Louisville, Ky – October 30, 2024 – Sara Miller
In recent weeks, the University of Louisville defense has come under fire with close losses to No. 20 SMU and No. 5 Miami.
However, the defense came to the forefront and made a number of key stops in a 31-27 come-from-behind-win last weekend over Boston College to help move the Cards’ record to 5-3 overall and 3-2 in the ACC.
“I think we’ve identified a lot of the issues we’ve had,” head coach Jeff Brohm said. ” We’ve tried to work on them, I’m not saying we’ve made a ton of progress, but we’ve made some and we’ve got to continue to get better at it. To sum it up, defense it’s about getting calls in efficiently and quickly and making them as simple as we can because we’ve busted out more things this year than we’ve ever had, when a lot of it’s the same calls.”
UofL had a rough first half against Boston College, trailing 20-0 with 6:30 left in the second quarter. But, the defense was able to play some of its best football in the second half, leading the Cards to a 31-27 victory over the Eagles.
Louisville defensive coordinator Ron English believes the team’s ability to stay positive is what led to the successful comeback.
“We’re going to stay positive. We’re going to play to the end,” said English. “We actually practiced that this week. We practiced being positive, being enthusiastic and celebrating with each other. And I think that showed Friday night.”
During the second half of Friday’s game, the defense allowed just seven points and held the Gamecocks to 4-of-12 on third and fourth down attempts. The UofL defense continued to stifle Boston College’s momentum towards the end of the game, holding the team to 137 yards of offense after halftime with only 68 yards coming from the final six possessions.
In a league full of great quarterbacks, the Cards will face another one this week in Cade Klubnik, who has thrown for 1,836 yards and 20 touchdowns through seven games this season. The junior has five games where he’s tossed three of more touchdown passes, including a season high five in a win over Appalachian State.
“Like every quarterback, he’s had a couple of struggles along the way, which is good for quarterbacks, but he’s over the hump now. I think he’s thrown for 20 touchdowns, three picks, over 500 yards of offense five out of six games, or six out of seven, I’m not sure, but he’s playing at a high level. They’ve built the offense around him and what his strengths are, and right now it’s clicking on all cylinders.”
In squaring off against No. 11 Clemson this weekend, the Cards will face an offense that ranks fourth in the country in scoring with 42.0 points per game and fifth in total offense with 490.4 yards per game.
They’re playing really good football and are hitting on all cylinders,” Brohm said. “They’re good up front on defense, they’re athletic at linebacker and in the secondary. On offense the quarterback is playing at a high level and has good weapons around him. They have good balance and they’re really good at home. I think he feels great about the direction his team is going, they have a chance to be as good as anybody. We will have our hands full going and playing a team this hot on their home field.”
Louisville and Clemson will meet on Saturday, Nov. 2 with kickoff set for 7:30 p.m. ET in a game that can be viewed on ESPN.