At the north end of the front row of the L&N Stadium press box, two seats were reserved for representatives of the Pop-Tarts Bowl on Saturday. To imagine a more prestigious destination for this Louisville football team is to indulge delusions about its defense.
For the fourth time in the five games it has played against ostensibly comparable opponents, the Cardinals allowed more than 400 yards of total offense in a 52-45 loss to Miami. It was 538 yards to be exact, the highest total in head coach Jeff Brohm’s two-year tenure, and the latest installment in a continuing saga of blown coverages, sloppy tackling, communication breakdowns and assorted ineptitude.
“They were able to move the ball at will for the most part,” Brohm said, almost seething as he spoke. ”We had a couple good stops there in the middle of the game, that was good. We were able to get a couple sacks, but we are giving up way too many big plays. We gave up way too many big rushes. We weren’t able to tackle people to the ground late in the game. We weren’t able to bring people down when we needed to. So those are things we have to get fixed if we want to try and win football games.”
This won’t be easy, and it may not be possible. Though the NCAA’s transfer portal has facilitated considerable freedom of movement for athletes formerly shackled to their schools like indentured servants, Brohm is poorly positioned to reshape his roster between games. Neither is he likely to soon scapegoat defensive coordinator Ron English, who followed him from Purdue, despite recurring calls for a coaching staff shakeup in post-game radio venting.
Moreover, video of the last of Miami’s seven touchdowns — running back Damien Martinez trampling U of L safety Tamarion McDonald and then carrying two other Louisville defensive backs into the end zone on a 30-yard run – served as vivid indictment of U of L’s talent, toughness and technique. Brohm cited a season-long tendency to tackle too low and the need to get more bodies to the ballcarrier among factors contributing to yards yielded after contact.
“It’s technique at the end of the day,” said U of L defensive end Ramon Puryear. “We’re all men, and you’ve got to find a way to be a man and make a tackle when it’s one-on-one in that hole. This is a violent sport, so you’ve got to be violent, and we didn’t do a great job of tackling. We’ve got to get better.”
Granted, you seldom see a flawed football team successfully address all of its shortcomings in mid-season, particularly when it is scheduled to play four of its five remaining regular season games on the road. But it’s not as if the Cardinals are overmatched overall, given the prolific offense Brohm has developed. It’s worth noting that the 2023 Cardinals gave up at least 400 yards five times en route to a 10-4 record, and were able to win four of those five games. A cursory comparison shows the 2023 team fared slightly better, on average, at creating turnovers and slightly worse at making tackles for loss. Thus far, the 2024 team has intercepted only two of the 213 passes thrown against it, none in any of its five games against power conference opponents.
If there’s solace to be found by U of L fans, it is that the Cards’ three losses have all been by seven points and against teams ranked No. 6 (Miami), No. 12 (Notre Dame) and No. 21 (SMU) in the Associated Press poll preceding Saturday’s kickoff. Moreover, were it not for a Miami fumble overturned on review, nullifying an apparent 65-yard scoop-and-score by Louisville’s Antonio Watts, Saturday’s game might have gone into overtime unresolved. Still, a season that started with an impressive cast of new playmakers and a realistic route to college football’s expanded playoff must now be viewed with more modest expectations. With 10th-ranked Clemson, 20th-ranked Pitt and arch-rival Kentucky still on the schedule, even the humble Pop-Tarts Bowl may prove out of reach.
“We want it to sting,” Brohm said of Saturday’s loss. “We want to taste the wound. We want to despise the taste because it is really an awful taste. One thing I will say is our guys do care. They work hard and they want to win, but it just doesn’t happen. With that said, we preach all year long, it is a one-game season. Seven and 0 or four and three or one and six — whatever it is — you have to come back and play one game the best that you can. If you can’t concentrate and do that and you aren’t tough enough to stand the adversity along the way and the highs along the way, then you aren’t going to be a good football player.”
This article appears in LEO Weekly presents Readers’ Choice 2024.