Head Coach: Jeff Brohm is entering his 2nd season as the head coach of the Cardinals with a 10-4 record. In his first season they made the ACC championship. Despite the electric teams they had with Lamar Jackson, this was the first time Louisville ever made the ACC championship. Brohm is also a former Louisville QB in the early 90s, as a head coach he also experienced great success at Western Kentucky and was successful at Purdue as well at one point pulling so many upsets they received the “Spoilermakers” moniker.
Program Outlook: Louisville is in a good place. It only took one year for Brohm to establish his Cardinals squad as an ACC contender. There’s still some concerns, it was a very disappointing finish to the season Louisville blew it in the finale against rival Kentucky, couldn’t find a lick of offense against Florida State and then got shredded by Caleb Williams-less USC in the bowl. Still, the general trend of this program is a positive one.
How does the 2024 Roster look?: One thing has been clear from the get go for Brohm here…he’s going to hit the portal HARD. Don’t get it wrong, there’s still some homegrown talent but he’s going to hit the portal for any need he sees. There was a lot to sort out with the offense but it’s all going to hinge on Tyler Shough, he has all the talent in the world but really needs to reign in his mechanics and decision making to improve. There’s also the elephant in the room with Shough and it’s that he’s struggled to stay healthy, things get really dicey behind him the other QBs are very inexperienced. Louisville brought in Miami FL transfer Donald Chaney Jr and Toledo transfer Peny Boone both are power backs, Boone eventually transferred out in the spring, Maurice Turner will be the change of pace back. Louisville absolutely loaded up on receiving weapons out of the portal with stud former South Alabama receiver Caullin Lacy, Ja’Corey Brooks from Alabama and even brought in a top TE in Mark Redman from San Diego State. They revamped the offensive line out of the portal as well and need to get better play out of that unit they were a big reason for the boom or bust nature of Louisville’s offense last season. Louisville won’t need the portal to help much on the other side of the ball, their defense was one of the best in the conference last season. There’s a lot of core pieces back too. The defensive line has one of the best pass rushers in the country in Ashton Gillotte, and this line also did a fantastic job stopping the run. It’s also one of the few units on this defense where Brohm snagged a few additional contributors out of the portal. The secondary is the unit with the most continuity, they have 3 returning starters there. Overall how the transfers come together is a question but this is a good roster.
Screenshot from fbschedules.com1
2024 Schedule Thoughts: The schedule is a lot tougher this year compared to last season. First of all, Clemson is back on the schedule and on the road historically you can always chalk that up as a loss for the Cardinals. Notre Dame and Kentucky were at home last season now both are on the road. Louisville’s non-conference includes FCS playoff team Austin Peay, the Governors lost a lot from last year’s team including their coach but they gave Tennessee a tough time last year. They also host Jacksonville State, who won 9 games a year ago and is coached by former Louisville foe Rich Rodriguez, it would behoove Louisville to not overlook that one. Now for the good news, Florida State and a lot of other ACC title contenders are missing from the schedule. The remaining road games not previously mentioned are Virginia, Boston College and Stanford not exactly environments that will strike fear into the Cardinals, although Boston College is in late October when the weather could be bad, that got Louisville last year in their random loss to Pitt.
Vegas Projection: Louisville’s win total is set at 8.5 with the odds geared toward the under. Likely chalks up losses to Notre Dame, Clemson and Kentucky with the possibility of one more.
2024 Best Case: Maybe Louisville is too underrated this offseason, Jeff Brohm is ready to take this up another level. They roll to an easy 3-0 start to set up a showdown with Notre Dame in South Bend, surely there won’t be a repeat of last year on the road, right? It happens Louisville once again slices through the Irish offensive line and hits big plays offensively to take them down. The Cardinals avoid any sort of letdown to dominate the next few games setting up the biggest Louisville/Clemson showdown since the Deshaun Watson vs Lamar Jackson game. Louisville battles hard but the Tigers come out on top. Louisville dominates the next couple games before finishing off the regular season with a satisfying 45-10 blowout of Kentucky for the Commonwealth Cup. Thanks to Clemson and Florida State Louisville is left out of the ACC championship, but that’s ok the Cardinals earn an At-Large bid to the playoff anyway and while they have to hit the road they get a rare regional chance at Ohio State. The Cardinals defensive line harasses the Buckeyes offense all game allowing them to pull off the upset. Louisville then gets a matchup with Utah in the next round the Cardinals manage to pull off another big win there to set up an all-ACC semifinal with Florida State, the Cardinals won’t be denied by the Noles this time. They have better success on offense and their defense dominates to take them down and make a surprise national title appearance. They end up losing there to Georgia but it’s a great run nonetheless.
2024 Worst Case: Maybe last year’s excitement was mostly a favorite schedule. Tyler Shough doesn’t take the next step and the run game doesn’t help take the pressure off of him. Louisville is taken down by Jacksonville State early in the season but they don’t recover either. The Cardinals are crushed by Georgia Tech and blown out by Notre Dame. Once they lose to SMU and Virginia it’s clear this season has hit disaster territory quickly. Louisville only wins 1 more game the rest of the season and it’s not against Kentucky who has a surprise 10 win season. Oh yes, and just to top it all off their basketball team continues to be a laughing stock so there’s no relief starting in November either.
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