Louisville football is back, and as we count down the days until the season begins, we have 20 reasons to be excited for the Cards in 2022.
This time of year has always been a complicated one for me.
The last few weeks of July feel like the ultimate recipe for a season of anticipatory anxiety. The back half of this month are the Sunday Scaries of the calendar year.
As I watched Cameron Smith lift the Claret Jug on a late July Sunday morning, a feeling of emptiness swept over me. The final golf major of the season is in the books. Meaning that this was it. We were, and still are, officially in sports purgatory, sweating out the weeks remaining until college football season.
The exhausting southern heat wears on you as the days slowly begin to get shorter. The kids begin to go back to school. And while life takes on more of a sense of normalcy when summer winds to an end, the wait for the new sports season feels never-ending.
Thusly, it’s usually this time of year when I can’t help but to begin to ramp up my excitement and anticipation for the coming Louisville football season.
I told myself I wouldn’t get overly excited for 2022. Not after the way 2021 ended.
Not after Louisville was walloped once again at home by its hated rival. Not after losing in a postseason game to the Air Force Academy. And certainly not after an offseason that began with a massive portion of the Louisville fanbase clamoring for the firing of head coach Scott Satterfield.
Perhaps is the Summer Scaries talking? Maybe it’s the positive momentum the coaching staff has built while reeling in pieces to form the greatest recruiting class in school history. Or I could just be a fan hopelessly romanticizing another season college football season where I think my team is going to perform above expectations.
But, whatever the reason for my positive outlook, the reality is that there are plenty of reasons that an objective party could say point towards a much-improved season for Louisville football.
Bearing that in mind, with 20 days left until the season let’s take a look at 20 reasons to be excited about Louisville football.
1. Malik Cunningham’s last ride (Let’s rideeee)
The bittersweet storyline entering this season is that this is our final chance to see Malik Cunningham as a Card.
Lamar Jackson might be the worst thing to happen to Cunningham.
Consider this: Cunningham is second in school history in career rushing yards among quarterbacks. He is currently 6th in school history among all players in rushing yards. With 585 rushing yards this season, he would leapfrog Howard Stevens, Lenny Lyles, Nathan Poole, and Walter Peacock to sit alone at second all-time in career rushing yards.
Cunningham is 4th in school history in rushing touchdowns recorded. He needs 13 this season to pass Jackson on the all-time career rushing touchdowns list.
Through the air, he is in equally rare air. He needs 23 touchdowns this season to pass Chris Redman for the most career TD passes thrown. He currently sits at 6th on the all-time list.
Cunningham is also 6th all-time in passing yards. He is likely to move past Dave Ragone, Jackson, Teddy Bridgewater, and Brian Brohm this season in passing yards recorded.
When I say that Lamar Jackson is the worst thing to happen to Cunningham, it’s because the comparisons are so unfair. Jackson is a generational player across the entire college football landscape; Not just at Louisville. To compare any player to Jackson during his time at Louisville is wholly unjust.
Cunningham has been an unbelievable star and playmaker for the Cardinals. A consistently electric playmaker.
This season, he will have a lot of opportunities to cement his legacy against a formidable schedule. In the end, he has to turn in an 8-9 win season to be held in the same regard as some other UofL greats.
Wes Durham from the ACC Network called Cunningham the “most underrated quarterback in college football” and that feels spot on.
What Cunningham did in 2021 was special and under any other circumstance would’ve been a historical season for the Cards. He’s shown the ability to throw the ball down the field, use his legs to pick up big plays (remember the Duke run?), and carry the team. The good news in 2022, he won’t have to shoulder it all.
2. Potentially 6+ first and second-team All-ACC players
Outside of Cunningham, Louisville has perhaps the best crop of talented pieces surrounding him since the program joined the ACC.
Louisville brings back potential All-Americans in offensive lineman Caleb Chandler and tight end/ H-back Marshon Ford– Both of whom have received a ton of preseason watchlist nods.
The Cards return studs Monty Montgomery and Tre Clark from injury this season. UofL’s top two defensive players entering last season missed the majority of the year due to lower body injuries.
