Five Broad Takeaways from Louisville's 51-17 Win Over EKU

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The Louisville Cardinals handily defeated the Eastern Kentucky Colonels in its week 1 opener for the 2025 season by a score of 51-17. The Cards looked stellar for the most part, but turnovers and undisciplined penalties prevented UofL from putting on a dominant display against the Colonels. Even though it was a comfortable win against an FCS opponent, there are still several broad takeaways from this game that we can point to moving forward. Let’s get started.

1. Isaac Brown is a Legit Heisman Trophy Contender: 

In the first game of his true sophomore season, Isaac Brown carried over his electric play from the 2024 campaign. Against EKU, Brown rushed only 6 times for 126 yards and two touchdowns. His best play of the day came on a 68 yard touchdown run that saw Brown outpace the entire EKU defense down the middle of the field. Obviously, the competition level is about as low as he’ll see for this season, but the breakaway speed he continuously demonstrates makes him one of the best players in college football.

Brown likely won’t have another game this season in which he averages over 20 yards a carry, but that’s not the point. His ability to be a workhorse running back while possessing the speed and acceleration that he has will, in my opinion, give him a great chance to be perceived as one of the best players in the sport and line him up for a potential trip to New York City as a Heisman Trophy finalist. However, for that to even be a possibility, Louisville as a team has to live up to its preseason expectations and more. Furthermore, Isaac will likely need to rush for 1,500 yards or more and over 10 touchdowns, but that is well within his abilities, if given the proper amount of carries. If he can stay healthy, I expect him to continue to be a dominant force on offense in the ACC. 

2. Clev Lubin Looks to be a Perfect Replacement for Ashton Gillotte

This offseason, Louisville had to reload its defensive line and replace multiple key contributors in the position group, most notably Ashton Gillotte, who was drafted by the Kansas City Chiefs and has been receiving rave reviews in camp. Jeff Brohm and co were able to bring in several high level transfers that are expected to make an impact and also maintained several talented players like Jordan Guerad, Rene Konga, and AJ Green. With that said, there were still plenty of questions about the potential of the defensive line to be a strength of the defense in 2025. Clev Lubin, an edge transfer from Coastal Carolina, has started to answer some of those questions. 

In Saturday’s game against Eastern Kentucky, Lubin had 4 tackles, 2 sacks, and 2 tackles for loss. His ability to get an immediate jump off the line of scrimmage was on display on several occasions during the game. His body type and speed rush ability remind me a lot of Mike Green, a rookie from the Baltimore Ravens out of Marshall. Last season, Lubin had 9.5 sacks and was regarded as one of the best pass rushers in the portal this offseason. His impressive performance the other day proved that the hype was well-warranted.

It can be argued that Lubin won’t look this dominant the rest of the year, and I can understand that point of view. Hell, in the first two games of last season, Tramel Logan looked unstoppable off the edge for Louisville. However, for the rest of the season, he was essentially non-existent. So, I can understand the hesitancy to crown Lubin as the sack king for Louisville’s defense this season. On the contrary, I do think Lubin will be Louisville’s best defensive player for the 2025 campaign. His speed rush will work against offensive tackles at all levels of the sport, and his strength and ability to get skinny will set him up to be a nightmare matchup for opposing coaches, likely leading to double teams, akin to what Ashton Gillotte experienced last season. The bottom line is to watch out for Clev Lubin the rest of this season. 

3. The Wide Receiver Group will Elevate Louisville’s Ceiling 

Coming into this season, I was a bit apprehensive of the wide receiver corps living up to the lofty expectations that fans had placed on the room. I was confident in Chris Bell and Caullin Lacy being able to be potential All-ACC level performers, but I was weary about the rest of the group’s ability to pop and put more pressure on opposing defenses, and I still am. However, I do think both Bell and Lacy can be productive enough that they can open up opportunities for the rest of the receivers to shine, especially if the running backs will force defenses to stack the box more often than not. 

