Behind Enemy Lines: Q&A with Louisville Report on the Cardinals Ahead Of ACC Championship

There are only a couple of days remaining until Florida State and Louisville match up in the ACC Championship. The Cardinals will be pursuing their first title since joining the conference while the Seminoles return to Charlotte for the first time in nine years.

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Ahead of the action, NoleGameday caught up with Matt McGavic of Louisville Report, the Louisville site on Sports Illustrated's Fan Nation network, to get the inside scoop on the Cardinals. Florida State and Louisville are set to kick off at 8:00 p.m. on Saturday night.

1. The Cardinals have established themselves as one of the most consistent programs in the ACC but haven’t competed for a conference championship until now. What has Jeff Brohm done differently than previous coaches to guide Louisville into this position?

He’s been able to get them to compete from start to finish, both in the context of the games themselves and the season as a whole. Even during the Lamar Jackson Heisman Trophy year in 2016 under Bobby Petrino, Louisville collapsed down the stretch and didn’t even get to 10 wins. Previous head coach Scott Satterfield was notorious for his teams’ ability to not be able to finish in the second half and fourth quarter of games.

One thing that has stood out about this team is that no matter the opponent, no matter the score, no matter the down and distance, they are going to fight and give themselves a chance to win until the clock hits double zeroes. Sure, they also benefitted from a weaker schedule than many other teams in the ACC, but this team is performing about as well as it possibly can given the tools at its current disposal, which hasn’t always been the case.

2. Louisville is 10-2 entering this contest but is coming off a loss to Kentucky in the regular season finale. What’s the mood around the team as they prepare to face an undefeated opponent?

The team is certainly disappointed in how things unfolded against Kentucky. On paper, this is a team that had a clear advantage at most positions and should have probably won by double digits. Instead, the execution fell well short of what we have come to expect from this team, and they made far too many mistakes. Fortunately, they have done a good job this season at not letting the previous game affect them too much, whether it was a win or a loss. Brohm has instilled a “one game season” mentality in his program, and for the most part, they have stuck to that mindset. As they head into this game, the players and coaches alike are ready to prove their worth on a national stage and show what they are capable of doing.

3. Jawhar Jordan has taken his game to another level this season. Where has he improved the most and is there any way to slow him down?

He took a huge step forward in a couple of areas. One: while he was already a pretty fast player in terms of his top-end speed, he improved dramatically in terms of his burst and acceleration. Two: even though he is a smaller back, he actually got a lot better at running in between the tackles, absorbing contact and shedding would-be tacklers fairly quickly. As far as what can slow him down, we already know the answer. Jordan has been dealing with a hamstring injury since before the Pitt game, and his overall explosiveness isn’t as impactful as it was in the first half of the season because of it. Fortunately, backup Isaac Guerendo has stepped up in recent weeks and has been a tremendous asset in the running back room.

4. The Cardinals have 30 sacks and 12 interceptions on defense this season. How have they been so successful in disrupting offenses and what happened the last two weeks that changed with them allowing back-to-back 30+ point performances?

What has allowed them to be as efficient as they have been for most of the season defensively has been that they have been playing complementary football. The strength of this defense has undoubtedly been their ability to stop the run.

Defensive linemen have routinely been winning one-on-one battles at the point of attack to disrupt running backs at the very minimum, and then the linebackers and safeties behind them have been doing an excellent job at swarming to the football and wrapping up. Additionally, the efforts in the secondary have - more often than not - been solid, with the defensive backs not given up a ton of separation.

But in the last few games, there have been a few major developments. First of all the, the defensive line isn’t getting in the backfield as often and making the quarterback uncomfortable. Secondly, the second-level tackling from linebackers and safeties has been flat-out atrocious. Arm tackling, poor pursuit angles, all of it. Then, on the back end, there has been an influx of miscommunications and missed assignments that have led to receivers getting wide-open far too often.

5. What do the Cardinals have to do to win the game, and conversely, what would lead to them losing the game?

It all comes back to if they can get their defense back to playing how they had been during the first half-plus of the season. If they can execute at a higher level and take advantage of an offense that is without their star QB, then I believe they have a very good chance to pull off the upset.

Conversely, if their offense makes too many mistakes and puts the defense in a bad spot, they have zero chance. Case in point: in their loss to Pitt, they had three turnovers inside the Pitt 25-yard line. Last week against Kentucky, they had back-to-back second-half fumbles that turned a three-point lead into a seven-point deficit.

Stick with NoleGameday for more coverage of Florida State football throughout the 2023 season.

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