Governor's Cup Preview: Five Questions for Louisville Report's Matt McGavic
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One of the more tumultuous regular seasons in Kentucky (6-5, 3-5 SEC) history is nearly in the books. The Wildcats will look to avoid a three-game losing streak for the second season in a row on Saturday, hosting the rival Louisville Cardinals (7-4, 4-4 ACC) at Kroger Field for the 32nd edition of the Governor's Cup.
Ahead of the matchup, Wildcats Today spoke with Louisville Report's Matt McGavic to learn more about the upward-trending Cardinals:
1. How different does Louisville’s offense become without Malik Cunningham? Just how important is he to what the Cardinals do on offense?
McGavic: It’s safe to say that Cunningham is arguably the most important piece of Louisville’s offense. His legs alone give them a dynamic that simply no other quarterback on the roster can provide, and it’s noticeable. However, Cunningham hasn’t been nearly as efficient as a passer this season as he was last. This is partly because the wide receiver corps isn’t as deep as is was last season, but his decision making and accuracy seems to have regressed since last year.
Then you throw in the fact that he is battling two injuries: one to his non-throwing hand and the other to his throwing shoulder. The hand injury, suffered against JMU three weeks ago, clearly bothered him against Clemson, as he was visibly uncomfortable and was not nearly as dynamic. He hurt his shoulder in that game, missed the NC State game and they are working him back into practice now, but it might be best to stay with backup Brock Domann, who isn’t a runner. In two starts and a half at Clemson, while the stats mights not suggest it, he seems like he has been a better thrower of the football this season than Cunningham.
While Domann is in, the wide receivers - specifically Tyler Hudson - get a lot more involved. Of course, the running backs have to carry a bigger load in the rushing attack with Domann in, but that’s not a huge concern. The Cardinals are coming off of a game where they put up nearly 200 rushing yards against an NC State defense that had allowed a total of 66 yards in their last three games, and their starting running back, Tiyon Evans, had just two yards and two attempts.
2. The defense excels at getting to the quarterback. How much success do you think UofL will have in getting to Will Levis in the backfield on Saturday?
McGavic: Quite frankly, I expect them to have a lot of success. The front seven has been great all season long, and once the secondary stopped allowing a ton of big plays, it has allowed them to thrive over the last month and a half.
Outside linebacker Yasir Abdullah is having one of the best individual seasons by a Louisville defender in the modern era, and he has an incredible cast of pass rushers and run stoppers around him. Physicality was a huge question last season, but it has arguably been of strength of theirs this year. They have shown that they can constantly win one-on-one battles at the line of scrimmage and get pressure on non-blitz plays, not to mention that defensive coordinator Bryan Brown has done an amazing job at scheming the defense with a healthy amount of timely blitzes and exotic looks.
3. Last year’s game got pretty chippy. Has the way the game went last year stuck with the Cards? Do you expect that same kind of emotion on the field this time around?
McGavic: Yes and no. Of course, getting ran off your home turf in a rivalry game as the favorite is something that you simply don’t forget, and you want to do everything in your power to avenge that embarrassment. But in the same breath, the coaching staff mentioned earlier this week in their weekly press conference that they’re addressing to the players the importance of keeping you emotions in check.
Whether that actually comes to pass remains to be seen, but head coach Scott Satterfield noted that whenever you get overly emotional in a game, that “it takes away from the play.” That being said, he did come to grips with reality and know that this is an emotionally charged games, but they just have to “channel it in the right direction.”
4. Who’s one player on offense and defense that could be an X-factor for the Cards?
McGavic: Over on offense, it’s got to be wide receiver Tyler Hudson. He had a little bit of a slow start to the season, logging just 312 yards over the first five games of the season. But over the last six games, he had been a dominant force in the passing game, logging 639 receiving yards, including back-to-back 100-yards games against JMU and Clemson where he tallied 142 and 163 yards, respectively. He’s not the fastest player in the world, but he is incredibly physical. His catch radius is one of the best in the ACC, and he does a tremendous job of hauling in passes even with defenders in tight coverage. Plus, once he actually gets the ball, he can usually stretch out tough yardage after the fact by simply fighting through contract for the extra yards.
Defensively, while Abdullah is unquestionably their best player on that side of the ball - and one who has a case for ACC DPOY - their X-factor is probably inside linebacker MoMo Sanogo. He also had a bit of a slow start to the year, but has really elevated his play in the last few weeks. He has become a crucial component to Louisville’s ability to plug holes and stop the run, and has been one of their more constant tacklers all season line. He has 32 tackles (18 solo) in the last three weeks alone, and is their top-rated run defender and third-ranked tackler according to PFF.
5. What MUST Kentucky do to ensure a victory on Saturday?
McGavic: Get the deep passing plays going. While the offense and their inability to get things going certainly played a role into Louisville’s 2-3 start, the biggest reason behind that listless start was because of the amount of big plays that their defense had been giving up, especially in the passing game.
Syracuse’s Sean Tucker had 184 yards from scrimmage (84 receiving), Florida State’s Johnny Wilson had 149 receiving yards and Boston College’s Zay Flowers had 151 receiving yards - all were losses. Louisville hasn’t allowed a 100-yard receiver since. I feel somewhat confident about Louisville ability to stop the run, even against a running back of Chris Rodriguez’s caliber. But if Will Levis can establish an early repertoire with Barion Brown, Tayvion Robinson and/or Dane Key, that changes things a lot.
You can follow Matt McGavic on Twitter here.
Kentucky coordinators and players previewed the rivalry game on Tuesday.
Will Levis didn't commit to playing in Kentucky's bowl game. More here.
Kentucky's latest depth chart can be found here.
More on Mark Stoops' new contract extension here.
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