Latest / ACC Football Addiction (Atlantic Coast Conference) / Louisville Just PROVED Something VERY IMPORTANT in DOMINATING WIN! | Cardinals Football | Jeff Brohm

Transcript

Louisville Just PROVED Something VERY IMPORTANT in DOMINATING WIN! | Cardinals Football | Jeff Brohm · ACC Football Addiction (Atlantic Coast Conference)

0:00
Speaker 1: What's up, Cards fans? Welcome back to ACC Football Addiction.
0:04
Speaker 1: We are presented by Price Picks, where all new users
0:06
Speaker 1: who play a $ 5 lineup get $ 150 in lineups if
0:09
Speaker 1: they win using code HMA. Five days ago, Louisville was
0:15
Speaker 1: standing on the field in Nashville watching Ole Miss kick
0:18
Speaker 1: a field goal as time expired. A game they had
0:21
Speaker 1: right there. A game that, honestly, they probably should have
0:24
Speaker 1: found a way to win. And when that happens, when
0:27
Speaker 1: you play a top 10 team and you play them
0:31
Speaker 1: that close and walk away with an L, there are
0:33
Speaker 1: only two directions that a team can go. They can
0:36
Speaker 1: spend the next few days, the next few weeks feeling
0:39
Speaker 1: sorry for themselves. They can play tight. They can play
0:41
Speaker 1: like a team that's still hung over from a gut punch,
0:44
Speaker 1: or they can respond. Louisville responded tonight. They went out
0:49
Speaker 1: and hung 59 points on Villanova. Final score, 59-13. And look,
0:54
Speaker 1: I know what people will say in the comments before
0:57
Speaker 1: we even get through the intro here. I know it's Villanova.
1:01
Speaker 1: I know it's an FBS team beating up on an
1:03
Speaker 1: FCS opponent. I know that that's supposed to happen. And
1:07
Speaker 1: you're right. Nobody's going to hand out playoff points for
1:10
Speaker 1: beating Villanova. But to me, that's not really what this
1:15
Speaker 1: game was about. This game was about answering a question.
1:20
Speaker 1: Was that performance against Ole Miss the real Louisville, or
1:23
Speaker 1: was it just a flash? Because I know you guys
1:26
Speaker 1: are not here for silver linings. I know you're not
1:29
Speaker 1: here for me to butter your butts and tell you that, oh, man,
1:31
Speaker 1: you played them really close. But if we're being honest,
1:34
Speaker 1: Louisville overachieved against Ole Miss from a national perspective, from
1:40
Speaker 1: a betting perspective. from a conference perspective, no, the mighty sec,
1:45
Speaker 1: they should just wax a team like Louisville. No, I
1:48
Speaker 1: talked about it all week. This was a real opportunity
1:51
Speaker 1: for the cards to go out and get a win.
1:53
Speaker 1: And they came up that short and it doesn't make
1:55
Speaker 1: you feel any better, but Louisville did prove that they
1:58
Speaker 1: belonged in that game. And the question that everybody had was, okay, well,
2:02
Speaker 1: are the cards for real? Are they as good as
2:06
Speaker 1: they looked at points in that Ole Miss game, or
2:08
Speaker 1: maybe as Ole Miss, just not as good. The questions
2:13
Speaker 1: that we had about this team are not all answered
2:16
Speaker 1: because you beat the heck out of a subpar Villanova team.
2:21
Speaker 1: But we did get some answers on Friday night. Tonight
2:24
Speaker 1: I want to talk about three things just very quickly
2:27
Speaker 1: that tie back to that answer. First, what this win
2:30
Speaker 1: means coming off of a heartbreaker like the one you
2:33
Speaker 1: suffered against Ole Miss. So let's jump into things. Start
2:38
Speaker 1: with the response. If you didn't watch the Ole Miss game,
2:41
Speaker 1: I know you guys did if you're Louisville fans, but
2:44
Speaker 1: the quick version, Louisville came in ranked, Ole Miss came
2:47
Speaker 1: in ranked even higher. And for most of that game,
2:50
Speaker 1: it didn't look like there was a gap between much
2:52
Speaker 1: of these teams at all. Lincoln King holds had over
2:56
Speaker 1: 300 yards. He added a rushing score. Louisville led, they trailed,
3:00
Speaker 1: they answered, and they had a real chance to win
3:02
Speaker 1: in the final minutes. And then Ole Miss kicked the
3:05
Speaker 1: game winner as the clock hit zero and Louisville walked
3:08
Speaker 1: out of Nashville with nothing to show for a performance
3:11
Speaker 1: that on a lot of nights is good enough to win.
