Three bold predictions for Louisville football against Notre Dame

The Louisville football team has a major opportunity on their hands. They have a shot to effectively end Notre Dame's season and elevate themselves into the top-12 of the polls. A win in South Bend on Saturday afternoon would certainly be enough for that to happen.

Louisville is one of the teams in the country that more around the media need to be paying attention to. They have been one of the best teams in the country on both the offensive and defensive side of the ball. Quite frankly, they have been one of the best teams not just in the ACC, but in the country.

If Louisville is able to take on Notre Dame and beat them at home, that would show that this team isn't just good enough to win the ACC, but also get an at-large bid into the College Football Playoff. They don't want to have to put it in the committee's hands. They'd rather just win the conference.

This is the final non-conference game for the Cardinals this season. It might end up being the toughest game that they play all year long since it's on the road. The good news is that the weather won't be too bad for this game, so the offense shouldn't be too slow.

As we do for every game, we give you some bold predictions for this matchup. The first bold prediction has to do with what the Louisville defense will be able to do against the Fighting Irish offense.

1. Louisville will keep Riley Leonard under 150 yards passing

So far this season, Leonard has not been great passing the ball. He was one of the top quarterbacks in the transfer portal in the offseason, but hasn't lit it up through the air. In fact, he has just one touchdown pass so far this year. He also has just 587 yards in four games.

Leonard's lack of success through the air gives the Cardinals something to attack. If they can stop the run and keep Leonard in the pocket, then they have an excellent shot to win this game. Louisville did just give up over 400 yards passing to Haynes King of Georgia Tech.

Despite that, I think the Cardinals' defense is going to be able to hold Leonard under 150 yards through the air. This is the week that the pass rush starts to get home and I think that will fluster Leonard. They'll likely need a spy on Leonard to keep him from escaping the pocket.

If Louisville is able to keep Leonard under 150 yards passing, they put themselves in a great spot. I think this will be a big part of Jeff Brohm's gameplan on defense. How well they execute that gameplan reains to be seen, but I think they're able to get that done.

The second bold prediction for this game has to do with what Louisville can do on on offense themselves.