100 Days to Kickoff: Opponent Previews – Louisville

The Jackets will host the Louisville Cardinals for their ninth game of the 2026 campaign, and to many, the matchup doesn't make the shortlist of the season's most exciting bouts. The back-to-back primetime matchups against Colorado and Tennessee, the tough road tests against hungry Virginia Tech and Clemson squads, and, of course, COFH, all seem more interesting on paper than a home midseason matchup against the Cardinals. Yet by season's end, Louisville has a real shot at being the best team the Jackets face this year.

Cardinals football may be the most interesting thing about the otherwise lame city of Louisville. They joined the ACC in 2014 and firmly established themselves as a great, but not amazing ACC squad. This all changed in 2022, when the Cardinals hired head coach Jeff Brohm. Brohm, who once quarterbacked for Louisville in the 90s, is one of the best offensive minds in the biz. He's best known for leading Western Kentucky to its two greatest seasons ever and giving Purdue three of its six winning seasons since I have been, well, alive.

The Brohm show made a quick impact in its pilot season, as the Cardinals started 10-1 and had a decent shot at the College Football Playoff. They then completely collapsed, losing to a bad Kentucky team, the Jordan Travis-less Seminoles, and Caleb Williams' 7-5 USC in the Holiday Bowl. Ever since that first season, the Cardinals have been a perennially popular dark-horse pick for the CFP and ACC Championship, although they have not yet reached those heights.

2024 and 2025 were two different flavors of underachievement. In 2024, Louisville lost three of four matchups to CFP contenders, all by one score, with the death blow being an embarrassing loss to a terrible Stanford team. In 2025, the opposite happened: Louisville got an early marquee win against #2 Miami, but then lost three straight to unranked Cal, Clemson, and SMU.

This year, however, the expectations are even higher, as oddsmakers have Louisville as the second-most likely ACC Champion.

What gives Louisville upside to make it over the hump? It starts with Brohm, a QB whisperer who somehow manages to turn a different castaway signal-caller into a quality starter each season. His best achievement was turning Tyler Shough, a seventh year QB who had yet not played a complete season into a second-round pick who now starts for the Saints. This year, Lincoln Kienholz is the next project, who spent the last year holding the clipboard at Ohio State. While Kienholz is the least experienced of the QBs Brohm has brought in, Brohm scheme should at least keep him replacement level, with the upside of being a top 5 ACC QB.

As for the rest of the offense, the running backs should shine, with Isaac and Keyjuan Brown (no relation) leading the charge. Isaac Brown is a bona fide star, averaging a CFB-leading 7.1 and 8.8 yards per carry in his freshman and sophomore seasons. While Isaac Brown was hobbled towards the end of last year, Keyjuan Brown took over, averaging 7.3 yards per carry. While Isaac will be the obvious starter, Keyjuan provides a two-headed-monster dynamic that can vastly simplify the load on Kienholz.

Louisville won't have a wide receiver or tight end reach Isaac Brown's level of stardom this year, but pass catchers won't be an issue for the Cardinals either. The biggest names, Tre Richardson, Lawayne McCoy, and Brody Foley, all come from the transfer portal. Richardson was Vanderbilt's leading receiver last year, a big-play threat that averaged 17.5 yards per reception. McCoy has had a quieter career thus far, catching just 33 passes in two years with Florida State. Still, he has immense upside, as his value may be understated due to FSU's horrible offense. Then there is Brody Foley: the Tulsa product that is the third-highest ranked tight end transfer on 247Sports. Foley racked up the most receiving yards for the Golden Hurricanes last year and will likely hear his name called in the early rounds of the April draft.

While Louisville's skill positions aren't exactly stacked with depth, they should be good enough to provide relief in the case of injury without totally kneecapping the operation. The same doesn't go for the O-line. Louisville returns only Lance Robinson, a veteran leader who is in his seventh year. 2025 was his best season, where he notched an All-ACC honorable mention. As for the rest of the unit, it's a hodgepodge of mid-tier starting transfers from across the P4 and G6, and whatever reserves remain after the portal.

Will this do the job? Who knows? But the situation does give those bearish on Louisville's outlook something to point at. Running backs, no matter how elite, need a good O-line to produce. And while you can out-talent a bad O-line through the passing attack, Kienholz and his crew probably won't be enough, even with Brohm's offensive expertise.

If one or two of the O-line transfers don't pan out, or if Robinson goes down, you could get a repeat of last year, when, in Louisville's first two ACC matches, the line crumbled and Isaac Brown was all but neutralized, rushing for 86 yards on 27 carries and no touchdowns. The line is like a wobbly leg on the otherwise stout chair that is the Cardinal offense. With one bad blow, they could potentially jeopardize the whole operation.

The Cardinals defense, on the other hand, shouldn't encounter such problems. Last year, they were elite, ranking 17th in total defense and 10th against the run. That run defense was anchored by EDGE Clev Lubin, who racked up 13.5 TFLs and 8.5 sacks. He's flanked by AJ Green, who added six TFLs and four sacks of his own. They also added Demco Kennedy and Tyler Thompson in the portal, the former a mid-level starter from Purdue, the latter a DL-LB hybrid from UNC who put up seven sacks and 7.5 TFLs in 2025. Speaking of linebackers, Louisville returns starters Stanquan Clark and T.J. Capers and will look within for depth pieces. The continuity primes an already strong front seven for an even better 2026.

This trend of continuity also extends to the coaching staff, as although defensive coordinators Mark Hagen and Ron English voluntarily stepped away, they were replaced internally, with position coaches Steve Ellis and Mark Ivey promoted to share the role in 2026.

The secondary is a bit of a partial exception, as they did lose three starters to graduation. However, they retain perhaps the most talented members of the group, including headliner Antonio Watts, as well as Tayon Holloway and Jabari Mack. They also collected five P4 transfers, as well as Elon product Bryson Scott.

On paper, Louisville lives up to the dark horse moniker, as they have a real chance to run the table in the ACC with their favorable schedule. They avoid Miami altogether, catch Ole Miss, the best team on their schedule, in week 1, and have just five away games, of which the most difficult will likely be the matchup against the Jackets on the Flats. The Cardinals will also have a runway leading to Atlanta, as they play a sorry Syracuse team, get a bye, then play an arguably worse Stanford team before the Jackets. In short, unless the offensive line crumbles or the defense just… stops defending, the Jackets will have their hands full with the Cardinals.