3:15
Speaker 1: It's a brutal way to open a season. And it's
3:17
Speaker 1: exactly the kind of result that can go one of
3:19
Speaker 1: two ways for a program. For a team that isn't
3:23
Speaker 1: sure of itself yet, I alluded to this, but that
3:25
Speaker 1: loss can linger. You see that all the time in
3:27
Speaker 1: college football. A team plays its heart out, comes up
3:30
Speaker 1: just a little bit short against a really good opponent,
3:33
Speaker 1: and then comes out flat the next week, especially on
3:35
Speaker 1: a short week because they're still stuck replaying the last
3:39
Speaker 1: play of the previous game. Louisville did not do that tonight.
3:42
Speaker 1: They came out Friday and looked like a team that
3:44
Speaker 1: was still angry, still playing with a bit of an edge,
3:47
Speaker 1: still finishing plays like there was something to prove. And
3:49
Speaker 1: I think that says more about where this program is
3:52
Speaker 1: right now than a lot of people want to give
3:54
Speaker 1: it credit for. Because here's the thing about close losses
3:58
Speaker 1: to good teams. They can either break a team's confidence
4:00
Speaker 1: or they can build it. And I know that fans
4:03
Speaker 1: are not here for silver linings. I'll say that again.
4:06
Speaker 1: But based on what we saw in a quick response,
4:09
Speaker 1: a quick turnaround by Louisville against Villanova, they did not
4:13
Speaker 1: play like a team that wondered if they belonged on
4:15
Speaker 1: the same field as Ole Miss. They played like a
4:18
Speaker 1: team that already knew the answer. They just wanted to
4:21
Speaker 1: remind everybody that happened to be watching tonight. That's my
4:25
Speaker 1: first takeaway is the response. It's not about the score.
4:29
Speaker 1: It's not about the opponent. It's about the way they
4:31
Speaker 1: looked in responding because teams that compete for their conferences,
4:36
Speaker 1: teams that have hopes of making it to the playoff
4:39
Speaker 1: teams that are actually building towards something later in the year,
4:42
Speaker 1: do not let one gut punch turn into two or
4:45
Speaker 1: three or four. They flush it. They move forward. And
4:48
Speaker 1: through a week later, Jeff Brahms team has shown exactly
4:52
Speaker 1: just that. Before I get to the second one, I
4:54
Speaker 1: give some love to alumni hall. If you are shopping
4:58
Speaker 1: for the best and largest selection of game day merchandise
5:00
Speaker 1: and apparel, make sure you're doing that with alumni hall.
5:04
Speaker 1: Our code CFA 15 it's college football addiction 15. But
5:08
Speaker 1: if you want to think of it as cards, football
5:10
Speaker 1: addiction 15, that's fine with me. It doesn't matter. It'll
5:13
Speaker 1: save you 15% both online and alumni hall.com and in-store.
5:17
Speaker 1: There's no sign-up. There's no monthly subscription. You're not paying
5:21
Speaker 1: any extra for anything. It just saves you 15% on
5:23
Speaker 1: the gear you were going to buy anyway. If you
5:25
Speaker 1: weren't going to buy anything, it's not for you. If
5:27
Speaker 1: you were, save some money on it. Appreciate Alumni Hall
5:29
Speaker 1: for their support. If you're using that code, I hope
5:32
Speaker 1: you are subscribed to ACC Football Addiction. Now, I do
5:35
Speaker 1: want to get into the second piece of this because
5:37
Speaker 1: I think this is the part that gets overlooked when
5:40
Speaker 1: a team wins by 46 points. This wasn't just about
5:44
Speaker 1: feeling good again. This was about getting ready. Louisville has
5:49
Speaker 1: SMU coming to town next, and if you've been paying
5:51
Speaker 1: attention to anything this offseason or what the ACC race
5:55
Speaker 1: looks like it could shake up like, this isn't just
5:59
Speaker 1: another conference game on the schedule. To me, this is
6:02
Speaker 1: one of the most underrated games of the weekend on
6:06
Speaker 1: the 19th that nobody's talking about, and they should be.
