Louisville football: 5 players to watch against Western Kentucky
![LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY - SEPTEMBER 02: Jawon Pass #4 of the Louisville Cardinals runs for a touchdown against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish on September 02, 2019 in Louisville, Kentucky. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images) LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY - SEPTEMBER 02: Jawon Pass #4 of the Louisville Cardinals runs for a touchdown against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish on September 02, 2019 in Louisville, Kentucky. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_fill,w_720,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/shape/cover/sport/95333f035ab4645c9c2b8d0fdaec83c63c132c9cd7274340903eecb068b36513.jpg)
Jawon Pass
Quarterback
For Louisville to win this weekend and all weekends after, Jawon Pass has to play well., especially throwing the football. He’s been solid at times in 2019, but there’s no doubt that he’s left us all as fans wanting more.
The rushing attack has been dominant, both against a top 10 program in Notre Dame and against an FCS opponent in EKU. But now with two weeks of film out on the Cards, teams are going to be looking to shut that down. Coach Satterfield is more than aware.
Satterfield: I know Western Kentucky is going to load the box that’s in their nature that’s who they are. We have to win that challenge
— Mark Blankenbaker (@UofLSheriff50) September 9, 2019
You can expect plenty of press coverage, plenty of eight or more guys in the box for the Toppers defense, in attempt to make Jawon Pass beat them.
So far through two games, Jawon has completed 24 of 46 passes, which at 52%, is still below the 54 percent he posted during a miserable 2018. The accuracy has to improve. During the Eastern game, we watched Jawon miss some open guys that had 2-3 yards of separation, that kind of stuff has to be fixed before the gauntlet part of our schedule begins, it may even have to be fixed by this weekend.
I do believe Jawon has improved significantly in 2019. He’s already ran for 104 yards, 11 more than he ran for in all of last season. His QBR is up from 109.7 to 136.8 from 2018 to 2019. His touchdown to interception ratio also appears to be drastically improving, he’s thrown four touchdowns and one pick so far. Last season he threw only eight touchdowns and 12 interceptions.
If Jawon Pass comes out and plays really well on Saturday, it’s hard to see the Cards not getting out of there with a win. He’s the key player this week and every week he’s under center in a Louisville uniform.