Stock up, stock down for Louisville football after Indiana State

Stock up – Malik Cunningham

There was quite a bit of buzz surrounding redshirt freshman quarterback Malik Cunningham after the Louisville spring game due to his ability to make plays both his arm and his legs, similar to former Heisman Trophy winner Lamar Jackson. Going 14-of-18 for 117 yards and a touchdown, while running for another 62 yards on 10 carries, Cunningham showed enough skill to one day be the QB at Louisville.

However, that one day wasn’t expected to be this season as Jawon “Puma” Pass had waited in the wings, behind Lamar Jackson, for two years at Louisville and was essentially declared the day one starter the moment Jackson left for the NFL. After a strong week one showing against the nations top team, it wasn’t even a possibility that just days later Pass might be benched. Then Saturday night happened.

Now keep in mind that three different rain delays messed with the rhythm and most importantly the game plan, but Pass struggled mightily against the Sycamores. Pass started out the game throwing an interception, which led to Indiana State going up 7-0, and then proceeded to go 8-14 for just 89 yards.

After one drive in the 3rd quarter, Petrino pulled the plug (we’d later find out it was also injury related) and Malik Cunningham got the chance to shine. That’s exactly what he did.

Cunningham led the Cards to four straight scoring drives, extending the score to 31-7 and putting the game out of reach, doing so on several Lamar Jackson-like runs and a couple of nice throws to receivers. He finished the game with 76 yards passing and one touchdown and 54 yards rushing and another score.

No one, not even Bobby Petrino, thought that Cunningham seeing significant action in a close game would be a possibility but now that it’s happened there’s an even bigger question to answer. Is there in fact a QB controversy now? No one was more supportive of Cunningham than Puma Pass, and even Cunningham admitted the job is Puma’s. However, they don’t make the final decision.

Yesterday during his weekly press conference Bobby Petrino was non committal on who he would start, saying it depended on how practice went and Puma’s health. So now we wait until Saturday to see who the starting QB will be against Western. If Cunningham gets the call, Louisville will have a completely different feel offensively against the Tops.

Stock up – Jeremy Smith

Just three weeks ago Jeremy Smith wasn’t even on the Louisville football roster. Now, he very well could be on his way to earning the full time starting job at the running back position.

Against ISU Smith brought much needed power as he carried the ball 6 times for 53 yards after Louisville struggled to really move the ball at all with Colin Wilson, Dae Williams, and Hassan Hall getting their opportunities.

When Louisville announced that Smith would be returning to the program for his final season of eligibility just a few weeks ago no one knew what to expect. Smith was really good for the Cards back in 2016-17, but struggled mightily to hang on to the football last season before his injury.

Saturday Smith’s performance reminded people more of 2016-17, as he used his size to dominant the defensive line and linebackers of Indiana State. Though it was against far inferior talent, Smith showed he deserves a chance to battle for the “lead dog” spot in the backfield.

We’ll get a better idea of that will be the case this weekend, but there’s no doubt that #34 proved how valuable he can be this season to Bobby Petrino’s offense.