Louisville Aiming to Correct Recent Defensive Efforts Prior to ACC Championship Game

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The Louisville football program has a chance to make history on Saturday night. While the regular season is now in the books, they have one more game on tap before they learn their bowl assignment, traveling down Charlotte, N.C. where a matchup with Florida State in the ACC Championship Game awaits them. It's the No. 15 Cardinals' first appearance in the league's title game since joining the ACC in 2014.

Taking down a team like the No. 4 Seminoles will be hard enough on its own. They're one of just four remaining undefeated in the Power Five, and are on track to return to the College Football Playoff and compete for a national championship.

But, if Louisville has any shot at being competitive against Florida State, let alone outright winning, they'll need make some major corrections to their defense, which has been on major slide downwards over the last few weeks.

"To be quite honest, I think the last three games on defense have been subpar and we need to do better than that," Brohm said immediately following last Saturday's loss to Kentucky. "So, it will start with me and our coaches first, we need to have a better plan. I think that's the main culprit, there needs to be a better plan put in place to make sure it doesn't happen and you give up 100 yard rushers and 300 yard passers and a ton of points in three straight games. So we've just got to get it fixed and we work it down to our players and we've got to put them in position to succeed and they've got to go make plays.

"Sometimes when you're doing something, there has to be a little change here and there. There has to be something they haven't seen, you can't just run the same thing every week against really good opponents. There's got to be some creativity and some coaching going on, so we need to make sure we do that."

While Brohm has been more so known for his high flying offenses during his time as a head coach, through most of this season, Louisville's main identify was on the defensive side of the ball. In their first nine games, they were allowing just 285.2 yards and 16.3 points per game, which came in at 12th and 13th in the FBS, respectively. They were particularly adept at stopping the run, and limiting first downs, allowing only 88.8 rushing yards and 14.7 first downs per game, both of which ranked seventh nationally.

But in their last three matchups to end the regular season - vs. Virginia, at Miami and vs. Kentucky - the Cardinals have not been nearly as effective on defense. Their stifling efforts against the run has taken a step back in part due to poor tackling, and there has been an influx of busted coverages and missed assignments as it pertains to defending the pass. In this three-game stretch to end the regular season, Louisville gave up and average of 31.0 points and 403.0 yards per game.

If Louisville is to have a bounce back game on defense against Florida State, Brohm believes it will come as a result of analyzing in the film room why the defense has struggled so much as of late, and getting him and his coaching staff to make the necessary adjustments either in the game plan itself or how the communicate it.

"I think we've got to make some corrections as coaches," Brohm said during the ACC Championship Game conference call on Sunday. "Myself and our defensive coaches got to take some ownership, and put our players in the best position to succeed. I don't think that has happened fully, because we've made some critical mistakes. I'm not going put it on the players, I'm going put it on us. We've got to get that fixed. Whether that's simplifying things, or understanding and teaching the details of the plan in more detail, or being more aggressive, less aggressive. I don't want to give away everything that we're going to try to do, but we've got to get it fixed.

"When you give up a lot of big plays the last three games, you got to go back and see why did we give them up, and what was the call, and how can we get that fixed. Then you got to go back and see what were the calls that have worked well, and how can we concentrate on those, and then add a couple of different wrinkles every now and then. I just think we haven't been as sharp, so obviously the teaching of the plan has not been as in detail as I would like. As coaches, we've got to do a better job and that starts today and it's got to continue all week."

While getting things corrected on defense against a talent-laden team like Florida State would typically be an uphill climb, there is an opportunity to do so. Louisville will not be facing star quarterback - and former Cardinal - Jordan Travis following a season-ending leg injury, and it will be instead be backup Tate Rodemaker under center for the Seminoles.

While FSU rides into their matchup with Louisville undefeated, that was nearly spoiled by in-state rival Florida in their season opener, as they had to overcome a 12-0 hole to eventually win 24-15 in The Swamp. Part of their early deficit was offensive inefficiency, as FSU compiled only 224 yards of offense and Rodemaker went just 12-of-25 for 134 yards.

That being said, Rodemaker does have some experience against Louisville. In last season's matchup, he was forced to step in for an injured Travis in the second half, where he went 6-of-10 for 109 yards and two touchdowns plus an interception.

If Louisville is going to get their defense back on the right track and parlay that into an upset win over Florida State, linebacker T.J. Quinn believes it will all come back down to execution and attention to detail.

"I think that the necessary steps that we have to take is just executing," he said. "In the previous games, we had plenty of opportunities to make plays, and when the plays come our way, we just got to make them. I believe, if you watch the film as we watch it, there we certain instances where we were there, and we just got to finish it.

"That's just the main thing: trying to correct those little mistakes, and just tune in on the details. If we execute the details, then we'll be fine, and we'll be able to get back to where we were as a defense."

Kickoff against the Seminoles from Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, N.C. is set for Saturday, Dec. 2 at 8:00 p.m. EST.

(Photo of Cam'Ron Kelly: Sam Navarro - USA TODAY Sports)

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