BOZICH | 3 reasons to be excited for Louisville football from Athlon Sports Yearbook | Sports

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The swimming pools just opened. The NBA Finals are two days away. The NCAA Baseball Regionals are (over)booked for the weekend.

But it's never the wrong time to fuss about college football, right?

Right.

Especially when the first college football preseason yearbook hit the newsstand and is packed with encouraging tidbits about the University of Louisville football program.

Athlon Sports Yearbooks decided there was no reason to wait until June to preview a sport that starts serious blocking and tackling in early September.

Athlon provided (at least) three reasons to be excited about Louisville football:

1. Jeff Brohm Earns an A+

According to Athlon, 24 FBS coaching jobs turned over after last season. The Athlon editors hung letter grades on each hire.

Four guys earned an A+. One earned as low as a D.

The four guys at the top of the list (in order) were:

Luke Fickell, who jumped to Wisconsin from Cincinnati
Brohm, who bolted Purdue to come home to Louisville.
Deion Sanders, who left Jackson State to create a buzz at Colorado.
Jamey Chadwell, who will try to prove that he can win at Liberty after winning at Coastal Carolina.

Fickell deserved his spot atop the board. He took Cincinnati to the College Football Playoff and prepared multiple guys, including former St. Xavier High School quarterback Desmond Ridder, for the NFL.

Ranking second on the list is more like being 1B to Fickell's 1A.

And, because, I know you're wondering, I'll ask the follow-up question:

Where did former U of L coach Scott Satterfield land on Athlon's list, considering he faces the difficult task of replacing Fickell at UC?

Athlon put Satterfield 18th, grading him a C+ hire, as he also takes the Bearcats into the Big 12. (He'll debut against Eastern Kentucky on Sept. 2.)

One thing more: Former NFL quarterback Trent Dilfer finished last (24th) with a D, primarily because he took over at UAB with no college coaching experience.

2. Cards Crack The Top 40

Regime changes in college football typically signal the start of a rebuilding process that will require several seasons. Brohm and his staff have hot-wired their work in the transfer portal, bringing in at least 23 guys with college football playing experience — and they're likely not finished.

Last week, the analysts at on3.com bumped Louisville's transfer portal haul ahead of Colorado as the top group of newcomers in the sport.

Athlon's belief in Brohm and what it expects from the Cardinals is considerable. It ranked Louisville 40th in the nation and seventh in the Atlantic Coast Conference for the 2023 season, which Louisville will begin against Georgia Tech at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta Sept. 1.

At 40, Louisville sits ahead of Maryland, Baylor, Oklahoma State, North Carolina State, Wake Forest, Florida, Michigan State and several other programs generally considered to have an advantage.

For the record, Athlon ranked Louisville ahead of the first five teams on its schedule — Georgia Tech (No. 67); Murray State (FCS); Indiana (No. 81); Boston College (No. 80); and N. C. State (No. 46).

If the season develops as forecast (as they never do), Louisville would be 5-0 as it welcomes Notre Dame to L&N Federal Credit Union Stadium Oct. 7.

Hmmmm. The Irish are No. 14 in Athlon's preseason rankings.

3. What About The ACC?

The folks at Athlon had a difficult time sorting the teams in the pile behind the assumed ACC frontrunners: Florida State (picked to win the league with former Card Jordan Travis at quarterback) and Clemson (which will break in five-star QB Cade Klubnik).

How difficult?

Louisville was one of five teams forecast to finish 5-3 in ACC play.

Remember that the Atlantic and Coastal divisions are gone. It's one 14-team league with the top two finishers advancing to the ACC title game in Charlotte.

This is five-team pack that includes the Cards: North Carolina State, Miami, Duke and Pittsburgh.

Overall, this is how Athlon ranked the ACC's top 7 nationally — FSU (No. 7); Clemson (No. 12); UNC (No. 25); Miami (No. 30); Duke (No. 35); Pitt (No. 36) and Louisville 40th.

Louisville will play three of the six teams ranked ahead of the Cards — Miami, Duke and Pitt.

For the first time since Louisville joined the league, the Cardinals will not play Clemson or Florida State.

As for individual players, here are the Cardinals Athlon recognized:

First Team All-ACC