FSU football: 3 things to know about the Louisville Cardinals

By Kelvin Hunt | Sep 22, 2021

Sep 29, 2018; Louisville, KY, USA; Florida State Seminoles linebacker Emmett Rice (56) celebrates with Florida State Seminoles defensive back Jaiden Woodbey (20) after a play against the Louisville Cardinals during second half at Cardinal Stadium. Florida State defeated Louisville 28-24. Mandatory Credit: Jamie Rhodes-USA TODAY Sports /

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(Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images) /

Beatable When Made One-Dimensional

One thing Louisville head coach Scott Satterfield does is lean heavily on the run game. They ran the ball 65 percent of the time in 2019 and 57 percent in 2020.

They have run the ball 52 percent of the time through three games, but some of that skews because they had to put the ball in the air a lot in the second half when Ole Miss had a huge lead in the season opener.

Ole Miss stopped the run early in the game and led 26-0 at halftime, holding Louisville to four yards per carry. That total includes Malik Cunningham’s 79 yards on 18 carries, with much of that production in garbage time.

Louisville averages 4.42 yards per carry through three games, but a lot of that production comes from Cunningham.

The Noles held the Cardinals to 2.6 yards per carry in 2019, and 3.0 in 2018 in both wins. Louisville had 291 rushing yards in last year’s blowout win over the Noles, and that lets you know how important it is to control their running game.

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