Louisville football: 3 biggest storylines heading to Miami matchup

Can another week of practice fix special teams miscues?

I had a feeling that Louisville’s special teams was going to struggle Saturday, and I warned of the troubles that mistakes could have on the outcome of the game. Sure enough they did, even worse than I originally feared.

As our own Maxwell Owens wrote in his Western Kentucky reaction article, the performance of the special teams was mostly horrendous. Two fumbles, flags, bad decisions on returning kick offs vs. kneeling in the end zone, weak punts, and other mistakes prevented Louisville from a near perfect night.

The Tops were able to score on two occasions thanks to punting mishaps from Logan Lupo in his first career start as a Cardinal, gaining 14 yards on five plays across those drives. The defense was put into near impossible situations and it blemished what was an otherwise dominant performance.

Chalk it up to nerves if you want, with it being the first game of the season, or insert your excuse here ____________; regardless if not fixed this week in practice Louisville is going to be in trouble.

You can give 14 points away to a team like Western Kentucky and still find yourself in a position to win, and  win easy. But do it against a top 25 team like Miami who has an extremely dynamic running back/quarterback duo, as well as a talented set of skill position players and arguably the number one tight end in college football in Brevin Jordan, and you’re likely to walk away with L.

Whether it’s Lupo or freshman Brock Travelstead, who handled kickoff duties against Western, Scott Satterfield and special teams coach Stu Holt have to figure out. During his  weekly media availability Satterfield maintained that his punter had performed well in practice up to that point  but moving forward they’ll have to “go out and execute.”

The kicking game was fine as James Turner went 5/5 on extra points, but everything else was average at best. Even the return game was a dud, as Hassan Hall and punt returner Rodjay Burns totaled 24 yards on three returns.

Special teams can be the reason you lose a game and if Louisville doesn’t get things figured out they’ll be in trouble against Miami. Let’s hope we see a special teams unit channeling their inner Corvin Lamb.