Also on the defensive end, Louisville football brings back Yasir Abdullah. The outside linebacker was second in the ACC in sacks recorded in 2021.
Additionally, Louisville brings in former PAC-12 All-Conference defensive lineman Jermayne Lole. The defensive tackle out of Arizona State was one of the best linemen in school history for the Sun Devils and brings a game that could see him featured both in the middle and on the edge.
Finally, UofL brings in 2021 FCS All-American Tyler Hudson. The Central Arkansas product recorded over 3,000 yards receiving in his FCS career and now springs into action as Louisville’s de-facto No. 1 receiver in 2022. Cunningham called him a “blessing from God” in the offseason.
Relevant reading: Success in transfer portal should translate immediately
With the addition of some new pieces and the return of some stars from injury, Louisville is looking at a step-up in talent this season from a year ago.
3. Adding staff members from Power Five programs
A key storyline entering this season is head coach Scott Satterfield’s willingness to change up his coaching staff.
Since the end of the 2021 season, Louisville football brought in Wesley McGriff as a co-defensive coordinator and Lance Taylor as UofL’s offensive coordinator.
McGriff spent the last three seasons at Auburn and Florida, guiding two of the SEC’s best secondaries. His area of focus at Louisville is again in the secondary and he is assisting DC Bryan Brown in play-calling duties in 2022.
Taylor comes from Notre Dame where he was the running backs coach for three seasons. Prior to that, Taylor was a wide receivers coach for the Carolina Panthers.
UofL also brought in former Georgia assistant strength coach Ben Sowders. Fresh off of a national championship season, Sowders took over as the head strength coach, bringing new ideas and leadership to the Louisville weight room.
It should certainly not go overlooked that UofL brought in three coaches to influential positions that have had success at the highest level. That is a major change to look out for in 2022.
4. A challenging home slate
From a fan perspective, it will be tough to beat the grouping of home games that Louisville football features this season.
UofL opens the home slate this season with a red out Friday night game against Florida State.
After hosting South Florida, the Cards will bring in defending ACC Coastal champion, No. 16 Pitt. A week later, Louisville hosts No. 19 Wake Forest, who is the defending ACC Atlantic winner.
The Cards round out the home slate with James Madison- a new FBS-level team that will present a legitimate challenge- and No. 13 NC State.
Louisville hosted one ranked team (Clemson) in 2021, one ranked team (Miami) in 2020, and one (Clemson) in 2019. To have the potential of 3-4 home games against ranked teams should be a big deal for Cards fans.
5. Elite tier linebacking core
On the field, it’s difficult to remember a linebacking core that Louisville could trust like the one that returns in 2022.
We mentioned Abdullah and Montgomery, two of the more electric pass-rushing linebackers in the ACC. The Cards also return Dorian “Debo” Jones, KJ Cloyd, and Marvin Dallas to the fold among returning players with significant experience.
The only notable loss from the 2021 squad is inside linebacker CJ Avery. However, Louisville replaces Avery with experienced SEC linebacker Momo Sanogo. The Ole Miss transfer recorded over 200 tackles in his career at Ole Miss and has been lauded as a leader on and off the field.
6. Louisville won big-time in the transfer portal
Speaking of high-level transfers, Louisville seems to have crushed it across the board in the transfer portal this season.
If you look at where UofL fell off on the depth chart last season, the Cards did extremely well to plug those holes with high-level transfers.
We already talked about plug-and-play starters like Sanogo, Lole, and Hudson.
Additionally, Louisville added Miami wide receiver weapon Dee Wiggins plus potential starters at defensive back in FSU transfer Jarvis Brownlee, and Tennessee State transfer Quincy Riley.
Not to mention that Tennesee transfer Tiyon Evans is right in the mix for the starting running back spot and can do back flips.
This could ultimately be the biggest storyline of the season if Louisville football exceeds expectations. UofL saw its weaknesses last season and used the transfer portal to turn them into potential strengths in 2022.
7. New Adidas Swag
We don’t know exactly what the new Louisville football uniforms will look like this season, but the alternate grey uniforms that we have seen are a pretty solid start.
