Louisville Beat Writer Answers 5 Questions About Cal's Next Opponent

Each week we ask a reporter who covers Cal’s next opponent to answer five questions about that football team. This week we asked Matt McGavic of Louisville Cardinals on SI to answer five questions about 14th-ranked Louisville, which is 7-1 overall and 4-1 in the ACC and hosts Cal (5-4, 2-3 ACC) on Saturday, starting at 4 p.m. Pacific time.

Here are the five questions. We provide an excerpt from each answer, but you may want to view the entire video to get the full answer:

--- 1. Louisville running back Isaac Brown leads the nation in rushing yards per carry at 8.6. But he is not playing against Cal. What impact will his absence have on the game?

“It’s undoubtedly going to have a big impact just because he’s legitimately one of the best running backs in the entire sport,” McGavic said, “so when you lose someone like that it’s going to influence your offense a little bit.

“But they have a guy in Keyjuan Brown, who’s been surging over the last couple of weeks. He’s more of their bruiser. They have a couple speed backs in Isaac Brown and Duke Watson. Duke Watson’s missed the past few weeks, but it sounds like he might be in line to play this weekend.”

McGavic expects Keyjuan Brown to be the starter.

“They’ll still have a solid ground game; it won’t be as explosive as it normally is,” McGavic said.

--- 2. Cardinals head coach Jeff Brohm is getting mentioned as a possible candidate for several prominent head coaching vacancies. What’s your sense of whether he will be at Louisville next season?

“Honestly if you ask me, there is a zero percent chance that he leaves,” McGavic said.

McGavic mentions Brohm went to high school in Louisville, is a University of Louisville alumnus and has many ties to the university and the Louisville area.

“Now, they’ll have to rework his contract a little,” McGavic said.

--- 3. Louisville is ranked No. 1 in the ACC in total defense. What makes their defense so effective?

McGavic notes Louisville’s strength up front and in their front seven in general.

“They have one of the more underrated defensive edges in the league in Clev Lubin,” he said.

“They do a very good job at the point of attack.”

“A month ago you might think the linebacker room might take a little bit of a hit when Stanquan Clark, their star middle linebacker who is arguably the best defender on the team and the second-best player on the entire teams, he suffered an ankle injury against JMU [on September 5] and has been out ever since,” McGavic said.

But a lot of players have played well in his absence.

The secondary, especially the cornerbacks, was expected to be the biggest concern.

“But this is a position group that exceeded all expectations,” McGavic said.

--- 4. How would you assess the season of quarterback Miller Moss, who has 11 touchdown passes and six interceptions?

“Moss was brought in to be a game-manager, and maybe not a play-maker, like Tyler Shough was for Louisville last season,” McGavic said, “[but] he has shown flashes of that; he’s someone who can keep the offense on schedule at times, but with him being a fifth-year senior there have been some points in this season, the pressure, when it gets to him, he does get a little bit frazzled and decision-making kind of goes out the window at times.”

“He hasn’t been as good this year as he was last year [at USC] in his pocket awareness.”

“If I had to give him a grade, I’d probably border on C-plus, B-minus.”

“He’s definitely in the top five, maybe top half of quarterbacks in the league, but he’s definitely left a lot to be desired at times.”

--- 5. Four of Louisville’s seven victories have been comeback wins, including its rally from a 16-7 halftime deficit to beat Virginia Tech 28-16 on Saturday. What makes the Cardinals so resilient?

“They just have a really tough mental makeup,” McGavic said.

McGavic said offensive inconsistency has led to some slow starts.

However, no matter how dire the situation, said McGavic, “They don’t hang their heads, they keep each other accountable, they stay in the game, they stay locked in, focused, whatever cliché you want to use. But they have shown multiple times this season they are just not going to give up until the game is over.”

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