Louisville football: 3 trap games to watch for in 2020

Wake Forest  – November 14th

Thanks to the emergence of quarterback Jamie Newman and receivers Sage Surratt and Kendall Hinton, the Demon Deacons were a top-25  team throughout the majority of the 2019 season including when Louisville knocked them off in a surprising upset early in the year.

That was easily one of the best games of the season in 2019, ending in rather dramatic fashion as backup freshman quarterback Evan Conley led the Cards on a four-play, 56-yard drive that ended with a fourth-down scramble for what was the game-winning touchdowns by all intense and purposes.

Injuries to both quarterbacks forced the backups into action, with Sam Hartman filling the void for Newman, and playing extremely well.

The Louisville offensive was incredibly explosive on that night in Winston-Salem, racking up 520 total yards of offense and scoring a season-high 62 points. The defense made the plays needed to win the game, but by all standards, it wasn’t their finest hour – giving up 688 total yards and five passing touchdowns.

Wake Forest ultimately finished the season 8-5 and lose in their bowl game to Michigan State but many college football experts believed they’d be even better in 2020. While they should still be a more than formidable opponent, they’ll have to face the ACC without Newman, who decided to graduate and transfer to Georgia.

Sam Hartman, who filled in for the injured Newman late in the game against Louisville, will step into the role left behind by Newman and will do so with his star receiver, Surratt, alongside. However, he’ll have to learn to live without Hinton, the 1,000-yard slot receiver, as well as leading rusher, Cade Carney. There are also losses all over the offensive line as well, which makes the offense an even bigger question mark in year five for Dave Clawson.

The star power this year mostly returns on defense, with Carlos Basham Jr., Ryan Smenda Jr., and Ja’Cquez Williams and Nasir Greene all set to improve on the season they had in 2019 which was one of the best defensively under Clawson. They’ll be a team capable of getting after the quarterback with Basham, who finished second in the ACC in sacks and will make the running game challenging thanks to the tackling and playmaking of Williams and Smenda.

Wake Forest is going to likely take some sort of step backward, or at least one would think, and probably won’t offer the same challenges they did last season as a ranked offensive juggernaut. However, they have defensive firepower and an offense with enough weapons to be dangerous should they have time to develop together.

This classifies as a trap game for me due to the revenge factor being in play, with Wake Forest wanting to get Louisville back for their upset win on the road, and with the Cards set to travel to Notre Dame the following weekend. There are games that could be more challenging, which is why Wake Forest falls at no. 3 overall.

Louisville’s offense should be able to score on Wake Forest’s defense, much like they did last season, and the defense should be good enough to slow down Surratt and Hartman. However, if Louisville’s not focused and find themselves looking ahead, the Deacs could easily pull off the upset.