Guys like Antonio Meeks and Kris Hughes looked very solid on Saturday. Meeks had a couple of drops, but his size, athleticism, and route running capabilities make him a solid third option. I also love Kris Hughes as a wide receiver four–I see him as a lesser version of Caullin Lacy, but a player that can still be a difference maker on this team. Beyond that, if guys like Treyshun Hurry and Dacari Collins can even slightly live up to their potential, this position group can make an immensely positive impact on Louisville’s offense this season, paving the way for the entire unit to have consistently productive showings. 

4. Louisville’s Depth and Discipline is a Potential Issue

Although I was just talking positive about the depth of Louisville’s wide receiver room, I still have questions regarding the strength of the reserves in the offensive line and tight end rooms. 

Regarding the tight ends, I thought Jaleel Skinner did a solid job blocking and looked shifty during his one reception, but if he’s going to be our best option at that position, I’m not sure UofL will get much production out of that group. I know Nate Kurisky was injured and other tight ends have high potential, but I just don’t feel very confident in any of them being bona fide difference makers at this juncture.

In terms of the offensive line, I have a mixed opinion on them after week 1. I thought the line gave the quarterbacks who played solid protection all game against Eastern Kentucky, but it struggled to consistently open up wide open holes in the ground game against a much smaller and less talented FCS opponent. I know Louisville averaged over 8 yards per carry against EKU, but there were plenty of times in which running backs were stuffed at or near the line of scrimmage. Hopefully that was due to Trevonte Sylvester, the starting left tackle, being injured and out of the game, along with the line having to get into a flow with several new players. Whatever the case may be, for Louisville to be successful, it needs to see a marked improvement on that front. 

Lastly, penalties were a major issue in this game. Last season, Louisville was ranked in the top 40 in the country in most penalties per game. Against EKU, the Cards had 12 penalties for over 100 yards. Most of them were holding penalties by the offensive line and special teams, but Chris Bell was also tagged for an inexcusable unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. That behavior by Bell has been constant during his time at Louisville, and it not being corrected is a red flag to me regarding the discipline and maturity level of this team. Let’s hope it is improved upon moving forward, as Coach Brohm made it a point of emphasis in his post-game press conference.

5. Miller Moss is the Real Deal

Miller Moss only played for one half against Eastern Kentucky, completing 17/25 passes for 223 yards, 1 touchdown, and 2 interceptions. He also had 1 rush for 8 yards and a touchdown on a scramble to the right. After the game, I saw several people online complaining about Miller’s performance and becoming concerned about his ability to lead this team moving forward. They all pointed to his 2 interceptions as the reasoning, which is fair criticism, for the most part. Let’s break down his performance:

The first interception that Moss threw was simply an overthrown pass that was tipped up by wide receiver Treyshun Hurry and returned for a touchdown by Eastern Kentucky. It should’ve been an easy completion to the flat on a hitch route by Hurry, but was thrown well over his head, leading to the pick six. That cannot happen moving forward, full stop. I’m not sure if Miller was expecting a different route from Hurry or just put too much on the throw, but it has to be corrected.

The second interception was actually a great ball by Moss, but was freakishly kicked up into the air by Antonio Meeks and intercepted off of the carom. I don’t place the blame on Miller for that and think it’s unfair to detract from his performance based on that play. Besides the interceptions, I thought Moss played an efficient game, which was highlighted by his 89+ QBR rating after taking into account the interceptions. 

In week 1, Moss was on time, accurate, and comfortable in the pocket. On the few occasions that he was under duress, I thought he made the right play and didn’t lose his accuracy. There were several throws that I was impressed by, including his third-and-nineteen conversion over the middle to Antonio Meeks, the deep over to Caullin Lacy (which was thrown a bit high), and the sideline bomb to Duke Watson for a touchdown. His arm strength was better than I was expecting, so hopefully Jeff Brohm won’t feel like he has to dumb down his offense for Moss in order to keep the offense on schedule.