Louisville Football: Season Outlook After 7 Games
By Caleb Hall
Louisville Football is 6-1, what’s next for the Cardinals?
Louisville football is 6-1 following a loss to Pitt on saturday, and going into the bye the Cardinals have some questions to answer.
Louisville will be going into their bye week after a disappointing 17 point loss to Pitt and the break couldn’t have come at a more perfect time. The game last saturday was a mixture of Louisville not being ready to play, a Notre Dame hangover, and Brohm not being on top of things. Hopefully in the bye week the team will recharge and be more ready to play in the coming weeks.
The Cardinals still have the ability to win a lot more games and even make the ACC championship this season, even with a bad loss to Pitt. When they come back from the bye week Louisville will go on a 3 game homestand against #16 Duke, Virginia Tech, and Virginia. If the Cardinals go 3-0 in these games they will be 9-1 on the season with only a trip to visit the Miami Hurricanes, and a senior night game against Kentucky to end the year.
#16 Duke will take on undefeated #4 Florida State in Tallahassee this weekend and if the Blue Devils somehow pull off the upset, the Cardinals could be looking to host another top ten team in L&N Stadium. Even if they don’t, Duke will likely still be ranked in the top 20 when they come to Louisville. Brohm should look to get this team up for that game and that should hopefully propell the Cardinals into the next games against Virginia and Virginia Tech as well.
Virginia Tech has also been on the rise recently. As what looked to be another disappointing season for the Hokies, they have won 2 of their last 3 games, and even put up a fight against FSU in the first half of that game 2 weeks ago. Not to say this could be another trap game, but Brohm cannot let his team get down for this game after what happened to the Cardinals at Pittsburgh. I wouldn’t think Brohm would let this happen twice in one season, and based on the fact that Louisville is home helps them a lot. Virginia is 1-5 on the year and hopefully the Cardinals roll past them at home in early November. No team should go unnoticed, even if it that team is far worse than Pitt.
The last 2 games of the season for Louisville are its most difficult. The Cardinals will travel to Miami to take on the Hurricanes and then will face Kentucky as the they look to beat the Wildcats for the first time since 2017. The worst case scenario for the Cardinals could be coming into the Miami game with a 8-2 record with a loss to Duke and wins against Virginia and Virginia Tech. Even if they lose to Miami and Kentucky the Cardinals are looking at an 8-4 season at worst. Should the Cardinals settle for an 8-4 season? No they should not, and it would be an extremely disappointing 2nd half of the season if they do.
If Louisville can capitalize off this bye week and get back to the type of football they were playing in the Notre Dame game and the few weeks prior, then I see no reason why this team can’t win a lot more football games. If Louisville can cut down on bad turnovers and not allow big plays on defense then they should be in good shape for the rest of the season.
While the Pitt loss hurts a lot, Brohm and the Cardinals can still recover and if they get back on track an ACC championship and 10+ win season is still on the horizon.