Louisville Football’s 2023 Schedule: What we know so far

The Atlantic Coast Conference announced on January 10, 2023 that the fall 2023 schedules for their member schools would be dropping twenty days later on January 30, 2023.

First year Head Coach Jeff Brohm will be looking to lead his new team to many victories in the year to come, especially with the amount of buzz that surrounded the program this offseason with the sudden departure of Scott Satterfield for the University of Cincinnati and the near immediate hire of Jeff Brohm as his replacement.

Jeff Brohm has brought in almost an entirely new coaching staff to the program, but most of these coaches either were born in Louisville, played for Louisville, have coached in Louisville before, or a mixture of all of them. The overall hype that is building until fall kickoff is one that is an arduous and uneviable task. But, if anyone can halt the metaphorical hype freight train, it is the the Brohm family, the first family of Louisville football.

Thanks to FBSchedules.com, we have an idea of what the upcoming schedule is going to look like for the Cardinals as they dawn a new era without Malik Cunningham under center. It feels like an all around fresh start with so many new faces in the building on both the players and coaches side.

Opening up the season, Louisville is tentatively set to kickoff against the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, where they will face one of their former players in running back Trevion Cooley, who announced his commitment there following the opening of the transfer portal.

This past season, Louisville opened up against a fellow ACC rival in Syracuse, in which they suffered a lopsided defeat, falling 31-7. Hopefully, next season is a different story.

Followed by the matchup againt the Yellow Jackets, the Cardinals will go on a tentative three-game non-conference stride against Murray State, Indiana, and Notre Dame. With the Irish receiving a commitment from Wake Forest transfer quarterback Sam Hartman this offseason, Louisville can’t seem to get away from their former ACC foe.

The always faithful Governor’s Cup game will remain on the schedule as well, tentatively set for November 25, 2023, in which Louisville will face former NC State quarterback Devin Leary. Last season, he was injured during the meeting between the Cardinals and the Wolfpack, so he could be seeking his former team’s revenge next season as Louisville topped NC State 25-10.

Other ACC teams on Louisville’s schedule are Boston College, Virginia, Duke, NC State, Virginia Tech, Pittsburgh, and Miami. The rivalry between Miami and Louisville has been taking place off-the-field in the recruiting sphere as these two teams have been battling it out for top high school recruits.

Louisville managed to land Miami transfer safety Gilbert Frierson in the portal, four-star Miami Central linebacker Stanquan Clark, three-star Miami Central wide receiver Cataurus Hicks, as well as the number one linebacker in the Class of 2024 in Miami native TJ Capers. However, the Hurricanes beat out the Cardinals for four-star edge rusher Rueben Bain and three-star linebacker Marcellius Pulliam.

The tension has been brewing between these two schools and could become a tense matchup over the years. Recruiting Coordinator John Herron is a massive reason why Louisville is having so much success recruiting in the Sunshine State and will continue to be a huge asset for the Cardinals.

One final note in Louisville’s schedule next year is that the Atlantic Coast Conference announced in the summer of 2022 that beginning in the 2023 season, the conference will be terminating the Atlantic and Coastal divisions and moving to a 3-5-5 format.

Meaning that each team will play three primary opponents annually and the other 10 member schools twice during the four-year cycle from 2023-2026. Louisville’s primary opponents, per the ACC, are Georgia Tech, Virginia, and Miami.

Since the divisions will no longer exist, then the two teams with the highest winning percentage will play for the ACC Championship. Jeff Brohm is entering into a very unique situation in which he is coming off of a Big Ten West title last season with the Purdue Boilermakers and now is coming into Louisville with the opportunity to play for another conference championship.

It has yet to be seen if this format will play out better than the two interconference divisions, but it has the potential to be great.