At the beginning of the season, Jeff Brohm said this team’s goal was to make the ACC championship game and today his team got that chance against a solid Miami team. Louisville is coming off a Thursday night win over Virginia nine days ago, with two extra days to prepare for this game.
Miami has lost four of their last six games coming into today, so they would love to spoil the Cardinals potential big day with an upset at home. The Hurricanes started off the year with a 4-0 record, but after a late game blunder against Georgia Tech, their season has went downhill and fast. Nonetheless, they’ve competed well in every game, but they haven’t been able to finish the job when it matters most.
Louisville was attempting to get their first win against Miami since joining the ACC, but none of those previous Louisville teams were coached by Jeff Brohm and the difference is displayed on the field. Miami put up a tremendous fight this afternoon, but it wasn’t enough to get over them over the hump down the stretch.
Today is a day of celebration for Cardinals fans as they officially clinched an ACC Championship berth against the Florida State Seminoles. They had to earn every bit of this win, but the second half gave them enough time to rally and close out the game. Louisville’s football program has an entirely new identity and this conference championship berth is just the beginning.
Louisville jumped out to a great start as they’ve practically done for the entire season. Jeff Brohm has won nine of 11 coin tosses so far and he always defers, because of how well his defense has played. Defensive coordinator Ron English has done an outstanding job with his unit and they’ve been one of the best defenses in the whole country from top to bottom. English knew that Miami’s quarterback Tyler Van Dyke came into this afternoon’s game with 11 interceptions in just five games, so making him uncomfortable was his top priority. Louisville’s defense started off with a stop that allowed Jack Plummer and company to drive the ball down the field and score a touchdown to tight end Nate Kurisky.
Before today, the Cardinals only allowed seven total points in the first quarter all year, which was the fewest in the country. Louisville’s scoring margin in the first quarter was also a significant amount, outscoring opponents by 69 points and that was good for fifth best in FBS. Miami, however, had different plans in the first quarter, as they scored two touchdowns (one passing, one rushing) to take a 14-7 lead over the Cardinals. Mario Cristobal had his team ready to play today and that started with settling his quarterback in smoothly. Van Dyke has been banged up with more than one injury, but he’s continued to play through the pain and today he looked good doing it. He’s been a turnover machine recently, but he did a nice job of taking care of the football and that gave Miami the best chance to win.
This game was starting to look similar to the one against Pitt, which is still the Cardinals only loss on the season. Pitt was the only team to score on this defense in the first quarter before this game and they only scored seven. Miami found the end zone twice and they forced Jack Plummer to throw a costly interception that looked all too familiar. Louisville answered back with another touchdown drive of their own after Isaac Guerendo scored from 12 yards out and that tied the game just before the first quarter ended. The Cardinals didn’t play well in the second quarter at all, missing an easy field goal from the 24 yard-line and an extra point attempt was blocked before halftime. Louisville’s elite defense was having some trouble stopping Miami’s offense. The Hurricanes used a balanced attack to keep the defense guessing and so far, they were succeeding. Miami was getting a big play every time they needed it, but the Cardinals defense finished the second quarter getting back on track with some stops that Louisville was able to capitalize on.
A lot of points were left out there no doubt about it, and still Louisville was only down one point at halftime after the extra point attempt was blocked due to the kick being low.
Jack Plummer had a poor first half of play to say the least. He threw a bad interception that was intended for a wide-open Jamari Thrash and he had multiple misses on throws that top ten teams have to have to be formidable. Plummer has to find some consistency on the “layups” and easy throws, because this team struggles when they have to erase his mistakes. However, when he’s accurate and decisive, it’s smooth sailing for his squad.
After hearing an earful from Jeff Brohm all first half, Plummer had to come out and play mistake-free football if he wanted a win and that’s what he did. If he can play well for an entire game, this team would undoubtably be undefeated on the season. Plummer did a great job of getting his tight ends involved for the first time all season. Louisville hasn’t implemented their tight ends on offense in any game. but today they caught majority of the pass attempts.
Miami’s main focus was taking away Louisville’s run game by stacking the tackle box, so they wanted Plummer to beat them with his arm. Star running back Jawhar Jordan has been battling a hamstring injury for a number of weeks now, but Louisville has been able to rely on Isaac Guerendo in that time, who had another nice game. He finished with 15 carries for 93 yards and one rushing touchdown.
The Hurricanes found themselves with a five point lead over Louisville after another rushing touchdown, this time at the goal line. Jeff Brohm knew he’d have an opportunity to take the lead in the fourth quarter, his offense just needed to execute. This game was going to come down to Plummer making plays with his arm. When it mattered most, he was able to deliver the ball against a defense that was pressuring him for majority of snaps. Miami tied the game at 31 after hitting a 51-yard field goal in a must score situation. Louisville’s defense bended, but it didn’t break and they did their job when needed to.
The Cardinals had one more shot to score and try to take the lead for good with less than five minutes left in the game. The run game wasn’t going to work with that many defenders near the line of scrimmage, so Louisville had to pass their way down the field and make sure Plummer kept the ball out of harms way. Plummer dropped back and threw an easy screen pass to Kevin Coleman who took it all the way to the house for 58 yards after two defenders ran into each other. Now they could lean on their stout defense to get one more stop and clinch the conference championship game. After getting all the way into the red zone, the Hurricanes found themselves at fourth & goal with the game on the line after some great pursuit from the Cardinals defensive line. Van Dyke dropped back and tried to lob a pass to his best receiver Jacolby George, but Quincy Riley had excellent coverage and broke the pass up.
Louisville ran the clock all the way down to about 30 seconds to go, which means Miami had a slim chance at a hail mary. Tyler Van Dyke threw one last heave to the end zone that was batted down by a Louisville defender right into the hands of a Miami receiver, but the Cardinals were able to keep him short of the goal line and win the biggest game of the season. Jeff Brohm has a great chance to win a coach of the year award, because it’s hard to ignore the success he’s had in his first season as head coach.
He’s already secured a spot in the ACC Championship, and now he has a chance to finish 11-1 in his first year if he beats his upstate rival in Kentucky next week. Somehow, some way, his team continues to find a way to win. Wheter it’s an ugly game or a shootout, Louisville has looked prepared against every opponent all season and they look to keep it up against their hated rival Kentucky next Saturday at L&N Federal Credit Union Stadium (time TBD).
