Western Kentucky
Week 3: September 14th (Nashville)
For the second season in a row, Louisville will face Western Kentucky in week three of the season. Unlike last season hopefully, this won’t be the last winning weekend of the 12 game season. This time the two teams will go head-to-head inside of Nissan Stadium in Nashville.
Western Kentucky has a new coach heading into 2019 in Tyson Helton who spent time as the offensive coordinator in Bowling Green during the Jeff Brohm era. In his first season, Helton will return nearly an entire offense, which is huge considering several of the players left on the roster have experience operating in the air-raid offense.
For a defense like Louisville that will still be trying to get used to the play-calling and tendencies of Bryan Brown, the Western Kentucky offense could present some trouble, but in my opinion not enough to knock the Cards off even in Nashville.
There is a talent disparity between the Cards and Hilltoppers, but nothing like what there will be between UofL and EKU. That means Satterfield and company will have to show up ready to play.
In a season where four to six wins is the ceiling, games like these are as must-win as it gets. The Louisville offense will have a big advantage over the Tops, who lose five starters and will be extremely inexperienced, and with only two weeks of game film to watch the Cards could have a big night.