Louisville football rolls to Music City Bowl win over Mississippi State

Louisville football left Nashville with their second win of the season, defeating Mississippi State in the Music City Bowl and finishing 8-5 on the year.

Early season predictions would have led you to believe that Louisville football had zero chance of being where they were today. After a tumultuous 2018 season that ended with a 2-10 record and reports of nearly 25-plus players prepared to enter the transfer portal – the future of the program looked bleak.

Enter Scott Satterfield.

A new coach who had a history of winning at the highest level and doing so the right way came into Louisville with his workload through the roof. The job wasn’t just to fix the problems on the football field for the Cards. Instead, it was a complete teardown and rebuild of a program once on a collision course, just two years removed from a Heisman Trophy-winning season from Lamar Jackson.

No one thought in “year zero,” Satt could get it turned around. Sure, there were a lot of really nice pieces on the roster like Mekhi Becton, Dez Fitzpatrick, Tutu Atwell, Hassan Hall, Dorian Etheridge, C.J. Avery, Russ Yeast, and others – but those players weren’t enough to get Louisville back to a winning record.

The staff worked hard putting in their new system and most importantly their new way of doing things. In the process, they uncovered new-found gems in players like Javian Hawkins, Tyler Haycraft, Monty Montgomery, Marshon Ford and others who would help bridge the gap and ultimately produce winning football.

Competing was all fans wanted to see again. Louisville football wasn’t fun a year ago. Could Satt and company bring it back?

That question was answered when the winning came.

Eastern Kentucky. Western Kentucky. Boston College. No. 19 Wake Forest on the road (the first road win in the ACC against a ranked opponent since joining the conference). Virginia. North Carolina State (bowl eligibility, baby!!), and Syracuse. There were plenty of tough moments along the way, but it all led to Louisville finishing second in the ACC Atlantic and being here in Nashville for a matchup with Mississippi State.

The game plan seemed simple for Mississippi State. Run the football. Considering Kylin Hill’s production all season along and what Lynn Bowden Jr. had done just a few weeks prior, it all pointed in Mississippi State’s favor and it looked that way for most of the first half on Monday night.

On the first offensive possession following a three and out by the defense, Louisville football drove the ball 96 yards down the field on a variety of nifty plays. Right as it looked like they were set to score and take over the game, Dez Fitzpatrick fumbled on the one-yard line.

That led to a 99-yard drive for Mississippi State that made at least me worry that we were destined to see a repeat of seasons end. Mississippi State was significantly bigger on both sides of the line, and it showed early.

Then taking a line out of Louisville basketball’s playbook, they boomed.

The Micale Cunningham to Tutu Atwell connection struck on multiple possessions while Javian Hawkins and Cunningham continued to dice up the defense of Mississippi State on the ground. The ball was moving but they just couldn’t score.

Finally, it happened and it happened in a way that I predicted – by way of Tutu Atwell’s arm. The former Miami Northwestern QB connected with Marshon Ford for a beautiful 33-yard score, making it 14-7.

From there, Louisville went on a 24 unanswered scoring streak spurred by the ejection of star linebacker and captain, Dorian Etheridge. On a silly play where it seemed his ankle was tied up by a Mississippi State player, Etheridge kicked the player attempting to get his foot free ultimately being seen by the referee to which he was flagged and ejection.

A defense that looked to be struggling finally began to get some wind beneath their sails, and it led to a monster performance. Without Hill, who was out for the most of the game after being injured, Louisville was able to not only stop the run (forcing upwards of eight or more TFL’s) but also get after the quarterback (four total sacks)

The big storyline of the game, aside from the dominance through the air by Micale Cunningham and Tutu Atwell, was the impact of the senior class. It started with Jordan Davis catching a 22-yard pass on the first drive of the game. Then came a big turnover forced by Gary McCrae. A sack and huge tackle for loss by Boosie Whitlow. A ton of big tackles by Cornlieus Sturghill and of course the touchdown throw to Devante Peete.

Guys who stuck it out and rode the wild rollercoaster that was Louisville football for the last four to five years got to go out in style.

Despite allowing a few big plays through the air by way of graduate transfer Tommy Stevens, Louisville’s defense held the Bulldogs to just 145 yards rushing, which was well under their season average of 226 yards per game. Time and time again when Louisville needed a stop to get off the field the defense was there. Guys like Whitlow, McCrae, Rodjay Burns, and of course Khane Pass who scored on a defensive touchdown, led the way as the Cards showed a much-improved defense.

