Louisville football took care of business against South Florida on Saturday, but what did we really learn?
A win over South Florida this weekend was the feel-good moment Louisville football fans needed after panic set in post-Syracuse and Florida State losses.
The Cards took care of business against a pedestrian South Florida squad- Something Florida (2022), Cincinnati (2021), Central Florida (2021), and BYU (2021) cannot say they have done in the last calendar year.
Cards fans can be proud of the fact that the game was over in a hurry.
But what are the real takeaways from this dismantling of the Bulls?
Disclaimer: USF is probably bad
Don’t let the near-upset of a top 15 Florida team in week 3 fool you; USF is just not a very good team.
When this game was scheduled initially, Louisville fans likely expected to see former coach Charlie Strong at the helm in this meeting. Instead, the Cards got a healthy heaping of Scott.
Under third-year head coach Jeff Scott, USF has won four games- Three of which were against FCS opponents.
We saw why against Louisville on Saturday. The Bulls made tons of silly mistakes. Unforced drops- One that should have resulted in a touchdown. Silly penalties that gave UofL three first downs.
South Florida played like a team that expected to lose that game.
And after the first two drives, in my opinion, they did not play to win.
I was really impressed with a lot of what Louisville football accomplished on Saturday, but I think each point should be taken with an abundance of caution until we see the same things addressed against power five foes.
Louisville’s depth was finally showcased
First and foremost, Louisville’s ability to do what it wanted on both sides of the ball was impressive to me because of the personnel that the Cards trotted out.
Particularly on the defensive side of the ball, Louisville made plays early and often with its depth pieces instead of its stars.
By the fifth drive of the game, Louisville had started linebacker Deebo Jones and rotated in fellow linebacker Zach Edwards. Edge rusher and linebacker Ryheem Craig was a big part of the defense as well. Defensive back Nicario Harper, corner Chandler Jones, and defensive lineman Selah Brown were all involved in the game plan early on as well.
Most of these guys are depth pieces or rotational guys that simply had not seen much, if any, playing time. Louisville’s staff opted to bring them in early on, and they all made big plays.
Louisville started Ben Perry at the CARD position and Jarvis Brownlee got the nod instead of Quincy Riley at the second corner spot.
Surprisingly, Jones actually started in place of star edge rusher Monty Montgomery.
To me, all of this is extremely exciting. And not just because the depth pieces are getting more snaps.
Jones led the team in tackles, including two tackles for loss. I think this is a massive step forward for the staff to start more of an every-down linebacker in Jones, allowing Montgomery to become the specialist that he was in 2020 and 2021.
Perry played a ton in the CARD role, who splits time between safety and linebacker. This is a massive step forward from the initial game plan this season where Louisville started Brownlee and Riley at the Corners while playing corner Tre Clark in more of a Nickelback situation.
I thought the defense was finally where we envisioned it would be in the offseason.
Jones is absolutely a starting-caliber linebacker and does a much better job in coverage than Montgomery- Who was taken out of his game and exposed often against Syracuse and Florida State.
Additionally, keeping Clark at corner and allowing Perry, strong safety starter Kenderick Duncan, and free safety Josh Minkins to play their more natural positions just makes a lot more sense to me.
With Harper rotating in as the next guy up at safety and experienced transfer MJ Griffin waiting in the wings, it just makes way more sense to me.
More sensible rotation and playcalling
Defense
It’s becoming increasingly apparent that Louisville football is going to be just fine without defensive tackle Jermayne Lole.
Expected to be a stud right off the bat for the Cards, Lole was injured prior to the season and then went out for the year with an injury in game one.
Behind Lole, Louisville is young, but their depth is really solid, and just making plays.
The obvious standout thus far is defensive end Yaya Diaby, who has three solo sacks and has assisted on 2 more so far.
Diaby, in his third season with UofL, is becoming one of the forces to be reckoned with around the league and leads the conference along with UVA’s Chico Bennett in sacks accounted for.
On the other end, sophomore Ashton Gillotte continues to solidify himself as an integral piece on the defense. You can’t say enough good things about the kid after he notched a starting role as a low three-star recruit who walked on campus underweight as a freshman. Now playing at 265, he is every bit the compliment that a guy like Diaby deserves.
However, Gillotte didn’t play on Saturday, leaving questions about his health. H
The rest of the defensive line stepped up against USF, playing like anything but a defense down two of three defensive line starters. In the middle, the combination of Dez Tell, Jared Dawson, and Caleb Banks is more than adequately filling Lole’s role. However, it’s been sophomore Mason Reiger who has been a shockingly excellent addition to this team.
Reiger notched another tackle for loss on Saturday and batted down a pass. Here’s an impressive stat for you: Reiger has yet to make a tackle this season that wasn’t a TFL.
