Louisville football RB delivers monster performance when Cardinals need him most

Louisville football is battling SMU in the fourth quarter, and the Cardinals are seeing a breakout performance from a running back, but not from Isaac Brown. At the start of the season, all the attention was on the Cardinals' star running back Isaac Brown, who entered the year with extremely high expectations.

Louisville football star Lincoln Kienholz continues to turn heads against SMU

Brown made a couple of preseason All-American lists, was ranked as high as the 35th-best player in college football, and made multiple preseason award watch lists, including the Maxwell Award Watch List. However, the season hasn’t started the way many fans and analysts expected for Brown, including today.

Isaac has just eight carries for 37 yards against SMU so far, and his partner Keyjuan has emerged as the breakout star in Week 3.

Keyjuan Brown has massive game against SMU

Entering the year, Louisville's running back room was trending as a top-five room because of its depth. Keyjuan took a huge leap in his sophomore season, averaging 7.3 yards per carry on 704 yards. In his final five games, Brown rushed for 94 yards or more, including his final three games where he rushed for 136, 135, and 112 yards.

Now, through three games in 2026, Keyjuan is taking over for the Cardinals' running backs, not Isaac. Keyjuan has dominated for Louisville this Saturday, rushing 10 times for an impressive 163 yards and two enormous touchdowns.

The Cardinals trailed 17-14 after the first half, and one key adjustment they made was finding a way to get this rushing attack going, specifically Keyjuan. The Cardinals got off to a hot start in the second half, as Keyjuan found the end zone on his first carry in the third quarter after a ridiculous run where he rushed for 58 yards after finding a way to stay in bounds.

Then Keyjuan shined again later in the second half, with the Cardinals trailing 31-28 in the fourth quarter. Keyjuan found a gap and broke free for his second 50-plus rushing touchdown, this time for 53 yards.

Right now, Keyjuan has 28 carries for 231 rushing yards through three games, and he is looking more and more like a star for the Cardinals. Today’s game marks his fourth career game with 100 rushing yards or more, and his 163 rushing yards mark a new career high in a single game.

While Isaac appears to struggle early in 2026, it is massive for their other star running back to step up, have a career game, and possibly lead the Cardinals to a historic win over SMU.

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