No. 19 Louisville and host Stanford may seem like a mismatch when the programs get together Saturday, but Cardinals coach Jeff Brohm knows his team can’t rest on their laurels.
The Cardinals (6-3, 4-2 Atlantic Coast Conference) were off last week after beating Clemson 33-21, handing the Tigers a rare night home loss two weeks ago.
That victory propelled Louisville back into the polls and into the first College Football Playoff rankings last week. The selection committee bumped the Cardinals up from No. 22 to No. 19.
Louisville has won two straight since a 52-45 home loss to No. 9 Miami on Oct. 19. While the Cardinals’ best football of the season has come in their last two games, Brohm told reporters Monday that the off week came at a good time for key players recuperating from injuries to recover and gain their second wind.
They get back to the field and face a Cardinal (2-7, 1-5) squad reeling from six straight losses but also coming out off their bye week. Louisville is a 20.5-point favorite.
“Anytime you have a big win, you can’t have a let up, and if you do, you’re going to get beat,” Brohm said. “That’s the way college football works now. It’s more prevalent now than even in years past.”
One concern Brohm expressed about Stanford is its starting quarterback, Ashton Daniels. In the Cardinal’s last game, a 59-28 loss at North Carolina State on Nov. 2, the junior ran for a career-high 129 yards and his first two rushing touchdowns on 11 carries.
Mobile quarterbacks have posed a problem for the Louisville defense this season. Five have run for at least 50 yards, and two have gone for at least 100 yards.
Daniels may get help from freshman running back Cole Tabb, who made his debut against the Wolfpack and gained 72 yards on 11 carries. Stanford coach Troy Taylor told reporters Tuesday that the 5-foot-8, 190-pound four-star recruit impressed him with his elusiveness.
Stanford’s defense has taken a pounding in its first season in the ACC. The Cardinal rank next-to-last, giving up 412.9 yards a game, and the 34.6-point scoring average is the league’s worst.
Louisville’s offense, meanwhile, has big-play potential. Nationally, the offense is the 19th-best in the country, averaging 449.6 yards per game while only averaging 65.2 plays a game, making it 83rd among Football Bowl Subdivision schools.
Freshman running back Isaac Brown averages 7.5 yards per carry, and Ja’Corey Brooks, a senior transfer from Alabama, ranks 13th nationally with 841 receiving yards. Both are on pace to give Louisville a 1,000-yard rusher and receiver in the same season for the fifth time in school history.
Stanford defensive lineman Tobin Phillips told reporters Tuesday that Louisville’s skill players have stood out this season.
“Their offensive line is long, and they do their job really well,” Phillips said. “But they do lean on their skill guys, so I think we have to try to take advantage of their offensive line and try to prevent as many big plays from occurring.”
Defensively, Louisville expects Benjamin Perry to play on Saturday. The linebacker/safety left the Clemson game in an ambulance and wore a neck brace after trying to make a tackle in the first quarter.