It’s these interchangeable pieces up front along with the rotation we talked about on the back seven that really impressed on Saturday.
All of this positive change has pushed Louisville football up to 52nd in the nation in total defense- An excellent feat after a poor start against Syracuse.
Offense
Offensively, Louisville seemed to finally get into the rhythm it was striving for early and often against USF.
Louisville scored on four straight drives in the first and second quarters and did so by utilizing its depth in ways that we came to really enjoy under Satterfield in his first two seasons.
Take a look at the first three plays of Louisville’s fifth offensive possession.
The 11 that ran onto the field to start the drive were:
OL: R. Brown, Reid, Hudson, Kandra, Boone
TE: Sherman, Martin
QB/WR/RB: Cunningham, Cooley, J. Johnson
After no gain on first down, Louisville brought Ford and Jaelin Carter in for Sherman and Martin, transitioning from two blocking tight ends/ H-backs to 2 receivers and a tight/ end receiver. The personnel mismatch resulted in a 15-yard pass from Cunningham to Ford.
The ensuing play, Louisville rotated speedy receivers Ahmari Huggins-Bruce and Braden Smith in for Johnson and Carter. That play resulted in a 10-yard gain and another first down.
The next two plays were simple off-tackle runs that resulted in 18 and 22-yard rushes from Cooley.
It was the first three plays of the drive that resulted in success for the Cards. Louisville went from a two tight end set to a spread three-wide set in two plays by constantly rotating in new personnel.
This is something I feel has not happened enough. Louisville has definitely been conscientious about this in the past, but the effort to rotate new players in constantly was extremely apparent this weekend.
The versatility of Cunningham and the Louisville football playcalling can become that much more of a strength when the staff constantly rotates in different personnel groups, shows different formations, and forces the opponents to respond appropriately.
At any level of college football, it is going to be difficult for the opponent to keep up when you have to respect every playmaker on the field and those playmakers can vary from two tight end sets to three speedy wide receiver sets from one play to the next.
That is something that Louisville football fans should hope continues going forward.
Malik Cunningham’s usage shows marked improvement, but report with receivers needs work
I have been beating the drum this season that Malik Cunningham is a running QB first and should be used accordingly.
Against USF, Cunningham showed that he is the most electric play-making QB in the country when he gets opportunities to make plays with his feet.
He also is showing signs of maturity in the pocket as the season progresses.
I saw him throw Marshon Ford open on a play that was otherwise dead to rights on the second drive of the game.
We’ve all seen Cunningham work in back shoulder throws to Tyler Hudson and Marshon Ford along the sidelines. In many areas, Cunningham is showing improvement.
However, we saw once again on Saturday that Cunningham’s receivers can get open, but he struggles with timing. Something that was not always the case when he had report with receivers like Tutu Atwell, Dez Fitzpatrick, and Tyler Harrell.
There were four specific passes in this game where I felt Cunningham just was not there on timing or accuracy.
1st Quarter 14:11: Cunningham waits way too long for play to develop. Instead of finding Braden Smith, who was wide open for about 15 yards, early, he waited for the play to develop and threw into double coverage. The play should have resulted in an easy INT for USF.
Note: Smith probably should have cut his route short against a zone defense. I think both players played a hand in this one, but your fifth-year QB can’t throw that one.
2nd Quarter, 11:38: Trevion Cooley gets WIDE open on a wheel route that should have been a walk-in for 6. Cunningham overthrows Cooley by 5-6 yards.
2nd Quarter, 11:05: Ahmari Huggins-Bruce runs a beautiful route, is as open as a player can get, and Cunningham overthrows AHB. Too far and off his outside shoulder while AHB turned inside. A play Cunningham and AHB should be expected to make 95% of the time.
1st Quarter, 3:03: Jaelin Carter touchdown reception. Yes, this was a ridiculous catch from Carter, and warrants praise from the entire team for excellent execution. The blocking was solid. Huggins-Bruce holds both defender’s eyes long enough and Cunningham looks off the corner closing in on AHB.
However, this throw has to be a little better, no? When the receiver is that wide-open once again, this should be a walk-in touchdown for Carter, not a Sportscenter Top 10 moment.
This might sound a bit tough on Cunningham, but I think this game illustrated again how much work and report needs to be built between Louisville’s veteran leader and a less-experienced receiving group.
When you have wide-open players, you should be expected to make those plays at this juncture in your career.
We know what Cunningham is capable of with his legs, and I am certainly glad that the staff is giving him more opportunities to utilize his strengths.
But, when things get tight against power five competition, Louisville football needs Cunningham to execute on the easy plays.
Hold on there big boy slow down