The Louisville Cardinals keep surprising foes and a rebuilding year is quickly turning into a legitimately fun season for Scott Satterfield and company.
The Louisville Cardinals struck gold when they hired Scott Satterfield to lead them and clean up after Bobby Petrino. Louisville was abysmal in 2018, stumbling through the season and finishing with a 2-10 record.
Now, in what was supposed to be a year of growth, the Cardinals are already one win away from achieving bowl eligibility and could reach 8 wins this season. If Satterfield and the Cardinals could actually achieve that, the turnaround for this program would be absolutely remarkable.
There’s still a couple of potentially challenging foes standing in Louisville’s way and the Cardinals have to hit the road for three of their four remaining games, but this season could end up being a legitimately good one for this team.
The Syracuse Orange are struggling this season. Syracuse’s 35-17 loss to the Florida State Seminoles is a perfect example of how far the Orange have fallen from a season ago. Syracuse will have opportunities to salvage this season and make it to a bowl game, but those opportunities are slipping away as the Orange drop games to teams like Florida State.
Geoff Collins and Georgia Tech got the week off. The Yellow Jackets aren’t any good and they’re mostly playing for the future this year. A bye week should help the Yellow Jackets rest up a bit so Georgia Tech can close out the first year of Collins’ tenure in Atlanta and prepare for year two.
The Miami Hurricanes got a much-needed win by beating Pitt 16-12. It was an ugly game that featured two messy teams, but Manny Diaz and Miami certainly needed the victory. The Hurricanes now just need two more wins to make it to a bowl game this season.
Like the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, the North Carolina State Wolfpack also had a bye week. NC State has struggled at times this season and a bye week was definitely necessary for the Wolfpack. Upcoming games at Wake Forest, against Clemson, and then against Louisville will challenge North Carolina State. But if the Wolfpack can survive that, they will close out the year with more manageable matchups against Georgia Tech and North Carolina.
Boston College didn’t have a fun trip to Clemson, South Carolina. The Eagles were met by the defending national champs and then sent home with a humiliating loss. Most teams lose to Clemson in that sort of fashion, but that doesn’t make it any more enjoyable or palatable for the team that has to go through that.
Duke and North Carolina provided plenty of entertainment in a closely contested rivalry game. Unfortunately for the Blue Devils, Duke didn’t come out on top. Despite coming back in the 3rd quarter, the Blue Devils were unable to snag a win from the Tar Heels and fell because of a field goal in the fourth quarter.
Following Pitt’s loss to the Miami Hurricanes, it seems like it’s been centuries since the Panthers defeated Central Florida. It also makes that victory over UCF all that more confusing as Miami is far from being a good team.
There’s never a dull moment with Mack Brown‘s North Carolina Tar Heels team. Just one week after losing a five-overtime game with Virginia Tech, the Tar Heels squeaked past the Duke Blue Devils thanks to a field goal in the fourth quarter. North Carolina isn’t all that great, but it is certainly interesting.
Virginia Tech took a break over the weekend. The Hokies probably needed that so they could keep track of how the Michigan Wolverines crushed the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Since Virginia Tech is about to hit the road and head up to South Bend, any sort of notes about how to take down the Fighting Irish is important for the Hokies to have.
Willie Taggart needs wins if he’s going to get Florida State fans convinced that he can actually lead this program forward. Beating Syracuse isn’t going to do much on that front, but it does help FSU take a step towards earning bowl eligibility. For a coach in his second year leading a team that is struggling, any sort of positive momentum is important.
A loss to the Louisville Cardinals is a bit of a punch to the gut for the Virginia Cavaliers. Virginia has been respectable all season and Bronco Mendenhall’s team probably should have been capable of beating Scott Satterfield’s. But, on Saturday, Satterfield and the Cardinals came out on top of the Cavaliers.
With a brand new head coach, the Louisville Cardinals have packed plenty of surprises into this season. Taking down the Virginia Cavaliers is just another one of them. Louisville continues to look like a much-improved team and the Cardinals can make this season one to remember if they can close it out strong.
Dave Clawson’s Demon Deacons got a much-needed bye week after being challenged by the Florida State Seminoles. That week off should help Wake Forest prepare to go through the final few games left in the regular season. The Demon Deacons have a road trip to Clemson scheduled in a couple of weeks. If Wake Forest really wants to make this a truly special season, the Demon Deacons will need to find a way to take down the Tigers. That’s easier said than done.
Another week goes by and Clemson is still the king in the ACC. Dabo Swinney‘s Tigers are plowing through just about every opponent they meet. At this rate, the Tigers are bound for the college football playoffs and there’s seemingly nobody in the ACC who can challenge them.
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