Louisville football: Predicting statistical over/under’s for 2020
By Jacob Lane
Predicting the over/under for Louisville football ahead of the 2020 season.
Ladies and gentlemen, Louisville football is set to kick off the 2020 season in just 19 days…Let that sink in for a second.
After months of uncertainty and worries of whether a season will actually happen, it appears that we can finally begin predicting and planning for the outcomes of what is to come. Sure, there’s a ton of questions out there about how realistic it is to finish the season but for now, we can at least do our last big of previewing the season.
We’ve made our big predictions for the program, we’ve made our game-by-game predictions, we’ve looked at players who are set to break out, players who are set to compete for major awards, and honestly, just about everything else in between.
In our next (and one of our final) preview pieces, we wanted to take a look at some key statistics and predict the over/under.
Micale Cunningham – 62.4% completion rating
Jacob – Over
Micale Cunningham was one of the most explosive and efficient passers in all of college football in 2019 and I don’t expect any different in 2020 which is why I’m taking the over.
A lot of Cunningham’s success came through the air on “explosive routes” last season, something that will likely carry over this season, but where I see the most growth and the biggest contributing factor to going over will be how Cunningham throws sideline to sideline on intermediate routes.
That was a big struggle of his last season and with weapons like Dez Fitzpatrick and Justin Marshall, I fully expect Cunningham to have the best passing season of his career.
Good catch. Teddy Bridgewater led FBS in completion percentage in 2013 at 71.0. Micale Cunningham is the third Louisville quarterback to lead FBS in a passing category.
— Kelly Dickey (@RealCardGame) June 29, 2020
Presley – Over
I’m going to say over, but barely. Last season, Cunningham was one of the nation’s most accurate passers, and showed an aptitude to execute big plays deep down the middle.
This year, I think you could see even more of Cunningham as a big-play threat with his arm. However, the more chances he takes throwing the ball 20-plus yards, the more we are likely to see his percentages drop.
With that being said, I think Cunningham’s completion percentage still takes a slight uptick in 2020 as he continues to progress in the pocket. He has an array of sure-handed options out wide, and I think the Cards look to running backs out of the backfield far more frequently.