Red Flags: 5 college football teams on upset alert in Week 12

4. Louisville Cardinals

Opponent: at Miami | Time: Saturday, Nov. 18, Noon ET (ABC) | Spread: LOU -1.5

In theory, the Louisville Cardinals are still alive for the College Football Playoff. Jeff Brohm's team, however, is working with very slim margins in that as the team's one loss came against Pitt, one of the worst teams in the country. To climb into the Top 4, Louisville certainly can't afford to lose another game, probably needs a lot of help, and needs to upset Florida State in the ACC Championship Game if the Cardinals can survive this week and get there.

Surviving this week, however, is not the easiest of tasks for the Cardinals. Louisville is heading on the road to face Mario Cristobal's Miami team, a group that certainly put a scare into rival Florida State last week, but came up short.

Now, make no mistake, we don't know what iteration of Miami we're going to get on the field. After an injury to Emory Williams at the end of the FSU loss, Tyler Van Dyke is taking back over at quarterback amid a myriad of turnover concerns that led to his benching in the first place. Furthermore, we've seen it proven that Miami doesn't have a particularly notable home-field advantage, if they have one at all.

At the same time, though, we've seen the best of TVD look like one of the top quarterbacks in college football. If he comes out and shows that against an admittedly good Louisville defense, that could give the Cardinals some anxiety. On top of that, for as good as UofL is in the trenches, Miami just has a different caliber of athlete there that could allow them to control the trenches.

The Canes are one of the trickiest teams in the country because of how hot and cold they can run. That also means, however, that a game like this is primed for an upset.