Louisville Football: Live stream, TV info and preview for Virginia

Louisville football will kick off their 2018 ACC slate on the road against Virginia. Here’s everything you need to know to watch and listen to the game.

It’s been a weird start to the season for Louisville football to say the least. The Cards have struggled mightily in several areas on the field since the season opener against Bama. Heading into week four against a quality team in Virginia, the season expectations for the Cards appear to be headed south.. At least for now.

Indiana State and Alabama were both toss out games for a variety of reasons, but the Cards performance last Saturday against a bad Western Kentucky team left many fans, including myself, wondering if this team is destined for a losing record. Puma Pass was supposed to be “the guy” especially after seeing him throw for 250+ yards in the season opener, the most given up by Alabama since the 2016 National Championship game.

But after a poor outing in the the rain against ISU, and then three passes against Western Kentucky, Bobby Petrino decided that he had seen enough and decided to hand the reins over to redshirt freshman dual-threat quarterback, Malik Cunningham.

Cunningham has played on 13 drives thus far through the 2018 season, scoring on eight of them – doing so on plenty of Lamar Jackson-esque plays. On Saturday we’ll get to see him at the QB position for a full game (or so we assume) for the first time this season.

Can Cunningham lead the Cards to victory? We’ll find out soon enough.

Louisville vs. Virginia

When: Saturday, September 22 – 12:30 PM EST

Where: Scott Stadium, Charlottesville, VA

Projected Forecast: 80°, 40% chance of rain, 5 mph winds (Weather Channel)

TV: Fox Sports South (FSS Affiliates)

Live Stream: WatchESPN.com

Radio: 840 WHAS – Paul Rogers, Alex Kupper, Jody Demling will be on the call

Game preview

Louisville is exactly where nearly every fan and national analyst thought they’d be going into week four of the season – 2-1. However, what no one expected was two back-to-back poor performances against Indiana State and Western Kentucky, and a new quarterback making his first start against a formidable ACC foe.

Could things be better? Sure, there’s a lot of areas where Louisville needs improvement – but we all know that and so do the 80+ scholarship players who will take the field in Charlottesville. I fully expect this team to come out and play inspired football, something we haven’t seen since the first two drives against Alabama. If they do, I believe they can easily pull out their fourth straight win against Virginia and improve to 3-1 heading into next week against FSU.

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It won’t be easy – let’s not get that confused. Virginia is an extremely talented offensive team with a lot of weapons that will really test the Louisville defense. Jordan Ellis, a dynamic running back who is currently ranked 10th in the nation in rushing, will present a lot of challenges to the Louisville font seven. He’s a guy who can run in between the tackles and outside, and get a lot of yards really quick. It’s not just Ellis Louisville will have to worry about running the football. Arizona State transfer, and new starting QB, Bryce Perkins, is an extremely talented dual threat QB who can rip off big gains in a heartbeat. Through three games Perkins has 239 yards and two touchdowns on the ground.

Louisville has already given up close to 600 yards on the ground through three games. Virginia will absolutely test the defense early on and if they establish the run – this game could get ugly, fast.

To me the most important factor for Louisville this weekend is getting off to a fast start. In both the Indiana State and Western Kentucky games, the Cards struggled to establish anything on the ground or through the air offensively, and allowed both teams to score points in their first few drives. Luckily, once Malik Cunningham was inserted into a game it seemed to inspire both sides of the ball. Plays were made with a sense of urgency and players did what they could to make up ground in a hurry. If the Cards are able to get a score early and play with the lead and a since of urgency, instead of from behind, we could see a different team.

We likely will see some stability at two very important positions – quarterback and running back – both of which have been switched up early and often this season. We know Malik Cunningham will get his first start, but after a dominant performance from Dae Williams last week, it seems that he has finally cemented himself as “the guy” for Bobby Petrino. Will this help provide continuity for the offense? I really believe so. Bobby’s offenses use the run option (with a running quarterback) to open up the passing game, which is something we haven’t seen a lot of yet. If Dae & Malik can get going, we could see Jaylen Smith, Dez Fitzpatrick, and Seth Dawkins all begin to find themselves with space to get open and make big plays.

Stopping Jordan Ellis, and Bryce Perkins will be the number one priority for the defense, but just as important to them and defensive coordinator, Brian VanGorder, will be keeping do it all wide receiver, Olamide Zacheaus away from the ball. The dynamic play maker has played all over the field during his career as a Cavalier, and is off to a great start this season. Knowing the problems that the Cards have had making tackles in open space, I fully expect Virginia Head Coach, Bronco Mendenhall, to target Zacheus early and often (similar to that of Greg Dortch for Wake Forest last season) letting him make plays on short throws.

Next. Stock up, stock down for Louisville football pre-Virginia. dark

Louisville may look like a different team this week with Malik Cunningham at QB, or they could continue to display the same mental mistakes and poor discipline that has plagued them through the first three weeks. If we get a re-energized Cardinal team, we could see them easily improve to 3-1. If not, the beginning of the end of the 2018 season could be upon us.

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