The 24th-ranked Louisville Cardinals have a short week ahead of them as they seek their first win of the season. Coach Jeff Brohm’s team opens the home portion of its schedule Friday night with a game against Villanova.
Louisville (0-1) stayed in the polls despite losing to No. 9 Ole Miss 41-38 on a game-ending field goal Sunday night. The Cardinals rallied from a 14-point deficit with 6:43 remaining to tie the game on a Lincoln Kienholz 7-yard touchdown run with 1:28 left.
While a fairly even game, Brohm said a few issues — such as a botched snap on a punt, a roughing the kicker penalty on a missed field goal and blown coverages on long touchdown passes — kept Louisville from celebrating what would have been a statement win.
Brohm told reporters during his weekly press conference Tuesday that preparing for the Wildcats (1-1), ranked No. 18 in this week’s FCS coaches poll, will be “a little different” due to the five-day turnaround.
“We have spent the last, I don’t know, 24 to 36 hours on correcting the Ole Miss game and looking back and trying to fix things that happened that we can be better at,” he said. “It’s been thoroughly, thoroughly looked at and continues to be talked about as we’re prepping for Villanova.”
Kienholz overcame a rough start to become the first Louisville quarterback to throw for 300-plus yards in his debut, finishing 18-for-29 for 307 yards and two touchdowns. He also led the team with 69 yards rushing.
On his Tuesday night radio show, Villanova coach Mark Ferrante said he came away impressed with the Ohio State transfer QB.
“He looked like the more he got hit, the better he played,” Ferrante said. “He almost looked like he liked getting hit instead of sitting in the pocket.”
The Cardinals will also look to get Isaac Brown back on track. The junior, who averaged 8.8 yards per carry last season, managed just 36 yards on 16 carries, although he added a 32-yard reception late in the fourth quarter helping set up the then-tying score.
The Wildcats are coming off their first victory of the season, a 17-16 win at Patriot League foe Bucknell on Saturday. Villanova led 14-0 at halftime, but then needed Dominic LeBlanc’s 22-yard field goal with 8:20 remaining in the game to reclaim the lead. Ferrante’s team also needed Bucknell to miss a 29-yard field goal attempt with less than two minutes remaining to leave with the victory.
Pat McQuaide, a graduate student, overcame tossing three interceptions in a season-opening loss to William & Mary on Aug. 28, to complete 13 of 20 passes for 218 yards and two touchdowns in Saturday’s win.
Ferrante said Louisville has a challenging combination of speed and size. For example, Wildcats defensive lineman Ugo Nwotite weighs 230 pounds. Clev Lubin, Louisville’s star edge rusher, weighs 260 pounds according to the Cardinals’ roster and is one of the smaller players in that unit.
Villanova has four victories against FBS teams since 2002, the last coming on Sept. 1, 2018, when the Wildcats edged Temple, their crosstown Philadelphia rivals, 19-18. The Cardinals have not lost to a lower-division opponent since then-Division I-AA Marshall beat them 34-31 on Oct. 10, 1987.
