LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Nothing about the Louisville football schedule so far has really gone by ideal design. The Cardinals were supposed to play Indiana in Week 2, which would get them ready for the start of ACC play in Week 3.
Seems sensible.
Then Indiana bought out of the final two games of a three-game series with Louisville, and the Cardinals, needing to keep the home game but not being willing to commit to more non-conference road games than it already has, wound up having to fill the slot in this season's schedule with another "buy" game against Jacksonville State.
The Cardinals, ranked No. 19 in the latest Associated Press poll, also got an early bye week from the ACC — all of which means that they're heading into their conference opener Saturday without having faced a Power 4 opponent and coming off an early bye week, which coach Jeff Brohm said he's not particularly a fan of.
"We have two bye weeks this year, which I don't love, but they're there, so we try and get our guys fresh and healthy, which we did," Brohm said. "It's important that they know that we have an important stretch of games coming up that we have to be ready for. We have to continue to progress to reach our ultimate goal, and you've got to be sharp each week."
Louisville may be fresh, but the worry is the Cards might also be a bit green. Georgia Tech, meanwhile, will be playing its fifth game, and third in the ACC, having upset Florida State in the college football opener in Ireland before beating Georgia State and falling 31-28 at Syracuse last weekend.
When the teams met in Atlanta in last season's opener, Georgia Tech led 28-13 at the half. The teams have met three times, with Tech winning twice, including a 66-31 win in Louisville in 2018.
"They're battle-tested, without question," Brohm said. "They've proven that they can play some good football, so I give the credit where credit is due. They've done a really good job. The one game they lost, they lost by three points, on the road, against a good opponent. So this is a good football team and you can tell by watching on video, looking at their win-loss record, they've got good players, they've got some veterans.
The Yellow Jackets are led by a solid quarterback in Haynes King, who is fifth in the nation in completion percentage at 76.4% and averages 6.3 yards per carry when he takes off with it.
"They have a veteran quarterback. It starts there," Brohm said. "He's very efficient in what he does and he can run the football, so that gives them a lot of options, and they utilize that with a lot of misdirections. . . . We were not great at stopping the quarterback in the run game in the first half last week. We made some adjustments and I thought we did a better job in the second half. When you have that extra blocker and he's a threat to run the ball, you've got to account for him. . . . They also like to get on the perimeter with some quick screens and quick throws to the flat. That means you have to defend the width of the field and be good in your perimeter defense against this team. In my opinion that's where college football has gone. You have to be able to defend the perimeter against good offenses and not allow them to get outside, make them run the ball up the middle which this team will. This is a good counter-team and they run the ball at you as well. The perimeter is where a lot of big plays happen, though, so we have to be better at containing that."
Louisville has put up big numbers of its own in two games. They rank third in the nation at 55 points per game. They are coming off back-to-back games with more than 500 yards of offense for the first time since 2021. Louisville is ninth in the nation in rushing offense and its average of 8.22 yards per carry is second in the nation. Quarterback Tyler Shough has yet to play much more than a single half in a game, yet still ranks No. 18 in passing yards per game (290.5) and is eighth in the nation in passing efficiency.
Still, Brohm has told his team, conference game will be a different animal.
"I told our team the other day, 'this is starting a long run of games where it's going to be four quarters of back-and-forth, and if you're not mentally and physically ready to get that done, you're not going to win,'" he said. "So, we've got to be able to withstand the momentum swings and hang in there and continue to fight to the end and hope that we're good enough to win."
Brohm said he's been happy with Shough's play so far, but like the entire team, he has more to prove against the upcoming competition.
"He's done a great job so far without question," Brohm said. "He's been very efficient. He can throw the ball and he's practiced well since he's been here so I think he understands what we're doing and how to do it. Now we're going to face some really good football teams that are going to challenge him more and he'll have to be good in his decision making. Not turning the ball over, not taking sacks and not creating negative plays and still being able to stand in there and make throws with people coming at him. I think he can do that, but every week is a chance to prove yourself. Whether you're 2-0 or 0-2, you've got to prove yourself next week and he'll have plenty of tests coming up in the near future, starting with this one where he's got to perform well for us to win."
Kickoff Saturday is at 3:30 p.m. in L&N Stadium. The game will be broadcast by ESPN2.
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