Louisville football: 3 takeaways from the 2020 schedule announcement

The back half of the schedule will tell us whether UofL is ready to compete at the highest level

The back half of the schedule is where things are really going to get interesting for Scott Satterfield and the Louisville football program in 2020. After going head-to-head against three teams who likely will finish near the bottom of the ACC Atlantic, two mid-major/FCS teams, and a likely top-three Clemson team, Louisville will face six teams who all finished bowl eligible in 2019.

Much like in 2019, Louisville will have a full week to prepare for Florida State following the matchup with Boston College. While the last two seasons outcomes against FSU haven’t been desirable, both losses have come due to the Cards shooting themselves in the foot. With all of the hype around Norvell’s program, the last two seasons outcome, and the Cards losing star QB commit Chubba Purdy to FSU, I think this is a game that Louisville will want bad.

Virginia Tech will come to Cardinal Stadium for the first time since the Cards joined the ACC and it’ll be the first time these two teams have played since the notorious cleat stomp by Marcus Vick back in the 2006 Gator Bowl. That game will be on Halloween, hopefully in a night game, and very well could be one of the best crowds of the season. Virginia Tech was a much better team in 2019 under Justin Fuentes, winning eight games before falling short to Kentucky in the Belk Bowl. They’ll without question offer up a new challenge to Louisville in what should be another year of growth for their program.

Louisville will then go back-to-back against teams that they beat in 2019 that they weren’t expected to win, including a trip to Virginia and a home game against Wake Forest. Both teams will be replacing their star quarterbacks in Bryce Perkins (graduation) and Jamie Newman (transfer to Georgia) respectively.

I expect both of those teams to take steps back in 2020 and while they’ll definitely want revenge from last season’s matchups I don’t know if either team will have the ability to slow down the Louisville offense. Regardless, both Wake and UVA will offer real challenges for Louisville but should be very winnable games.

Then come the last two games of the season which could be the most challenging. In game 11 Louisville will make the trip to South Bend for the second time since 2010 to face a Notre Dame team that returns their star quarterback and once again could be a threat to contend for a College Football Playoff Appearance. Louisville will follow that up with the annual Governor’s Cup where they’ll look to stop the bleeding in a series that has seen Kentucky win the last two by a combined score of 101-23.

Notre Dame is a game that Louisville competed in far longer than anyone expected in the season opener in 2019 and with plenty of time to get ready and understand what the Irish do well it could lead to the Cards potentially being able to spring an upset.

There’s plenty of time to break these games down more in-depth and predict what the final record might be for Louisville down the stretch. But considering the level of opponents, they’ll face down the back-half of the schedule, four or even five wins could put the Cards in place to compete for one of the top tier ACC bowls in just the second year for Satterfield and completely shift the way people think about Louisville competing against Clemson in years to come.