UNC Football early opponent preview: Louisville Cardinals
Keeping It Heel takes a look at each of the North Carolina Tar Heels football opponents in reverse order. This week we take a look at Louisville.
NC State | Western Carolina | Pittsburgh | Miami | Virginia Tech | Virginia
Notre Dame | Georgia Tech | Duke | Old Dominion
The last time these two teams played was 2012 with Louisville still a member of Conference USA.
Larry Fedora was in his first season still trying to instill his new offense and Charlie Strong hadn’t left for Texas yet.
Louisville got the win at home that day 39-34. They jumped out to a 29-0 lead before UNC stormed back. Despite outscoring Louisville 20-3 in the fourth, UNC fell short.
But with this year’s game in Chapel Hill, will it be any different?
Head Coach: Bobby Petrino. Career Record 109-43 (67-22 at Lousiville). This will be his eighth season at Lousiville which is his first and fourth head coaching stop.
Petrino started his coaching career at Louisville back in 2003 going 41-9 over four seasons. He then left for Arkansas. After four seasons there, Petrino was let go and then ended up at Western Kentucky for one season before returning to Louisville.
Petrino has never finished worse than third in the division in any of his seven seasons at Louisville.
Best Former Player: QB Johnny Unitas, one-time Super Bowl Champion, 10-time Pro Bowler, seven-time All-Pro, and three-time NFL Champion (this was before the Super Bowl Era).
Additionally, Unitas won five MVP awards, three player of the year awards and was the NFL passing yards and touchdown leader four times.
The quarterback had 2,830 completions for 40,239 yards ( 18th all-time) and 290 touchdowns (13th all-time) during his NFL career. Unitas was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1979.
Second Best Former Player: LB/DE Elvis Dumervil, five-time Pro Bowler, two-time All-Pro, and 2009 NFL sacks leader. Dumervil has never played in the Super Bowl, leaving the Broncos the year before they went and joining the Ravens the year after they won it.
For his career, Dumervil has 352 tackles, 99 sacks, 23 forced fumbles, and an interception. Dumervil looks to become just the 32nd player ever to record 100 sacks playing for the San Francisco 49ers this season.
Last Season: Went 9-4 (7-1 in ACC play). Finished tied for first in the Atlantic Division. Lousiville’s season started off with a bang as the Cardinals won nine of their first 10 games.
The one loss was by six at Clemson.
However, after a win a Wake Forest, that saw Louisville rise to number three in the nation for a second time, the Cardinals loss three-straight to end the season, including a 20-point loss to LSU in the Citrus Bowl.
This Season: Louisville is considered one of the top teams in the country and a lot is expected of them this season. Unfortunately for the Cardinals, they play in the same division as Florida State and Clemson, so even a good year may not be good enough.
Louisville plays seven teams who had winning records last season as well as seven teams that made bowl games. Additionally, Louisville gets eight home games. An 11-1 season with access bowl potential seems more than doable.
Best Current Player: QB Lamar Jackson. Last season Jackson threw the ball 409 times for 3543 yards and 30 touchdowns. He also ran the ball 260 times for 1,571 yards and another 21 scores.
For his efforts he was named ACC player of the year, was a unanimous All-American, and became the youngest player ever to win the Heisman Trophy.
In his first three games, Jackson had 18 total touchdowns and 1,377 yards as his team outscored their opponents 195-62. One of those opponents happened to be FSU, so it wasn’t like he did this against a cupcake schedule either.
Match-up: Saturday, September 9th in Chapel Hill
Prediction: Though a lot has changed since 2012, Louisville is a very similar team to the one the Tar Heels faced five seasons ago.
Both teams enter the season ranked, have dynamic quarterbacks who can beat teams with their legs and arms and are coming off a bowl loss.
The only difference is local and the last time Louisville came to Chapel Hill, the Tar Heels were the victors.
Final score: Louisville 35, UNC 28.
If Mitch was still here and not a third string quarterback for the Chicago Bears, I might be very tempted to pick the Tar Heels. However, he is and UNC is unsure who there leader will be this season.
UNC keeps it close at home, but the reigning Heisman trophy winner is just too much for the Tar Heels to pull the upset.