On Evan Conley, Louisville football’s unflappable freshman

Louisville football secured the program’s biggest win of the Scott Satterfield era in an upset win at Wake Forest on Saturday. Why Evan Conley’s performance thus far is the individual effort that defines the Cards’ rebuild.

It may take a little more time than usual before the rush of adrenaline Cards fans experienced watching Louisville football’s wire-to-wire victory at No. 19 Wake Forest begins to subside.

Louisville raced out to a 28-7 lead just minutes into the second quarter, and after a fourth-quarter that lasted well over an hour, four onside kicks, and a half dozen reviews later, Scott Satterfield’s team has its first road win over a ranked opponent since 2011.

Eight years and tons of opportunities while fielding deeper, more talented teams have passed, yet it was a rebuilding squad picked to finish dead last in the ACC Atlantic that not only snapped the streak but also ended Wake’s fifth-longest winning streak in the country.

A ton praise and a smattering of criticism can be placed upon this team’s performance. The Cardinals allowed nearly 700 yards of offense and almost let the Demon Deacons back into the game after taking a three-score lead on multiple occasions. Yet Louisville, afflicted by serious depth issues and injuries galore, never surrendered the lead after going up 7-0 on their opening drive.

Among the dynamic performances from Hassan Hall, Dez Fitzpatrick, Rodjay Burns, and others, one player’s performance stood out among the rest, opening the eyes of Cards fans and the rest of a national audience captivated by a four-plus hour game to an undeniable fact:

Evan Conley is a freaking gamer.

Starter Micale Cunningham deserves his share of praise given his brilliant starts in Louisville’s last two games. Against Wake, he was nearly perfect, going 5 for 6 for 99 yards and two scores through the air and sprinkling in four rushes for 59 yards before exiting with an injury.

However, for the second consecutive game, it was Conley who stole the show.

It was Conley who finished the game off with multiple big-time plays when the Cardinals needed it the most. And it was Conley who looked like a steely veteran, not an 18-year-old true freshman third-string reliever.

Conley’s 12 for 18 passing, 196 yards, and 2 touchdowns through the air, and team-high 79 yards on the ground pushed Louisville to their most points scored in a game since hanging 63 on No. 2 Florida State in 2016.

Micale Cunningham, or even opening game starter Puma Pass for that matter, may be able to help the Cards put points on the board and move the offense efficiently. But Evan Conley, even as a work in progress, has proven he is a winner.

Conley has shown in the two games in which he saw significant snaps that he is a high-level college football quarterback capable of making all the reads, most of the right audibles, all of the throws, and, apparently, all of the runs.

On two third-and-long situations where it was crucial for Louisville to convert, Conley scrambled for first downs.

Then, on fourth-and-one, with the Cardinals in a must-convert situation to seal the game, he not only converted the first down on a read-option play but took it all the way to the house for the game-winning touchdown.

In another pressure-packed situation against Boston College the week prior, Conley once again found himself in relief of Cunningham and down by 2 to the Eagles late in the fourth quarter. The freshman made multiple big-time plays and set up a game-winning field goal for Blanton Creque.

Wide receiver Seth Dawkins dubbed the senior kicker “Cold-Blooded Creque” after the Cards’ big win over Boston College, but perhaps that name should have been bestowed upon the quarterback with ice in his veins every time his name has been called: Evan “Cold-Blooded” Conley.

Though his opportunities have been limited, every time Conley’s name has been called, he has been thrown into the fire in a tough situation and absolutely delivered.

Post-game, Conley tried to downplay the importance of his play- particularly his keeper that sealed the game- but his emotions on the sideline told a different story. Everything about the freshman sensation- from his demeanor on the field, to his sharp decision-making, to his sacrificial dives and brutal hits in the pocket from linemen twice his size, to the tears welling in his eyes after the play of his career. Conley has the fierce competitiveness and drive that it takes to will a team on a 9-game conference losing streak to a win. He has the attitude, the insatiable spirit, and the heart of an unrelenting leader who is going to do everything it takes to win.

A three-star out of high school, Conley’s best offer was from Appalachian State. When Satterfield accepted the Louisville job, he was admittedly reluctant to follow his coach-to-be. Ultimately, however, he made the jump to the only power five school to extend him an offer.

Now, only 10 months after flipping his commitment, Conley could be the guy in a quarterback room that features an Army All-American who spurned the likes of Alabama and Auburn and a freak athlete with 4.3 speed who came to Louisville over Georgia and Georgia Tech.

Perhaps a healthy Cunningham would have kept the previous two games out of reach. And maybe Pass could have performed admirably in a similar situation had he not been dealing with injuries of his own.

All one has to work with now, however, is the eye test; Conley passes this with flying colors.

Maybe this is it for Conley. Maybe Cunningham assumes his position once again as the starter and Conley is relegated to clean-up duty for the foreseeable future. But it just feels like, with Conley, the Cards have a winner behind center and a player that could prove to be a program changer.

He has already willed an unlikely squad heavily reliant on current and former walk-ons and plug-and-play graduate transfers to two of the program’s biggest victories in recent history, earning the respect of his teammates along the way.

Now, with Conley at the helm, a new era of Louisville football could be underway.

It’s a script nobody expected Scott Satterfield to write in year one. But, then again, nobody knew about Evan Conley.