The Coaches Poll came out earlier this week, and Louisville football fans are completely stunned. The Cardinals will enter the 2026 season, their fourth year under Jeff Brohm, unranked in the Coaches Poll, even though the majority of fans assumed they would be ranked between 20 and 25.
Louisville will, of course, have a huge opportunity to climb into the rankings if they can pull off the upset over No. 10 Ole Miss, but the Cardinals being left unranked is a bit disrespectful to Brohm and UofL. Louisville was the first team out of the top 25 as No. 25 Missouri earned 158 votes, putting them just above Louisville, who had 153 votes.
It isn’t just Louisville fans who are stunned that the Cardinals aren't ranked; Fox Sports college sports reporter Aaron Torres was just as stunned as the Cardinals fans and named Louisville one of the most underrated teams in the Coaches Poll.
Aaron Torres is shocked the Cardinals are unranked in preseason Coaches Poll
Torres broke down a few teams in the top 25 who are overrated and underrated, and at the end of the video for his final underrated team, he threw a “curveball,” asking where Louisville is in the top 25.
“I am going to give you a team that is underrated by not being ranked at all, that is Jeff Brohm’s Louisville Cardinals,” stated Torres. “Louisville is a team to me who is underrated; they should be ranked.”
Torres is saying what every Louisville fan is screaming right now. Torres breaks down how the Cardinals have one of the best running backs in college football in Isaac Brown, and under Brohm, while they haven’t finished the way they have wanted to, they have won at least nine games in all three seasons, including 10 wins in the first season when they went to the ACC Championship game.
The Cardinals have proven they can beat elite teams by beating Notre Dame and Clemson, and last year they defeated Miami on the road. So, the Cardinals not being ranked is shocking to say the least.
Now, Louisville will have two early games not just to climb in the rankings, but to solidify themselves as true College Football Playoff favorites potentially. The Cardinals have Ole Miss in Week 1 and SMU in Week 3, and if Louisville can win both of those games, then that is likely two top-20 wins in the first three weeks.
Even if the Cardinals can just split those two games and start 2-1, Louisville has a major win on its schedule, and the rest of the schedule is very manageable. So, it stings to see the Cardinals are not getting the respect they deserve, but if Louisville takes care of business, it will all play out.
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