8. An opportunity to reverse some bad luck
2021 and 2020 were two of the unluckiest seasons in Louisville football history. And statistics back this up.
After a 2019 season where a lot seemed to go right in Satterfield’s first season, Louisville simply was the benefactor of a lot of bad bounces, questionable calls, and downright insane collapses the following two seasons.
Card Chronicle’s Conner Shay went in-depth after the 2020 season on just how unlucky Louisville was in Satt year two.
Year three was not any different. According to “luck” metrics, Louisville was 110th out of 130 teams in 2021 after ranking dead last in 2020.
As Bill Connelly put it, college football seasons hinge on luck more than any other major sport. “A major league baseball team will make about 4,500 outs in a given season,” said Connelly. “An NBA team will have about 8,000 to 8,500 possessions. A college football team, meanwhile, is guaranteed only about 12 games, 170 possessions, and 850 or so plays.”
Louisville’s simple miscues over the last two seasons have truly been the difference between Scott Satterfield on the hot seat and getting a contract extension.
In the Satterfield era, Louisville has lost nine games where it outgained its opponents. That is 47 percent of losses under Satterfield where Louisville gained more yards than the opponent and still took an L.
Little moments matter. Louisville led Virginia by 17 in the fourth quarter, allowed 21 unanswered, and still had a kick to win the game. Make one stop in the fourth quarter or make that kick and you win.
Louisville infamously lost by 3 points in a game at Wake Forest where officials mind-bogglingly put a second back on the clock at the end of the first half.
The Cardinals stalled at the two yard line in the waning seconds against Clemson, failing on four opportunities to score from point blank range.
There were moments throughout the season where one bounce goes your way or they make one more play and Louisville is more of an 8-5 team than 6-7.
Luck tends to always even out. This year could be Louisville’s chance to take advantage of that opportunity.
9. Tailgating, The Alley, Cardinal Stadium Beer
There has been a culture building around the Louisville football fanbase for decades. And fans have been waiting for an opportunity to have a season where they flock to Cardinal Stadium in droves. Let Louisville start 4-0 and see how the green lot, The Alley, and the stadium fill up.
There’s nothing better than an afternoon tailgate and Cardinal Stadium for a night game.
Jacob and I already have plans in place for the home opener against Florida State.
10. New version of offense and defense with the new coordinators
We talked about the winning culture under the new coaching staff members, but the overall scheme is set to see some upgrades. Louisville football has struggled in situational football while also being somewhat predictable. Whether it’s running a pitch-option to the short side on 3rd & 7 or dropping 8 to rush 3 on defense in clear pass-rushing situations – the criticism, at times, has been well-deserved.
Enter Lance Taylor, who comes over from Notre Dame with over 15 years of coaching experience in college and the NFL. He’s coached both running backs and wide receivers throughout his career, including guys like Christian McCaffrey, Bryce Love, DJ Moore, Curtis Samuel, Kyrien Williams, and others. On the defensive side of the ball, Brown adds Wesley McGriff aka Coach Crime, who will serve as the secondary coach and co-dc. He comes over from Ole Miss but has over 32 years of coaching under his belt, including stops at Ole Miss, Florida, Vanderbilt, and with the New Orleans Saints.
Neither will call plays (though they’ll have influence on decision making) but both bring a new set of eyes and new twists which will undoubtedly influence the direction on both sides of the ball. Coach Taylor spoke about how he’ll help make improvements, saying:
“He’s been very open, and wanting to learn what I’ve done. Honestly, we’ve been on the same page about a lot of things. I’ve been very pleased with how much we’ve been on the same page, how like minded we are.”
Courtesy of Matt McGavic, Louisville Report (Sports Illustrated)
Louisville’s had a top 25-ish offense for the majority of the time under Satt. Taylor’s small “optimizations” should stand to get the offense over the humps in the details & situations that matter.
McGriff specifically will be counted on to help clean up the secondary, something he’s done extremely well. We’ve already seen small changes that could pay big dividends, including something as simple as corner backs and safeties meeting together, rather than as individual units. With weapons like Clark, Kenderick Duncan, Riley, Griffin, Brownlee, Josh Minkins, and others, he has all the tools needed to get Louisville closer to the top 20 finish it saw in 2020.