6:10
Speaker 1: Everybody's talking about what's happening in Oxford. with Lane Kiffin
6:15
Speaker 1: coming back. A lot of people are talking about what's
6:16
Speaker 1: happening in Auburn, with John Summerall and Alex Golish going head-to-head. Obviously,
6:22
Speaker 1: Florida State plays in Tuscaloosa. I don't know how many
6:24
Speaker 1: people are talking about that, but it is a game
6:26
Speaker 1: that's happening. But this is the game, to me, that
6:29
Speaker 1: is the most underrated game of Week 3. I should
6:31
Speaker 1: have really done, to start the season, an underrated week
6:34
Speaker 1: of the game. I'll tell you tomorrow, it's BYU-Arizona. If
6:37
Speaker 1: you just want to see a good heavyweight football game
6:39
Speaker 1: that doesn't have all the drama, all the noise around it,
6:42
Speaker 1: that's your one to watch at 3.30 tomorrow, or Today,
6:44
Speaker 1: if you're watching this after midnight, but again, the game
6:48
Speaker 1: has real weight behind it before I stay off on
6:50
Speaker 1: that rabbit trail for a few minutes. SMU is one
6:53
Speaker 1: of the better stories in this league since they arrived.
6:57
Speaker 1: They really have been. And depending on how the rest
6:59
Speaker 1: of the season shakes out for both teams, I think
7:02
Speaker 1: both have pretty favorable schedules. This matchup could end up
7:05
Speaker 1: being a very real factor for who's playing for a
7:08
Speaker 1: spot in Charlotte come championship weekend. Obviously, a lot of
7:12
Speaker 1: people think that Miami will cruise their way to Charlotte.
7:14
Speaker 1: They got to go out and prove it. But I
7:16
Speaker 1: do think they will. Who's going to meet them there?
7:20
Speaker 1: This is the kind of game that you want to
7:23
Speaker 1: be sharp for. Not rusty. Not still nursing an emotional
7:27
Speaker 1: hangover from a heartbreaker the week before. You want to
7:30
Speaker 1: be sharp. And let's be very honest with ourselves. I
7:33
Speaker 1: was in Doak Campbell Stadium on Monday night. SMU looked
7:36
Speaker 1: anything but sharp against the Seminoles. Still found a way
7:40
Speaker 1: to win, and that's not really that hard of a
7:42
Speaker 1: thing to do when you're going up against a Mike
7:43
Speaker 1: Norvell coached team these last couple years. But I think
7:47
Speaker 1: Louisville is probably the team that's playing with a little
7:50
Speaker 1: bit more of an edge right now. And tonight against Villanova,
7:55
Speaker 1: that is what you're supposed to look like when you
7:59
Speaker 1: actually take advantage of it the way that Louisville did.
8:04
Speaker 1: You get your starters into a rhythm early. You get
8:07
Speaker 1: your rotation guys real snaps instead of just mop-up duty.
8:11
Speaker 1: You get to work on situational stuff, red zone execution, tempo,
8:16
Speaker 1: whatever it is you feel like you need to clean
8:18
Speaker 1: up without the stress of a game that's actually in doubt.
8:23
Speaker 1: And you get out healthy. You get out with your
8:26
Speaker 1: confidence much higher than it was just four days ago
8:29
Speaker 1: coming out of Nashville. And you're heading into a game
8:32
Speaker 1: with an extra day of prep that actually matters in
8:34
Speaker 1: a massive way. If Louisville had come out flat on
8:38
Speaker 1: Friday night, if they needed a second half rally to
8:42
Speaker 1: not even come back, but just put away an FCS opponent,
8:46
Speaker 1: it's a much bigger warning side heading into SMU. Instead,
8:52
Speaker 1: this thing was decided early, which means the coaching staff
8:56
Speaker 1: had the luxury of managing snaps and getting a good
8:59
Speaker 1: look at depth. I don't think that's a small thing
9:03
Speaker 1: two weeks into the season in a very long college
9:07
Speaker 1: football season with a game like SMU on the horizon.
