The Louisville Cardinals had a very nice 12-1 year in 2013, which ended with a blowout of the Miami Hurricanes in the Russell Athletic Bowl. Now the Cardinals move up in class to the ACC and must do so without their HC and QB from last year. Time to rebuild a little for the Cardinals. Prediction & schedule below
Teddy Bridgewater is gone after hitting 71% of his passes last year for 3970 yards, 31 TDs and 4 INTs. That is hard to replace and the burden of it will fall on sophomore Will Gardner, who threw all of 12 passes last year. Gardner does have a good arm and will have the luxury of throwing to probably the best set of WR’s in the ACC, including Devante Parker who had 886 receiving yards and 12 TDs last year. The Cardinals also have back RB Dominique Brown, who ran for 825 yards and 8 TDs last year, plus Michael Dyer, who ran for 1000 yards for the Auburn Tigers back in 2011. Up front the Cardinals return all 4 of 5 starters to an OL that is rated 2nd in the ACC and 19th in the nation. The defense took some hits as they have just 4 starters and 2 of their top 8 tacklers back from last year. A big loss was Marcus Smith and his 14.5 sacks he had last year, but they do have DE Lorenzo Mauldin, who had 9.5 sacks and 4 PBU’s last year. The Cards do have 8 upperclassmen starting on the defense and have hired DC Todd Grantham from Georgia, but still it will be hard to put up the same numbers they did last year that saw them rank 1st in the nation in total defense and 2nd in scoring defense.
The Cards have a new coach, a new QB, a defense that lost a ton of talent and they are now plying in a much tougher conference. The Cardinals will not win 12 games this year, but still Petrino is an excellent coach and he was 41-9 in his first stint here. The schedule has some pitfall, but if the new QB can play as expected and if there is not too much dropoff then this team has a shot at 10 wins by season end. I will call for a 9-3 regular season mark. KEY TREND: 12-0 ATS in their last 12 games vs the ACC.
2014 Louisville Cardinals Football Schedule
Mon, Sep 1st, 2014 Miami-Florida
Sat, Sep 6th, 2014 Murray State
Sat, Sep 13th, 2014 at Virginia
Sat, Sep 20th, 2014 at FIU
Sat, Sep 27th, 2014 Wake Forest
Fri, Oct 3rd, 2014 at Syracuse
Sat, Oct 11th, 2014 at Clemson
Sat, Oct 18th, 2014 NC State
Thu, Oct 30th, 2014 Florida State
Sat, Nov 8th, 2014 at Boston College
Sat, Nov 22nd, 2014 at Notre Dame
Sat, Nov 29th, 2014 Kentucky
Info gathered From Phil Steele's CFB Preview and Athlon Sports
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