crimson Tide and that the player’s father worked for him.

But Wendell Smith of Chattanooga, Tenn., declined to comment on details of news reports identifying him as the person accused by the NCAA of delivering cash from boosters to North Jackson High star Kenny Smith of Stevenson in 1995 and 1996.

Wendell Smith, who is unrelated to Kenny Smith, allegedly got at least half the $20,000 from Alabama booster Logan Young of Memphis.

A Stevenson businessman, R.D. Hicks, also told The Birmingham News he gave Wendell Smith money to help out the player but didn’t care where the prep star went to college.

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Texas A&M; wide receiver Bethel Johnson, who injured his spleen Thursday against Wyoming, will remain hospitalized the rest of this week and will be out indefinitely. Aggie Coach R.C. Slocum said they will move Richard Whitaker, the team’s starting tailback last season, to wide receiver, leaving his old position to redshirt freshman Keith Joseph ....Nebraska nose tackle Jason Lohr will miss the rest of the season after surgery on his right knee. Lohr, a 6-foot-2, 275-pound senior, was a second-year starter.

Texas wide receiver Montrell Flowers, who has two touchdown receptions this season, suffered a lacerated kidney against North Carolina and will be out indefinitely.