Louisville football: Cards’ top candidate for each ACC award next season
By Jacob Lane
ACC Player of the Year – Micale Cunningham
2019 winner: Travis Etienne, RB, Clemson
This was probably the toughest out of all the major ACC post-season awards to choose from when it came to Louisville football. We all witnessed Micale Cunningham develop into a top-ACC quarterback last season while junior wide receiver Tutu Atwell and running back Javian Hawkins broke multiple school records on their way to historic breakout seasons for the Louisville offense.
All are back in 2020 and are looking to build off of their first year under Scott Satterfield, but none have a higher ceiling than returning starting quarterback, Micale Cunningham, who may very well be a dark-horse Heisman candidate.
It took a little while but as the season progressed we watch Cunningham go from a Lamar Jackson-lite, scramble first, pass second quarterback to a player capable of developing into an elite collegiate quarterback.
Cunningham showed his incredible athletic ability on multiple scrambles through the 2019 season but it was the ability to stay in the pocket, read defenses, take care of the football and most importantly, complete passes down the field for huge plays.
After throwing for just 473 yards and completing only 54 percent of his passes in 2018 under Bobby Petrino, Cunningham flourished under the coaching of Scott Satterfield and quarterback guru Frank Ponce and finished 2019 with 2,065 yards, 22 touchdowns to only five interceptions, while completing 63 percent of his passes.
He’d finish the season as the nation’s top quarterback in completions of 70, 80, and 90-yard completions and would’ve finished second in the nation in QBR, making him the top returnee in 2020, but fell just a few pass attempts shy of qualifying. That was just the beginning.
Now stepping into year two under Satt and Ponce, Cunningham is looking to take another step in his development this time with a ton of hype around his name, unlike last year. After leading Louisville to eight wins in Satterfield’s first season, now eyes are on Cunningham to see if he’s capable of helping the Cards go even further, especially with the talent they have returning.
The production in just his second year of college football and his first season playing for Coach Satterfield along with the fact that nearly everyone on the Louisville offense is set to return means that an ACC Player of the Year caliber season could be in order.
We saw Cunningham go from being average to really good in year one; shouldn’t we now expect him to go from really good to great with another offseason under his belt? While this summer will look a lot different than what we expected, that hasn’t stopped Cunningham from working at his craft.
It’ll take a special season to beat out reigning ACC Player of the Year Travis Etienne as well as rising junior and likely no. 1 overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft, Trevor Lawrence. Personally, I think Cunningham is more than capable but it would have to come with Louisville having a near-perfect season and the Tigers slipping up along the way. Remember, last year Cunningham missed the season opener against Notre Dame and was forced to leave four different contests early due to either injury or illness – so we never fully saw just how dangerous he could be (he fell just one pass attempt short of qualifying for QBR)
Assuming he’s able to stay healthy, Cunningham will be one of the most effective, productive and accurate passers in the country entering 2020, and that should not go overlooked when it comes to winning player of the year.