Five Takeaways from Louisville's 24-21 Win Over Miami

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Jeff Brohm and the Cards did it again. For the third time in as many years, Jeff Brohm has led Louisville to victory against a blue blood opponent. In 2023, it was at home against #10 Notre Dame. Last year, the Cards stormed into Clemson to mop up the #11 Tigers. This time around, Brohm has painted his regular season Starry Night masterpiece, as Louisville defeated the #2 Miami Hurricanes on the road in a game that was closer than it should’ve been. Let’s get right into the takeaways: 

1. Ronald English

Ronny–I have nothing to say except that I’m sorry. I doubted you during the second half of the 2023 season, lambasted you basically all of last year, so much so that I was calling for your job, and had low expectations for the defensive side of the ball coming into this season. Now, I look like the biggest moron on the planet.

Louisville’s defense plays with toughness at every level, and that’s without its best defensive player in Stanquan Clark, which, in my opinion, should earn Ron a contract extension. Louisville’s defensive line can get pressure when sending 4 players through the likes of Rene Konga and Jordan Guerad on the inside and Clev Lubin, Wes Bailey, and AJ Green on the outside. This defensive line is deep and can clog up running lanes for backers to clean up while also making opposing quarterbacks feel the pressure, even when they’re not always getting sacks.

When looking at the box score, you’d think the defensive line didn’t do enough in terms of rushing the passer, but the QB hurries and pressures led Carson Beck into regressing back to his 2024 self. He seemed timid, nervous, and was always looking over his shoulder, to the beautiful tune of throwing 4 interceptions, and should’ve thrown more. The only bad play by the line on Friday was an ill-advised roughing the passer call on Wesley Bailey.

Moving on to the linebackers: TJ Quinn was dynamite, both in coverage and open field tackling. Several times he brought down Carson Beck on scrambles while also being in perfect position over the middle of the field in pass coverage and on the line of scrimmage with his run fits. 

Antonio Watts again had one of the best interceptions I’ve ever seen by a linebacker and was head hunting all night. I love the growth we’ve seen out of him in this program after coming in as an overlooked high school recruit. Lastly, TJ Capers sealed the game with an incredible interception off a tipped pass by JoJo Evans, leading UofL to one of its biggest wins in school history. 

Finally, I have to give props to the secondary–both corners and safeties. Jabari Mack made an insane interception over a Miami receiver that would’ve made Randy Moss proud. On the play in which he caught the pick, Mack was in man coverage, and stayed in phase on his assignment, even after Carson Beck threw a pump fake, and made an incredible play on the ball to rip the ball out of the hands of Miami’s receiver in midair.  

The secondary did give up a couple of chunk plays in the pass game, but they more than made up for it and proved me very wrong when I said that we couldn’t play man coverage all game against Miami last week.

Guys like DeAngelo Hutchinson and JoJo Evans were all over the field Friday night, laying massive hits or making crucial plays in pass coverage. People had high hopes for JoJo Evans coming into the season, but Hutchinson was a question mark, as he’s been a career backup. It’s safe to say he’s taking on his new role nicely. Corey Gordon got murdered by an offensive lineman, but we don’t need to talk about that… Moving on.

2. Miller Moss Didn’t Lose the Game for Louisville

Hallelujah! Fans, including myself, have lambasted Miller Moss, and rightly so at times, for his poor play. Moss was a major reason as to why Louisville lost against Virginia, but he, for the most part, played a clean game last Friday night. Against Miami, Moss completed 23/37 passes for 248 yards and two touchdowns. He also opened the game up with a rushing touchdown on a tush push. 

Thankfully for UofL, Miami never changed its defensive strategy throughout the game, allowing Moss and his receivers to continue carving them up on underneath routes. There were very few times in which he pushed the ball down the field against the Canes, mainly because it wasn’t necessary against the defense he saw, and he needed to get the ball out quickly to prevent Miami’s pass rushers from ruining the game, which he did successfully. Essentially, Moss took what the defense gave him and played like a poised veteran outside of a couple of plays. If he can do that moving forward, Louisville has the skill players and defense necessary to make a playoff run.

3. Jeff Brohm is Inevitable

Man, what else needs to be said about Jeff Brohm against highly ranked opponents? During his time at UofL, Louisville is 4-4 against ranked opponents (at the time of the game) and 2-1 against top 10 teams. Jeff came to Louisville with the reputation of being a giant killer, which has held true since. The challenge now is to maintain consistency and motivation for his coaching staff and players. If he can accomplish that, Louisville can make its first ever playoff appearance this December.

4. The Louisville Run Game Finally Got Going

Although Isaac Brown had a crushing fumble that put Louisville’s win in jeopardy on Friday, he was dynamite outside of that one play. He looked like the 2024 version of Isaac Brown: quick, explosive, and deceptively powerful. There were multiple runs that he gained 10+ yards on against one of the best defensive lines in the sport. Brown ran for 113 yards on 15 carries, good for 7.5 YPC, right around where he was a year ago. If he can stay healthy and engaged, and the offensive line can continue to open up running lanes for him, then Louisville’s offense can realistically reach its preseason offensive potential.

5. Louisville is Back in the Hunt

To be clear with this, Louisville currently does not control its own destiny to appear in the ACC Championship game. As of now, Georgia Tech and Virginia (Louisville’s only loss) are undefeated in conference play. Virginia did lose to NC State on the road, but that was technically a non-conference game. 

Moreover, Tech and UVA have laughably easy remaining games in conference play, relatively speaking. Therefore, if Louisville wants to earn an automatic bid to the College Football Playoff, it has to either win out and hope GT and UVA drops below the Cards in the conference standings, or Louisville still has to win out and hope 11-1 is good enough for an at-large bid to the dance, which it very well should be. 

Louisville’s win against Miami was historical for its program, and one that has dialed the fan base back in on football, even with basketball season coming up quickly on the horizon. Although UofL has a tougher remaining schedule than Georgia Tech and Virginia, the Cards are still very much in the hunt to make both the ACC title game and College Football Playoff.

Louisville’s Remaining Games: Boston College, @ Virginia Tech, California, Clemson, @ SMU, Kentucky (irrelevant to conference standings).

Georgia Tech's Remaining Games: Syracuse, @ NC State, @ Boston College, Pittsburgh, Georgia (irrelevant to conference standings).

Virginia's Remaining Games: @ North Carolina, @ California, Wake Forest, @ Duke, Virginia Tech.

Go Cards, Beat Boston College.