9:11
Speaker 1: So when people will tell you, oh, 59-13 win over
9:14
Speaker 1: Villanova doesn't mean anything, I would push back on it
9:17
Speaker 1: a little. I might agree it didn't mean a lot
9:20
Speaker 1: for standings or rankings or anything like that. It doesn't
9:23
Speaker 1: do anything for the conference or the playoff unless you
9:26
Speaker 1: happen to lose it. But as a building block heading
9:29
Speaker 1: into a game that could genuinely factor into the ACC
9:32
Speaker 1: championship picture, it meant quite a lot to me. All right,
9:36
Speaker 1: this is the fun part. Takeaway number three, because I
9:39
Speaker 1: don't think we can keep talking around this anymore. Lincoln-Keenholes
9:43
Speaker 1: looks like the real deal to me. I know that
9:45
Speaker 1: you've taken a few quarterbacks through the portal and they've
9:48
Speaker 1: had different levels of success two games in. And I
9:50
Speaker 1: know that's a small sample size. I get it. I
9:52
Speaker 1: get what the offseason hype was about. But let's talk
9:56
Speaker 1: about what we've actually seen This is a guy who
9:59
Speaker 1: spent multiple years at Ohio State watching from a sideline,
10:02
Speaker 1: buried on a depth chart behind guys that were getting
10:04
Speaker 1: all the attention. And he made the decision to leave
10:07
Speaker 1: and go to a place where he could actually play.
10:10
Speaker 1: He picked Louisville. And through two games, it looks like
10:13
Speaker 1: one of the better decisions a transfer quarterback has made
10:17
Speaker 1: in this league for quite a while. Against Ole Miss
10:21
Speaker 1: in his first real start, he threw for over 300 yards.
10:24
Speaker 1: He had multiple touchdowns. He added a rushing score on
10:27
Speaker 1: top of it against a team that was ranked inside
10:30
Speaker 1: the top 10. It's not a stat line you back into.
10:34
Speaker 1: It's a quarterback playing with real command of the offense
10:37
Speaker 1: in his first start against one of the better teams
10:40
Speaker 1: that you'll play all season. And then on Friday, he
10:43
Speaker 1: kept it rolling. The Villanova game didn't come against elite competition,
10:48
Speaker 1: but efficient is efficient one way or the other. And
10:50
Speaker 1: this offense did not slow down at all. Louisville put
10:53
Speaker 1: up 59 points, which means the operation that Braum has
10:56
Speaker 1: built around this quarterback is humming through two weeks. Part
11:00
Speaker 1: of that is Keenholz himself. He's a dual threat in
11:03
Speaker 1: the truest sense. He can sit in the pocket and
11:05
Speaker 1: go through a full field read. He can also tuck
11:08
Speaker 1: in and pick up chunks with his legs when a
11:10
Speaker 1: play breaks down. That's the exact profile that Jeff Braum
11:13
Speaker 1: has had success with before. And it's looking like Louisville
11:16
Speaker 1: found the right fit at quarterback. I've been waiting all
11:20
Speaker 1: night to talk about this one. It is not just him.
11:23
Speaker 1: Laway McCoy has been a legitimate weapon since he got
11:27
Speaker 1: to Louisville from Florida State. And he's already flashed the
11:30
Speaker 1: kind of downfield connection with his quarterback that makes defensive
11:33
Speaker 1: coordinators nervous. We have Jeremy from Card Sports Zone on
11:37
Speaker 1: quite often. Need to get him on again here soon.
11:40
Speaker 1: But I'll tell you, I told him multiple times through
11:43
Speaker 1: this offseason, man, you're going to love this kid. I
11:46
Speaker 1: told him on the show, you can go back and
11:47
Speaker 1: watch some old episodes. I told him in DMS, you
11:50
Speaker 1: can tweet at me and I'll send you those. If
11:52
Speaker 1: you want me to screenshot them, I told him on
11:53
Speaker 1: the timeline, like I am jacked to see this kid
11:56
Speaker 1: play in a real offense with a real coach and
11:59
Speaker 1: real weapons around him too. And when you've got a
12:03
Speaker 1: quarterback who can push the ball vertically and a receiver
12:06
Speaker 1: who can take the top off of a defense, it
12:09
Speaker 1: changes the math for everybody trying to game plan against
12:12
Speaker 1: this offense. Now I want to talk about the run game.
12:15
Speaker 1: Because this does tie back into Ole Miss to me.
12:18
Speaker 1: Isaac Brown is the guy who makes this offense different
12:21
Speaker 1: when he is rolling. A year ago, he was averaging
12:24
Speaker 1: better than eight yards a carry, but he had a
12:26
Speaker 1: quiet night against Ole Miss. There's 36 yards on 16 carries,
12:29
Speaker 1: which is certainly not what Louisville fans were used to
12:32
Speaker 1: seeing from him. Friday was a step in the right direction.
12:36
Speaker 1: Brown picked up 61 yards on 13 carries. He had
12:40
Speaker 1: better than four and a half yards of pop, more
12:42
Speaker 1: than double his output from the week before. Still didn't
12:44
Speaker 1: find the end zone, but efficiency-wise, it's a real bounce back.
