Louisville football: Game-by-game predictions for 2020
By Jacob Lane
Week 2: Miami
Date: 9/19
Miami wasn’t even supposed to be on the schedule, yet here we are with Louisville getting the team who beat them 52-27 a year ago to kick-off the 10-game slate of conference games.
A lot of talk since the new schedule was released has been centered on Louisville “avoiding” Clemson and North Carolina, yet no one really wants to talk about how big of a challenge a matchup with Miami will be, even at home.
Everything Miami did against Louisville last season worked, and for the majority of that game it was extremely hard to watch. Whether it was running the ball with DeeJay Dallas or taking it to the air with Jarren Williams, Louisville could never seem to make the right play.
They were overwhelmed by the size, speed, and athleticism of the Miami players, that was easy to see, but Louisville also shot themselves in the foot over and over again with senseless penalties and bad mistakes. Scott Satterfield wanted to see his team show improvement from their loss, saying to the media:
“When you go through something tough like we did tonight… if you go through this and don’t learn anything all you did is go through a bad thing. We have to learn from the things that happened to us today….Everybody is to blame when you lose a game, including me, I said, ‘starting right with me.’ When you go through this you have to learn from it and continue to grow, continue to develop. You have to let this game right here propel you for the next three.”
Louisville’s players will show up to this, you can bet your ass on that, but they’ll have to make serious adjustments to how they played last year. Miami’s athletes aren’t going anywhere, in fact the list seems to be growing, as the Hurricanes added star QB D’Eriq King and defensive end Quincy Roche.
They will be without returning redshirt sophomore and last year’s freshman of the year, Gregory Rousseau, who announced this week that he would be opting out of the season due to concerns over COVID. Even without Rousseau, who should be a top 10 pick in this year’s draft, the Miami defensive line will put a ton of pressure on Louisville’s offensive line and we should get a fairly good understanding of how much improvement has taken place.
You can’t gloss over the fact that even during their struggles Louisville out-gained Miami in total offense and when they were able to hold onto the football and take care of Cunningham, they easily moved the ball.
This year look for Louisville to show much improved defensive play, especially in the secondary. Miami’s receivers will be down this year after they lost KJ Osborn and Jeff Thomas, but with Brevin Jordan still on campus and a ton of other four and five star players, they are still dangerous. Louisville will just have to do everything they can to take away D’Eriq King.
The graduate transfer QB has the ability to tear apart Louisville’s defense, both on the ground and through the air, so having a plan to take him away or at least limit him will be crucial. I think Louisville’s going to be motivated to not only win their first ACC game of the season and get off on the right foot, but also to get pay back.
Score: Louisville 27, Miami 23
Record: 2-0 (1-0)