Louisville Rushing Attack to Face Tough Test vs. UCF
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - It's no surprise that Louisville loves to run the football. Since the start of the 2019 season, when Scott Satterfield took over as the head coach, the Cardinals have ran the ball an astounding 1,066 times - the 17th-most in FBS and sixth-most among Power Five programs.
The program has very clearly established a rushing identity since Satterfield's arrival, but that identity will get put to the test when UCF comes to town. While early in the season, the Knights are allowing just 22.0 rushing yards per game in their two matchups at home against Boise State and Bethune-Cookman.
“They’re a really good run defense and I think they do that with how aggressive they are up front," Satterfield said. "We got to find ways to do it and that's what we're doing now in game planning, finding the ways where we can try to get some edges and to be able to get some pops from runs in there."
As you can imagine, several players among UCF's front seven have had noteworthy starts to the year. Defensive lineman Kalia Davis leads the way with a team-best 3.0 tackles for loss and two QB hurries, edge rusher Big Kat Bryant has a team-best three hurries and 1.5 TFLs, and seven different Knights have logged at least one tackle for loss in the first two games. Finding lanes against this defensive front will not come easy.
"If they're all stacked in the box, and we got to do something outside, a lot of it is just kind of going where they're not mentality," Satterfield said. "But we’ve got to figure out a way to stay on the field, keep sustaining drives, keep their offense off the field and then we got to get down there and score touchdowns.”
So far, it has already been a struggle to establish the run for Louisville. The Cardinals are averaging just 156.5 rushing yards per game - the third-worst mark in the ACC - with leading rusher Jalen Mitchell averaging 69.5.
But the lackluster rushing attack to start the season has, by and large, not been a product of poor play from the running backs. The blocking has been suboptimal in both games against Ole Miss and EKU, ranging from the offensive line, to the tight ends on the edges and wide receivers on the perimeter. Even the coaching staff has not given then many favors at times.
"One of the times, we saw (pressure) early and we didn't get out of the play. That's on us, we didn't do it and we just stayed with it," Satterfield said. "They still have to have their eyes up and they have to communicate all in about a second right there, but we need to be able to do that. As coaches, we need to help them out too. If we can see it, recognize it beforehand, then we can get out of the play and go to the next one."
The offensive play calling, like much of last season, has been largely simplistic and predictable when it comes to running the football no matter what. However, that might finally start to change when toe meets leather against the Knights.
"We are game planning now, looking at different things, ... We want to take what the defense gives us, when they are loading up the box, we will look to throw more and vice versa," Satterfield said. "As we look through the game plan, we will check it out and adjust what we need to do."
Kickoff against UCF is scheduled for Friday, Sept. 17 at 7:30 p.m. EST.
(Photo of Que'shaun Byrd, Dyllon Lester, Divaad Wilson: Mike Watters - USA TODAY Sports)
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