11. A stronger and faster squad with the new strength staff
Looking for proof that new Strength & Conditioning coach Ben Sowders has done a great job since coming over from Georgia?
Just listen to the coaches talk about him. Nearly every coach I’ve heard this offseason has praised his work (as well as the players effort) in the weight room and with on-the-field training.
In the spring the difference in size and muscle mass was obvious. The days of being “undersized” and “small” were gone. Sowders work has been notable across the board but especially with guys like Yaya Diaby, Ashton Gillotte, Caleb Banks, Dez Tell, and Minkins – all of whom should be ready to take massive leaps because of it.
Louisville’s been dominated in the trenches for several years now but that should change in 2022. Expect a much faster, stronger, and more physical team that truly attacks.
That’s exciting.
12. An offense featuring a heavy dose of Malik Cunningham throwing
Louisville football should look a little different this season based on Cunningham’s growth alone.
Cunningham and the UofL staff have been adamant that he is focused on dump-offs to the running backs, throwing more, and running a little less
With the addition of Tiyon Evans from Tennessee, the return of a solid stable of backs, and an elite offensive line, Louisville is set up for a lot more designated hand-offs.
LISTEN: From The Pink Seats Podcast with Malik Cunningham
If Cunningham can continue to prove he can make more “pro passes” in 2022, you’re going to see more of a pro-style offense with outside zone and zone read elements.
That could pay major dividends when Louisville looks to go deep to players like Wiggins, Ahmari Huggins-Bruce, and Ford.
13. Marshon Ford
No matter how many times we mention it in passing, Louisville H-back/ Tight End Marshon Ford is an unreal playmaker that this list would be incomplete without.
Ford is the starting H-back, he is one of the better blockers on the team, spreads out to tight end and wide receiver, and led the Cards in receiving yards in 2021.
Ford is a great story and legitimately one of the best players on the team.
14. A chance to finally rack up wins against ranked teams
Louisville doesn’t have many top 25 wins in the Satterfield era. In fact, they just have… 1. yep, 1. That’s 1 more than me and you combined. It also came against no. 19 Wake Forest back in 2019, which at this point feels like a century ago.
Here is every ranked team Louisville has played under Satterfield.
2019 – (9) Notre Dame, (3) Clemson, (19) Wake Forest
2020 – (17) Miami, (21) Pittsburgh, (4) Notre Dame
2021 – (24) WF
Over three years, Louisville football has had seven opportunities to beat ranked teams. In that time they sit at 1-6.
This year should be different. As things stand today, they’ll face five ranked teams in 2022 – no. 4 Clemson, no. 13 NC State, no. 16 Pittsburgh, no. 19 Wake Forest, and no. 21 Kentucky.
If Louisville is going to take the step into the upper tier of the ACC and college football, they’ll have to beat ranked teams. For three years they’ve taken beatings from Clemson, Kentucky, and Miami. As well as losing in heartbreaking fashion to teams like Clemson, ND, and Wake Forest. With a team full of veterans and an overall upgrade in depth and talent, that should add fuel to the fire that is the pressure of the season. Louisville should be ready to win as many as two or three games against ranked teams.
15. Sprinkling of new playmakers
Louisville football is going to be led by a number of players on both sides of the ball who didn’t see action last season.
That starts with running back Jawhar Jordan and wide receivers Tyler Hudson and Dee Wiggins.
Jordan flashed signs of brilliance last season, including a 100-yard kick-off return touchdown against Air Force in the bowl game.
We already discussed how Cunningham called Tyler Hudson “a gift from God” as a versatile playmaker. And Wiggins should help with big play plays down the field.
A name we may be talking about early and often is corner Quincy Riley, who figures to start opposite Tre Clark at corner. FSU transfer Jarvis Brownlee may have something to say about Riley and Clark’s playing time as well.
