CRAWFORD | Louisville found its fight at Pitt, but faces a sharper test in No. 24 Virginia | U of L Sports

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- It hasn't been too long since a certain Louisville basketball coach spent two years talking about how his players didn't have enough "fight."

In Pittsburgh on Saturday, Jeff Brohm's third Louisville team made many errors of execution — but once it got its uniforms dirty, it had no lack of fight.

That's good news for the Cardinals. This week, they will welcome a supremely confident Virginia team that knocked off No. 8 Florida State on Friday night. The Cavaliers earned a No. 24 national ranking this week — their highest since 2019 — and rank No. 5 in the nation in total offense.

Louisville has won three straight in the series but had to come from behind in the fourth quarter in the last two.

All of which means, starting this week — first with Virginia, and then at No. 5 Miami — effort won't be enough. It will take execution. The focus moves from survival to sustainability.

"You got to strap it up"

Those were the words of co-defensive coordinator Ron English, and he wasn't talking in metaphors. Virginia has size, is physical and plays downhill, especially in the run game.

"You got to strike somebody," English said. "Because they're going to run right over top of you if you don't — you better grab."

This won't be finesse-on-finesse. It will be four quarters of full contact.

Virginia's quarterback, Chandler Morris, is a play extender with both his feet and his arm. The offensive line, English said, is well-coached and handles movement. The Cavaliers are a team that knows exactly who they are and what they do best. That's not always the case in October.

They're also a program that has pushed Brohm-coached Louisville teams to the limit twice and must feel like they're knocking on the door.

Louisville's secondary saved the game with a key goal-line interception and won it with a couple of others. But before that, it fell prey to an old weakness 3 getting beat deep. It's one of many areas Brohm will look to shore up this week.

The laundry list

"There's a lot we've got to try to make sure we clean up," he said. "These penalties that we've been getting — especially 15 yarders on both sides of the ball — and we've got to make sure we're not getting as many holding calls as we've gotten. We've got to find ways to run the football. If that means being a little more creative in what we're doing, whatever we've got to do. I do think we can play better up front, and I think we can block better, and I think we've got to be able to react to movement up front and blitzes and people playing downhill a little bit better. And defensively, I knew we would be tested with some big pass plays over our head. Really in man-to-man coverage, we've got to do a good job of staying on top."

It's a pretty good laundry list. But at least it doesn't include "instill competitive spirit."

That part seems hardwired.

"That is the strength of our team," Brohm said. "We're going to have to show that every week. You've got to compete. You've got to stick together. You can't point fingers."

In a conference that's become a weekly coin flip — Brohm called it "parity across the board" — toughness and cohesion still matter. But so do clean pockets, open receivers, and avoided flags.

Louisville is still dealing with a banged-up running back room. But six weeks into the season, who isn't?

The job now is to sharpen what's working:

Defensive line pressure that's quietly disruptive.
Miller Moss' poise and performance in the second half at Pitt.
Chris Bell's ability to win one-on-ones.
Special teams that have made major contributions.

If the Cardinals can mix that grit they showed in Pittsburgh with fewer mistakes and a faster start — they'll give themselves a real shot.

"You have to communicate it, look each other in the eye, and let each other know that we're going to play this thing to the end," Brohm said. "Especially in conference games, we're just going to have to find a way. That's how football works."