Georgia Tech vs Louisville: Players to Watch on Louisville's Offense on Saturday Against the Yellow Jackets

Louisville has the No.4 offense in college football in yards per game with 590.5 yards through just two games. Granted, they have played Austin Peay and Jacksonville State but still impressive numbers. Louisville has scored 62 points and 49 points in those games. This offense is also the most explosive averaging 8.88 yards per play (leads FBS) on just 133 plays called this season. Georgia Tech will be facing another explosive offense and these Louisville players could have a big impact on the result of the game on Saturday afternoon.

QB Tyler Shough- Shough started his career with the Oregon Ducks where he spent two seasons accumulating 1,703 passing yards and 16 touchdowns. He then transferred to Texas Tech where he had his best season with the program in 2022 passing for 1,304 yards and seven touchdowns. He spent three seasons with the Raiders. Shough transferred to Louisville this past offseason and is off to an electric start. The senior QB has thrown for 581 yards and six touchdowns on a 68.4% completion rate. He is currently 12th in the nation in QBR (quarterback rating). When he has played, Shough has been a reliable and competent quarterback on the college level but injuries have derailed him so far in his career from reaching his full potential.

WR Ja'Corey Brooks- Brooks started his career with the Alabama Crimson Tide and was a five-star prospect coming out of IMG Academy. Brooks finished with 57 catches for 896 yards and 10 touchdowns in three seasons at Alabama. His best season with the Crimson Tide was his sophomore year in 2022 where he finished with a career-high in catches (39), yards (674), and touchdowns (8). His final season with Alabama was cut short due to an upper-body injury he suffered against LSU. Currently, he is the leading receiver for Louisville with 13 catches for 172 yards and a touchdown. He has been a reliable target finishing with six catches or more in the first two games. On his lone touchdown catch this season, Brooks showed some of the things that make him special by going up and reeling in a contested catch with a defender draped all over him for the score. He has been a featured part of the offense and a go-to-target for Shough this season and will be one to watch on Saturday.

Running Back Room- Louisville is a running back room that does it by a committee. Isaac Brown is the leading back with 166 rushing yards and a touchdown. Brown is averaging 12.8 yards per carry. What is so cool is that two of the three running backs who have also made an impact for Louisville come from Georgia High School programs. Duke Watson starred at Mary Persons and was a three-star prospect coming out of high school. Watson is a true freshman who has 137 yards rushing and two touchdowns. Keyjuan Brown started at South Atlanta and was an AJC Super 11 and rushed for nearly 7,500 yards in his prep career. He also won multiple region players of the year during his time with South Atlanta. Brown has rushed for 116 rushing yards and two touchdowns. Here is a little bit more context on the room from Louisville On SI’s Matt McGavic who covers the Louisville Cardinals:

"Believe it or not, those three are actually the bottom three on the depth chart. Maurice Turner is the starter and is the most well-rounded back on the roster, but he hasn’t been needed much for obvious reasons. Donald Chaney Jr. is probably going to be 1B or the outright backup, or at least the third down/short yardage back because he’s the most physical one at the position. Though back to the original question, I can see this being a running back by committee approach. That being said, I wouldn’t be shocked if Isaac Brown winds up as RB1 at some point this season. He has been hyped up all offseason, and it’s very clear that he’s the fastest player on the roster right now."

Georgia Tech will have their hands full on Saturday but if they can get the same play from their defense we saw this past Saturday this game can be a lot more interesting than people think. It starts with slowing down one of the best offenses in the FBS.