16. An improved pass rush
One thing that Louisville football needed a little more of last season was a consistent pass rush. The defensive line and linebackers could pop at times, but ultimately the Cards finished the year 8th in the ACC in sacks.
Part of the reason for the lack of rush was pressure up the middle. Louisville was often gashed by teams with rushing QBs.
In the middle, UofL adds Jermayne Lole and Tawfiq Thomas to a group that includes Tell and Banks.
A former All-Conference player at Arizona State, Lole figures to plug in and improve the UofL nose guard position right away.
On the edge, Louisville brings back stud defensive end Yaya Diaby and blossoming star Ashton Gillotte. They will be backed up by Ramon Puryear, Zach Edwards, and company. This should be seen as a positive as Louisville brings back everyone from a year ago besides Tabarius Peterson and Derek Dorsey.
Finally, the Cards return the ACC’s second-place sack leader from a year ago, Yasir Abdullah. His fellow bash brother Monty Montgomery returns from injury to provide the fastest, most versatile outside linebacker tandem in the league. Not to mention behind Abdullah former four-star recruits Kam Wilson and Popeye Williams will get the opportunity to see the field and contribute.
In Louisville’s 3-4 defense, it is paramount that the outside linebackers are experienced, athletic playmakers. With perhaps their two greatest assets in the fold, Louisville football should expect the pass rush to be much improved in 2022.
17. Yaya Diaby looks like he ate Yaya Diaby
Perhaps the leader of the pack this season, however, will be senior defensive end Yaya Diaby.
Drawing the attention of opposing offensive lines last season, Diaby only recorded 1.5 sacks and 3 TFL out of his 39 tackles. This season, though, may be far different.
If you watch the tape in 2021, Diaby was a major disruptor in opposing backfields. He was credited with 7 QB hurries and often just a step away from making a tackle behind the line of scrimmage. Diaby scored an 82.9 PFF Grade last season, which led all ACC edge rushers.
This offseason, Diaby has made significant gains in the weightroom, adding a ton of muscle and explosiveness.
Expect big things in his final season.
18. Five offensive line starters are back
Louisville football’s biggest strength in 2022 will be the offensive line.
Despite losing a four-year starter in Cole Bentley, Louisville returns five guys who started games in 2021 for a unit that was top 25 in sacks allowed. That includes preseason first-team All-ACC tackle Caleb Chandler along with Trevor Reid, Adonis Boone, Renato Brown, and Bryan Hudson.
Former QC coach Nic Cardwell is back as the O-Line coach after coaching a top 20 OL at App State last year.
Almost all offensive linemen have played for Cardwell, know him, and have verbalized their will to run through a wall for him. They have experience, they know the scheme, and they are immensely talented.
Can they be consistent? Can the depth pieces step up (Michael Gonzalez, Luke Kandra, Josh Black, Austin Collins)? Is Reid going to be the guy at LT? Those questions must be answered, but Louisville’s OL should give Evans, Jalen Mitchell, and the skill position players plenty of room to run and plenty of time for Malik to throw.
19. Smart money win total play
Louisville started the offseason at a 5.5 over/under win total. That number quickly moved to 6.5 wins over the summer, and you can find it most places on that number.
Given that Louisville greatly underperformed last year, returns almost all of its key pieces, and has lots of opportunities early, it’s difficult to imagine the Cards winning 6 games or less.
Louisville over 6.5 is a pretty smart bet, and if you’re a Cards fan, the prospect of UofL getting a few more wins under its belt this season should be exciting.
20. Returning to a winning culture
We have talked about the bad luck that has befallen Louisville football over the last two seasons. And with those issues, UofL fans have been a bit restless, assuming “win now” mode after a large portion of the fan base clamored for Scott Satterfield to be let go towards the end of 2021.
But Satterfield is back, with a renewed sense of focus, a revamped coaching staff, and a handful of immediate-impact transfers.
With a Heisman darkhorse at quarterback, improved depth in the trenches, and multiple new weapons on both sides of the ball, a return to relevancy should be attainable in 2022.
Great article.Well written. Covered all facets of the team..
Possible 21 —The player seem more focused by their interviews. also,the players that came back said the reason was to win a championship!!