The sour taste from the Kentucky game was gone and much like the 2015 edition of the Music City Bowl, Louisville played in such a way that it could impact their outlook for the upcoming 2020 season.

Once again this season things looked bleak at one point or another in a game. The Cards gave up two quick scores to a team that looked to be twice their size at certain position, making a comeback improbable.

But much like we’ve seen the team dug in and fought. Collectively as one team, they made plays at the right time doing the job that was required of them to win – and that’s exactly what they did. Sure, Mississippi State was a team missing a ton of key players, including their star running back, and maybe there wasn’t much motivation on their site, but don’t let that be an excuse.

Scott Satterfield and his coaches prepared their team to bounce back strong and finish what was already an incredible season and the players were rewarded with a party tonight.

MVP: Micale Cunningham

I had a hard time not going with Tutu Atwell considering his nine receptions for 147 yards and touchdown throw – but it was Micale Cunningham who was the driving force behind Louisville’s 510-yard performance.

Even with a much stronger defensive line coming after him without his star left tackle, Cunningham did a great job of making throws down the field (accurately) and being deliberate with his scrambles on non-run called plays.

He was efficient, much like we’ve seen all season, going 16/23 for 279 yards and two touchdowns with another 81 yards on the ground. Cunningham was easily the most improved player of the season for Louisville and without him none of the results we saw this season would’ve been possible.

Whenever his back was against the wall this season he fought and he improved. Tonight was a culmination of the hard work between himself and his quarterback’s coach Frank Ponce.

Defining moment: Much like the MVP nod, the defining moment of the game is tricky. Early on you could have said the fumble from Dez Fitzpatrick was what changed the game, but thankfully the touchdown pass from Atwell to Ford changed the momentum.

However, to me I think the biggest moment of the game was Etheridge’s ejection. Louisville had struggled early on to stop Tommy Stevens and the Mississippi State running attack, even without Hill. The missed tackles were once again a problem and more times than not we saw players out of position or make the wrong reads, leaving big holes and plenty of room for yardage.

Then the ejection happened, the one that should have been nothing more than a personal foul call. Unintentionally the play that could have crumbled the defense ultimately led to them rallying and playing the best game of the season.

Stars, reserves, and fringe rotational players alike played up to the level that they were capable of, giving Satterfield and Coach Brown exactly what they asked for, and it led to the domination of Mississippi State’s offense.

There was plenty of reason to criticize the defense against Kentucky and some of Louisville’s other losses, but their performance tonight should hopefully show the fans who questioned that with that time improvement will be possible

What we learned: Scott Satterfield owns bowl games.

With a win over Mississippi State, Scott Satterfield moved to 4-0 all-time in bowl games. His approach of rewarding players for getting to a bowl game and allowing them to enjoy the moment was something I was curious of, and as we saw tonight it worked out just fine.

Louisville came out ready to play much like we expected after having 30 days off, and while Mississippi State didn’t look like they didn’t want to be there, at times there effort level didn’t quite match what we saw from the Cards.

The offensive play calling was creative, effective, and fun to watch and against a defense that struggled to stop big plays, Louisville was able to take advantage.

This staff has been amazing all season and to see them win tonight and get to eight wins means everything

X-factor: The seniors

The seniors were the difference in Louisville’s win over Mississippi State and honestly, it couldn’t have been any more of a fairy tale end to their career than what we saw.

Devante Peete. Gary McCrae. Cornelius Sturghill. Emonee Spence. Khane Pass. TJ Holl. Jordan Davis. The list goes on and on and it speaks volumes of the messaging and coaching of Satterfield and company.

“Whatever your role, do it to the best of your ability all the time,” is what Satterfield told his team earlier this preseason shortly after his arrival when talking about becoming a winning team and tonight we saw that at its fullest extent.

While they may not have been called upon all the time this season or played in the biggest roles, each guy got the opportunity to impact winning tonight and they all came through. Players who gave every once of their body to the Louisville football program for all of the good years with Lamar Jackson through the bad years and transition to Scott Satterfield made the difference in winning a bowl game that will help to take Louisville to a new level.

As always, Go Cards!