This has been a season of first for the Louisville Football program. They played their first game with a new coach, they had their first ACC home game, and this weekend they will play their first ACC road game. This team has shown us they can win a big ACC home game and they have also shown us great maturity by executing and maintaining their focus while playing a game where they are overwhelming favorites. This weekend our Cards will have to show us and the ACC conference that they are ready to handle a hostile crowd on the road and get a win.
Miami has a solid team, but playing on the road against a solid Virginia team might be the Cardinals biggest test early on in the season. These teams have met two times on the gridiron with the series tied at 1-1. Virginia won the last meeting 16-15 back in 1989. Our Cardinals will take an eight game winning streak to Charlottesville on Saturday winning their last 16 of 17. While the Cavaliers just ended a 10 game losing streak by beating Richmond last weekend.
The Cardinals defense will be big in this game as is the case most of the time on the road. Lorenzo Mauldin, Keith Kelsey, James Burgess, James Sample and company will face a Virginia offense that hasn’t looked great in the first two weeks of the season. They were out gained in total yardage last weekend against Richmond 422-330. Their offense has produced 227 yards rushing with 3 touchdowns, and 439 yards receiving with 4 touchdowns. They are ranked 97th in the country in total offense.
Kelsey, Burgess, and Sample all have a team-high nine tackles this season and they are a big reason why UL is No. 6 nationally in run defense and 19th in total defense.
Their top offensive guys appear to be their two QB’s Greyson Lambert who has completed 29 of 38 passes for 214 yards and 1 touchdown and Matt Johns who has completed 17 of 29 passes for 219 yards and 3 touchdowns. WR Darius Jennings who has caught 7 balls for 118 yards and 1 touchdown, and RB Kevin Parks who has rushed 30 times for 107 yards and a touchdown. In order for the Cavaliers to even have a shot in this game this group will have to control the ball and the clock to keep the Louisville offense off the field. They currently rank 50th in the country in time of possession.
The Louisville offense has shown that they have a good mix of young and experienced players. Will Gardner has done a great job managing the offense and has shown great execution, Dom Brown has been incredible proving that he can be the go to guy with a game on the line. While our young guys Reggie Bonnafon and LJ Scott have shown they are ready when needed. The Cardinals offense ranked 45th in the country also has a pretty solid group at the WR spot.
This group will face a pretty good Virginia defense. The Cavaliers have forced 9 turnovers in the first two games and gave up less than 170 yards rushing. The have got some very good defensive ends in Eli Harold and Max Valles who love to come off the edge to create havoc. And their linebacker duo of Daquan Romero and Henry Coley are some of the best in the ACC. They lead the team with with 20 and 22 tackles, respectively. The Cavaliers had five sacks against UCLA and four versus Richmond.
This game will be the biggest challenge yet for our Cardinals but as good as this Virginia defense appears to be early on they’ll be no match in the end for a very methodical Louisville offense. Coach Petrino will find a way to crack their defensive Game Plan. And this Louisville defense gets better every week. They will get it done against a struggling Cavalier offense. A lot of folks have this game circled as a upset watch. I just don’t see it.
The Beak Prediction:
Louisville 31 Virginia 14