Louisville football: Three locks and three bold predictions vs. Syracuse

Bold prediction: Seth Dawkins has a career game

There’s something about this 2019 season that feels poetic in a sense. Louisville has been exorcising a number of demons this year, but if there’s one area where it feels the Cards are due for a breakout game it’s with the senior wide receivers.

Seth Dawkins, in particular, has flown largely under the radar for the majority of his career. Yet Dawkins has been the epitome of consistency year after year. His 1,481 career receiving yards give him a chance to land somewhere among the top 15-20 in school history.

Dawkins had a career game against Boston College with 170 yards and a touchdown, and something just feels right about the match-up he has against the Syracuse secondary and the opportunity he has to play his final game in a stadium where he contributed so many great moments and so many big-time plays.

Add senior Devonte Peete to that list as well. The redshirt senior has never been overly flashy, but he has been a leader on special teams and was elected special teams captain under the previous regime. His 523 career yards aren’t going to make any lists in the record books, but his twenty special teams tackles along with his relentless attitude will be remembered during some of the best years in Louisville football history.

Look for Dawkins and Peete to get opportunities to step up in their final home game.

Lock: A surprise senior will make a big impact

Louisville will graduate 21 seniors this season all whom (and likely Mekhi Becton) will be celebrated on Saturday in a game that the Athletic and Marketing departments have been promoting like crazy in an attempt to pack the house.

As my partner, Presley Meyer so eloquently put it this morning in his article on the group of players being celebrated, “this year’s seniors are finishing off the season the right way- a testament to who they’ve become as men in a city that prides itself not on how it starts, but how it finishes.”

That fact alone makes me believe that a large group of players who normally wouldn’t play a ton of snaps, will be given an opportunity to go out and show what they can do. For trusting the new staff and sticking through things when they were tough and uncertain, I believe Scott Satterfield will allow guys to see the field and attempt to put finishing touches on a book that they were apart of, even if they aren’t getting a ton of snaps previously.

Whether the game is still in the balance or it’s out of hand, I can’t predict. But somewhere along the way I see one senior stepping up and making a huge and unexpected play against Syracuse.

If I had to name them, here are the guys I’d be watching:

My candidates –

1. Jordan Davis – TE
2. Devonte Peete – WR
3. Ty Tyler – DE (Marshall graduate transfer)
4. Gary McCrae – DE
5. Boosie Whitlow – DE

All five of the players I’ve named, and plenty of others I haven’t, are capable of making a big play that can swing the game in Louisville’s favor or even slam the door on Syracuse’s bowl aspirations – it just will all depend upon getting an opportunity. One that I believe Scott Satterfield will be willing to give.

I can envision it now. T.J. Holl scoops up a fumble and takes it to the house, Gary McCrae gets a big sack on third down, Devonte Peete catches a red zone fade, or Ty Tyler picks off a tipped pass at the line.

If any of those take place Saturday, get ready to see a sideline full of smiles, joy, and pure happiness for their teammate who has laid it all out on the line wearing the red and black of the University of Louisville.