Louisville football: Grading the Cardinals’ performance against Virginia

Running Backs

I was excited to see what Maurice Burkley could bring to the table today with Javian Hawkins and Hassan Hall out for the game.

Burkley ran hard all day. He only had 12 carries on the game, but he made the most of his touches refusing to go down on first contact.

Burkley is not the most athletic guy in the world and he certainly does not have the gifts that Hawkins and Hall have as athletes. But, he is a true bowling ball as a runner and he runs with power behind his pads.

Not only was I pleasantly surprised with Burkley’s play, but redshirt freshman Jalen Mitchell burst onto the scene for a nice game.

His highlight came in the first half when he took an outside zone carry off of the right tackle and sprinted for a 50 yard run as he turned a Virginia safety around not one, but two times.

This group definitely was missing Javian Hawkins, but the two backs of Burkey and Mitchell combined for 120 yards rushing on 19 carries. A darn good performance for the third and fourth backs on the depth chart.

Most importantly, they did not put the ball on the ground once. Ball security matters too!

Grade: A