3 things Louisville football must do to beat Western Kentucky
By Jacob Lane
Don’t screw it up on special teams
Stu Holt is a great special teams coach, there is no denying that, but in 2020 he has his work cut out for him. Louisville football will enter the season with their first new punter/kicker duo in five years. In fact, no part of the Louisville roster was impacted more by turnover than the specialist group who will deal with losing stars Blanton Creque and Mason King.
As I write this, we still don’t know who is going to be the starter at kicker or punter as a handful of players have battled hard throughout training camp for the open roles. It appears that the kicking battle has been a three way race with returnees Ryan Chalifoux and James Turner, who handled kicking and kick off duties when Creque went down with injury, and incoming freshman all-american Brock Travelstead.
There was belief that Travelstead, one of the most talented kickers in the class of 2020, could potentially handle both kicking and punting duties but that ship has since sailed. Instead it will be little-known Logan Lupo and incoming juco walk-on transfer Ryan Harwell who will compete for the starting punter position according to the Courier Journal’s Cameron Teague Robinson – a battle I have no business breaking down.
Holt has been very quick to praise his group and their performance during fall camp and recently offered up some insight into where the decision might be heading, telling local media:
“All three (kickers) have had their bright spots, that’s for sure. Right now, Brock (Travelstead) is in the lead but it’s very competitive and we’re not quite sure exactly where the depth chart is once we roll in on September 12.”
Whoever wins the starting role the charge will be simple – know your role and don’t get in the way of the offense and defense. The kicking game may not be a strength this season for Louisville like it has been in recent years but even with that being the case, whoever takes over just has to be serviceable in order to help the Cards win at a high level.
The offense is going to do their job at a high level and the defense’s capabilities are set to rise , so for the specialists against Western Kentucky it’s all about not screwing things up.