12:48
Speaker 1: And he wasn't the headline. They knew they didn't need
12:50
Speaker 1: to put a bunch of tread on his tires. Missouri
12:53
Speaker 1: transfer Marquise Davis broke off a huge night. 86 yards
12:58
Speaker 1: on just seven carries, two touchdowns. He averaged more than
13:00
Speaker 1: 12 yards every time he touched it. Keenholz chipped in
13:03
Speaker 1: by rushing for two more scores of his own. By
13:06
Speaker 1: the time it was over, Louisville had put up somewhere
13:08
Speaker 1: around 260 yards on the ground as a team. That's
13:13
Speaker 1: also combined with five total rushing touchdowns. I didn't think
13:17
Speaker 1: they were just padding the stats against an overmatched opponent either.
13:21
Speaker 1: They were an offense that can legitimately beat you on
13:24
Speaker 1: the ground just as well as they can beat you
13:26
Speaker 1: through the air. And that's the identity that Louisville is building.
13:30
Speaker 1: It's a quarterback who can throw it and run it.
13:32
Speaker 1: They've got receivers like McCoy who can take a short
13:35
Speaker 1: pass and go the distance or go get one deep
13:38
Speaker 1: down the field. And they've got a run game that
13:41
Speaker 1: even without the lead back shining just yet and finding
13:44
Speaker 1: the end zone, it looks like one of the more
13:46
Speaker 1: dangerous groups in the ACC on a Friday night. Two
13:49
Speaker 1: of those pieces were already humming through that Ole Miss game.
13:52
Speaker 1: After Friday, I'd say it's all three. So I want
13:55
Speaker 1: to bring this together because I think all three of
13:57
Speaker 1: these stories are really one. Louisville took a gut punch
14:01
Speaker 1: in Nashville. It's the kind of loss that can define
14:04
Speaker 1: a season if a team lets it. Instead, they turned
14:07
Speaker 1: it around just five short days later, and they reminded
14:10
Speaker 1: everybody what they're capable of. They used that time to
14:13
Speaker 1: get their rotation reps in. They stayed sharp, and they
14:15
Speaker 1: got healthy heading into a game against SMU that carries
14:19
Speaker 1: real weight in this conference race. And running through all
14:22
Speaker 1: of it is a quarterback– who left Ohio State looking
14:26
Speaker 1: for an opportunity and through just two games has looked
14:30
Speaker 1: like the exact kind of difference maker that Jeff Braum
14:32
Speaker 1: needed this offense to make it go. None of that
14:35
Speaker 1: guarantees anything about SMU. Nothing in this sport is decided
14:40
Speaker 1: in September. But if you're a Louisville fan trying to
14:42
Speaker 1: figure out what to feel after a heartbreaking loss to
14:45
Speaker 1: open the year, I think Friday night gave you a
14:47
Speaker 1: little bit of an answer. Your team didn't blink. if
14:50
Speaker 1: Lincoln keeps playing like this, if the offense keeps rolling
14:53
Speaker 1: this way, the way that it has through the first
14:55
Speaker 1: two games, Louisville is going to be squarely in the
14:58
Speaker 1: middle of the conversation about who's playing for a championship
15:01
Speaker 1: in Charlotte this December. We will get more answers soon enough.
15:07
Speaker 1: SMU is coming to town, and that's the game that
15:11
Speaker 1: actually will tell us where this team stands. I appreciate
15:15
Speaker 1: you guys a ton for watching. I would love to
15:17
Speaker 1: hear your thoughts on the result tonight, on the game tonight,
15:21
Speaker 1: how your team responded tonight. And, of course, we'll talk
15:23
Speaker 1: about that SMU game a couple of times this week
15:25
Speaker 1: here on ACC Football Addiction. So make sure you are
15:28
Speaker 1: subscribed and you don't miss any of that. Appreciate the
15:31
Speaker 1: kind words. Appreciate the support on the channel as we
15:34
Speaker 1: continue to grow. Recently just went up over 7,000 subscribers
15:37
Speaker 1: as we grow this ACC-specific channel on the College Football
15:41
Speaker 1: Addiction Network. We appreciate our friends at PrizePix. We're all
15:44
Speaker 1: new users who play a $ 5 lineup and use code HMA,
15:47
Speaker 1: get $ 150 in lineups instantly. We'll see you guys next
15:50
Speaker 1: time on ACC Football Addiction.