3 things Louisville football must do to beat Western Kentucky

Limit the run, watch for screens, and tackle tackle tackle

If there was two ways to expose Louisville football’s defense last season it was by running the football over and over again and forcing them to make a tackle in space. No matter how you slice it both were a thorn in the side of growing defense and in 2020 they’ll have to show major improvement right away.

Western Kentucky will start multi-year power five starter Tyrrell Pigrome at quarterback following his transfer from Maryland. That will give head coach and offensive savant Tyson Helton a dual threat quarterback who has played at the most important position at the highest level.

Last year against Louisville, Western Kentucky attempted to run the football with their lead back Gaej Walker but struggled thanks to great play and game planning from the Cardinal defense. They then turned to quarterback Steven Duncan to make big plays – which he did to the tune of 245 yards and three touchdowns on 25/47 passing.

Time and time against Western Kentucky targeted receivers on short to intermediate throws, almost in a similar fashion to running the football, to which they had some success opening up the field for the big play.

Eight receivers caught a pass in that game while four of those were able to bring in at least four receptions and more than 20 yards. However, only one receiver was able to accrue more than eight yards per play, showing that the majority of the passes from WKU were plays meant to either get receivers in space or move the chains enough to set up shorter third down attempts.

Western Kentucky’s receiving stats vs. Louisville in 2020

Joshua Simon –      1 reception, 77 yards, 1 TD

Jacquez Sloan –        6 receptions, 35 yards, 5.8 ypc

Jahcour Pearson –   5 receptions, 37 yards, 7.4 ypc

Quin Jernighan –      5 receptions, 20 yards, 4.0 ypc

Lucky Jackson –       4 receptions, 40 yards. 10.0 ypc

It was obvious throughout the entirety of that game that Western Kentucky felt like if they couldn’t run the football the way to beat Louisville was to try and make them prove they could tackle in space and keep offensive players with the ball in front of them.

Thankfully they proved to be up for the challenge and hopefully for their sake they are once again ready to do the same thing – but this time at a higher level. With Pearson and Sloan both returning this season, along with the extremely talented tight end Simon, Pigrome will have weapons at his disposal to help make plays.

Pearson and Sloan are smaller guys who have a lot of speed and can beat you from both out wide and in the slot – while Simon and incoming JUCO transfers Craig Burt and Mitchell Tinsley all provide the size and physicality needed to compete for targets.

With Pigrome behind center, I except to see a ton of read option plays that will allow the experienced QB to make a live read based on the Louisville defense to either run or throw the football. During his time at Maryland, Pigrome was dynamic but mostly inconsistent more times than not struggling to make the right read. However, when he did – things like this happened.

Losing, turnovers, and bad decisions marred Pigrome’s career at Maryland but against Louisville he’ll get a chance to send a message that he belongs in his new role. He’ll have a ton of help out wide and in the backfield, which means Louisville won’t just be able to target in on him alone.

Take Pigrome’s legs out of the equation and force him to be strictly a passer and the dynamic of the game changes completely.

That’s why it is going to be crucial for Louisville to take away the running game and limit the scrambling ability of Pigrome, especially in any RPO specific plays.

The Cards experience on defense along with their speed and injection  of depth should give them all the weapons to take care of business.