Louisville football: Three keys to beating Miami

3. Block out the noise

Perhaps most importantly for Louisville football to come away with a victory, the Cardinals have to block out the noise and keep their emotions in check.

This may seem like an obvious for every game, but it is even more true given the pomp and circumstances of the game.

Louisville has a substantial amount of players, 19, from the state of Florida on the roster. We saw last season that some key Cardinals who were Miami natives either rose to the occasion when visiting close to home or shrunk due to distractions with friends and family members.

Additionally, Louisville is ranked for the first time since 2017 and will be playing in a game where both teams are ranked for the first time since an October 5th, 2017 match-up at NC State.

This is a primetime ABC match-up and Louisville will host ESPN’s College Gameday on campus, which will mean that there will be constant reminders of the magnitude of the game all week.

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Former Cardinal GG Robinson spoke with us about what it’s like to prepare for a College Gameday game.

"“It’s crazy, like, the whole week leading up to it is crazy. College Gameday big ole tractor trailer gets there, and it’s parked in front of your facility all week. I remember in 2016, every single day when we were walking out of practice, we’re seeing them build that huge stage for the College Gameday going. It was crazy in 2016. …. It was crazy walking past it every day you just know that everybody’s so excited for the game- so much hype around it. You know the stadium’s gonna be packed; It’s just crazy. Obviously, going into the game, emotions are going to be super high- More high than normal. It played to our advantage against Florida State because we came out super hot. Obviously, emotions being too high or too low definitely can have a positive or a negative effect on you. Like, Miami last year was negative. But, Florida State that year everybody was focused, and everybody was super pumped up for the game and it played into our favor.”"

That’s a lot to deal with during a year where there are already plenty of distractions.

If the Cardinals can lock in and focus on the revenge factor rather than everything going on in the outside world, they should be able to take advantage of a lot of advantageous matchups against Miami.