Louisville football: Five biggest needs of improvement after bye week

Quarterback play must improve

The “who should be the starting quarterback?” debate is probably not going to end anytime soon when discussing the best move for Scott Satterfield and Louisville.  Neither Jawon Pass nor Malik Cunnigham has shown me anything to where I can definitively say that one should replace the other. Both of them need to improve their passing accuracy and decision-making.

Cunningham throw for 286 yards against FSU and completed 17 of his 26 pass attempts against a talented Seminoles defense. On the contrary, against Western Kentucky, it seemed like he looked hesitant to sling the ball around through the air, as he 16 rushes versus throwing the ball just 14 times. Malik needs to continue to be more confident in his ability to read through his progressions on passing plays and not look to take off as much.

Jawon Pass doesn’t have the most amazing stats passing the ball either in his small sample size this season. Against Notre Dame, he connected on just 44 percent of his pass attempts but against a less talented defense in EKU, Pass threw four touchdown passes. Of course, it’s awful that he suffered a toe injury after finally looking more comfortable at QB against the Colonels but injuries are a part of the game and it will be interesting to see what happens once he comes back.

Numbers-wise Malik has completed 60 percent (25-of-41) of his passes and Jawon has connected on 52 percent (24-of-46) of his pass attempts thus far. Percentage-wise Cunningham is more accurate but outside of that when you watch the game he doesn’t look as comfortable in the pocket as his counterpart. Pass needs to a better job placing the ball where the receiver can catch it, as opposed to throwing it too far out of their reach or too low to the point a defender can swat the football.

Then there’s a guy like this Evan Conley kid who came right into Nissan stadium and threw a 62 yard TD pass on his second passing play as QB in a Louisville uniform. Now granted once Pass and Cunningham get healthy I don’t think we will see much of Conley the rest of the season but you never know what can happen. Conley just needs to stay ready because with the schemes Satterfield has on offense Pass and Cunnigham will be running the ball more which can also increase their risks of injury.

Moving forward, I am not sure who Louisville should go with at starting QB once Pass returns but he and Cunningham need to do a better job of seeing the entire field and communicating with O Line to limit the penalties.