Louisville football could shock the ACC with win over Virginia

Virginia clashes with Louisville football in a crucial ACC game this Saturday. Here’s a preview, prediction and how to watch the game.

It’s hard to write about the Louisville Cardinals and not praise the job that Scott Satterfield and the staff has done with this team so far. We knew former coach Bobby Petrino didn’t leave the cupboard bare, however, he left as toxic an environment as one could leave.

It became clear mid-season last year the Petrino regime had given up on the players, and the feeling was mutual.

Enter, Satterfield. He’s done a fantastic job of coaching his players up, establishing expectations and establishing a culture of discipline and hard work. So far so good in year one.

Bronco Mendenhall and his staff have their own story. In their fourth year in Charlottesville, Mendenhall and his staff have done a fantastic job of rebuilding the Cavaliers’ program. After taking over for the outgoing Mike London in 2016, Mendenhall noticed the program was not built to compete in the Power Five. He’s since gotten the program up to snuff.

Satterfield would love for the Louisville program to make similar progress in four years.

As far as this game goes, both the Cavaliers and the Cardinals need this game. Virginia needs this win to keep pace with Pitt in the loss column. A Cardinals win means they are one closer to bowl eligibility in year one under Scott Satterfield.

Here’s more information about the game:

Date: Saturday, Oct. 26
Time: 3:30 pm ET
Location: Louisville, Ky.
Venue: Cardinals Stadium
Television: ACC Network
Live Stream: WatchESPN

Keys to Victory

The Cardinals are one of the faster teams in the ACC. If the Cardinals want the win in this game, they need to go fast. Not only that, the Cardinals need to get that speed in space. Coach Satterfield with dress up their run game in an effort to misdirect the Virginia defense.

They also need to control the tempo. Force the Cavaliers defense to play 70-plus snaps and tire out the Virginia defense.

For the Cavaliers, they need to turn this into a back-alley brawl. In contrast to the Cardinals, they want to slow down the game and ground and pound then play action and throw it over the head of the Cardinals.

Defensively, they want to pressure the Louisville quarterbacks. They want to force both Evan Conley and Micale Cunningham — both will probably play — to beat them from the pocket and get pressure from up the middle

Betting Odds

Courtesy of The Action Network

Line: Virginia -3.5
Over/Under: 52

Prediction

According to ESPN’s football power index predictor, the Cavaliers have a 62.3 percent chance of winning the game. However, this is the ACC, and it wouldn’t be a shock if Louisville won outright. Louisville’s defense is awful, but Virginia’s offense is unremarkable. Louisville has a dynamic defense, but Virginia has one of the best defenses in the ACC. The upstart Louisville Cardinals make one critical mistake too many that costs them the game.

Final Score: Virginia 28, Louisville 24