LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB — Crank up your imagination with this University of Louisville football team. Stretch your horizons. Free your mind.
When you crackle through No. 10 Notre Dame, 33-20, and bump your record to 6-0, it’s officially time to think bigger about this undaunted group than anybody was thinking about the Cardinals in August.
"I feel like the statement we made tonight is that we can compete with anybody," Louisville linebacker T.J. Quinn said.
How far can Louisville stretch this dazzling winning streak?
How high can the No. 25 Cardinals climb in the polls? They have to be near the Top 15 on Sunday, right? How likely are they to play for the Atlantic Coast Conference championship?
How many more times will Jack Harlow, Peyton Siva and other Louisville fans storm the field?
"Once you win a game like this, the bar goes from here to up here," Cards' coach Jeff Brohm said, raising his hand a foot over his head.
Like I said, use your imagination with Brohm’s first Cardinals’ team. This is indeed a gritty group firmly positioned to outperform expectations, which now that I think about, were to finish in 8th place in the ACC, according to the folks who voted in the league’s official preseason media poll.
Oops. I believe this Brohm guy knows what he’s doing. He's even adding to the script. Pass, pass, pass was supposed to be the Brohm Way. Well, this team can pass but the Cardinals are also winning with a strong running game as well as a solid defense.
The Cards punished Notre Dame worse than they punished Indiana. The last team to beat Notre Dame by more than 13 points was Alabama in the 2020 college football playoff semifinals.
"It's a great day to be a Cardinal," Brohm said. "Our fans were the 12th man. We felt it. We felt it all week ... when you take the field and see all the seats filled, it's a great feeling."
Notre Dame had won 30 straight regular-season games against Atlantic Coast Conference competition — and that’s a list that includes Clemson and North Carolina. After the game, the Irish were in such a hurry to get back to South Bend that they left a stack of food from Zaxby's, Bojangles and Torchy's Tacos on a table outside their locker room. (Yes, they ordered food from 3 places.)
Until Saturday, Ohio State handed this Notre Dame team its only defeat, but not until the final seconds. Notre Dame only had 10 players on the field for the final 2 Ohio State offensive plays.
Louisville had a record crowd of 59,081 celebrating wildly with a 10-point lead early in the fourth quarter. In the second half, it looked like Notre Dame was playing 10 against 13.
The 10-point lead came on a 21-yard touchdown sprint by halfback Jawhar Jordan, who looked like the best back in the Atlantic Coast Conference again.
Jordan was superb, quick to the hole, powerful between the tackles, elusive in the secondary. He ran for 143 yards and two touchdowns. Nobody from Ohio State, Duke or anybody on the Notre Dame schedule has run for more against the Irish this season.
"It was electric when everybody stormed the field," Jordan said.
"We ran the football against a solid defense," Brohm said. "When we get a lead, it allows our defensive line to tee off."
The Cards started the game like a team that wanted to play to the moment. On their first possession after intercepting a Sam Hartman pass, Louisville went 70 yards in 12 crisp plays. The final 9 yards came on a scoring pass from Jack Plummer, who found Jamari Thrash alone in the right corner of the end zone.
For more than a quarter that looked like a lead Louisville would carry into halftime. The Cards limited Notre Dame to 47 yards on its first 3 possessions.
The Irish tied it midway through the second quarter. Freshman receiver Jordan Faison beat U of L cornerback Jarvis Brownlee for a 36-yard touchdown catch.
The Cards won this game even though they made a mistake here or there.
They fumbled the ball way on their first snap of the second half. They pushed a 42-yard field goal right of the goal posts in the second quarter. They lined up off sides on a fourth-down punt to extend a Notre Dame possession. They allowed Notre Dame to recover an on-side kick in the final 92 seconds.
But Plummer, Jordan and the defense carried Louisville to the finish line. Plummer completed 17 of 24 passes for 145 yards. He had one touchdown pass. He had no interceptions. Hartman completed 22 of 38 for 254 with 2 touchdowns but 3 awful interceptions. In six career games against Louisville, Hartman turned the ball over 13 times.
Make a note of this: They were the first three interceptions Hartman has thrown in a half-dozen games this season.
"Jack was confident," Brohm said. "He made good decisions. He took care of the football.:
Louisville returns to Atlantic Coast Conference play next Saturday at 6:30 p.m. in a visit to Pittsburgh. The Panthers, who were off this weekend, have lost four straight.
At 3-0 in the league, with a pair of road victories, Louisville sits in a first-place tie with Florida State. The Cards, remember, do not play Florida State, Clemson or North Carolina.
Pitt won its season opener against Wofford but lost is last four to Cincinnati, West Virginia, North Carolina and Virginia Tech by an average of nearly 13 points.
Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi will reportedly change quarterbacks, replacing Phil Jurkovec with Christian Veillux. A native of Canada, Veillux has completed 12 of 27 passes with 2 interceptions and one touchdowns as Jurkovec’s back-up this season.
Louisville will be favored. Just like they'll be favored when they play 3 straight home games against Duke, Virginia Tech and Virginia.
So crank up your imagination. You're going to need it. This season is going places it was not supposed to go.
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