Cardinals Down USF, 41-3

Saturday, September 24

LOUISVILLE, KY

12:00 p.m.

University of Louisville

2-2 , 0-2

USF

1-3 , 0-0

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

South Fla.

Louisville

Jaelin Carter catches the ball for a touchdown during the game against USF at Cardinal Stadium on September 14.

Photo by: Taris Smith | Louisville Athletics

September 24, 2022 | Football

Box Score PDF Game Book Postgame Notes Postgame Quotes Video Highlights Head Coach Scott Satterfield Postgame Yasir Abdullah Postgame Trevion Cooley Postgame Malik Cunningham Postgame YaYa Diaby Postgame Photo Gallery

By: Sam Gercak

Cardinals Down USF, 41-3

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The University of Louisville football team bounced back to defeat the University of South Florida 41-3 on Saturday afternoon at Cardinal Stadium.

The Cardinals scored on their second drive and never looked back, scoring touchdowns on four consecutive possessions in the first half to take firm control of the game. The offense accounted for 542 yards on the day, with 283 of those coming on the ground.

Quarterback Malik Cunningham led the charge, throwing for 186 yards on 14-22 passing and adding 113 yards rushing on nine carries. He was responsible for four total touchdowns on the day, with all three of his rushing touchdowns coming in the first half.

Cunningham became the third player in school history with over 3,000 rushing yards in his career and became only the eighth quarterback in NCAA history to eclipse 8,000 passing yards and 3,000 rushing yards in a career.

The defense remained stout throughout the afternoon, holding the Bulls to 146 total yards and forcing three turnovers and recording three sacks.

Louisville Head Coach Scott Satterfield Said
"First of all, we have a lot of respect for South Florida, Coach (Jeff) Scott and his team, what they did last week down in the Swamp really handled Florida I thought. Think about how their running back had 150 yards, their quarterback rushed for over 100. We wanted to come in here and stop the run and make them one dimensional. It started in practice on Tuesday, our guys were very focused and very intent on having a good week of practice coming off of a disappointing loss with Florida State. Credit to them, because it's easy to still feel sorry for yourself and not want to come back in here and work and think 'we're 0-2 in the conference, what are we going to do?' But to their credit, they came back and worked hard and put together a really nice complete game today.

Defensively, we did not give up the big plays and offensively and defensively we did not shoot ourselves in the foot as far as penalties go – we only had five and two of them were right there at the end, Chris Bell on the face mask and the late hit on kickoff team so you're looking at three penalties throughout the whole day. We turned them over, we had some really nice plays. We stopped the run and made them try to think they've got to try to get back in it, try to force the ball down the field. We got some interceptions, finally got our first fumble today. Offensively, not great on third down, but we made up for it on fourth. We converted those fourth downs which enabled us to go down and score touchdowns. I thought we were pretty efficient in the red zone there. The one time we didn't get any points, we went for it on fourth down, we'd normally probably kick it on that. Brock (Domann) threw a slant to Chris Bell. It was good to get a lot of guys in the game today. We played a lot of players, a lot of young guys got to play. I mentioned Chris Bell got his first catch, Bradley West got a catch, Grant Goodman got a carry there at the end. We're playing guys on defense that hadn't played a ton. It was good to see the tackles spread out, Dorian Jones may have led us in tackles, but I think a lot of guys had production. YaYa (Diaby) had a had another good game, he's been playing really good this year on defense. The kicking game was very solid. We were a little concerned about 21 (Brian Battie) as a return guy, and Brock (Travelstead) put it out of the endzone. He's done excellent this year with the touchbacks which has been awesome and then Mark Vassett's really punted the ball well. He punted again today, outstanding, I think maybe a 44 yard average. You've got to be able to win those special teams. Just overall proud of our guys, it was a complete game and looking forward to putting this one to bed and then focusing on Boston College.

How it Happened
First Quarter

07:05 – UL | Malik Cunningham rushed into the end zone from 40 yards out for the opening score of the game. The touchdown finished off a 6-play, 82-yard drive that lasted 2:13.
03:39 – UL | Jaelin Carter hauled in a 26-yard pass from Malik Cunningham for his first career catch and touchdown as a Cardinal to give Louisville a 14-0 lead. The scoring drive took 1:37 off the clock and covered 66 yards in five plays.

Second Quarter

10:53 – UL | Malik Cunningham turned a fourth down into a touchdown, rushing in from 35 yards out for his second score of the day. Louisville converted a pair of fourth downs on the 9-play, 68-yard drive that took 2:22.
06:12 – UL | Malik Cunningham tallied his third rushing score of the day, this time from eight yards out, capping an 8-play, 81-yard drive that covered 3:22.

Third Quarter

08:53 – UL | James Turner finished off an 11-play, 39-yard drive that lasted 3:37 with a 29-yard field goal.

Fourth Quarter

14:55 – USF | USF ended Louisville's shutout bid with a 37-yard field goal from Spencer Shrader. The scoring drive lasted 2:54 and went 47 yards in eight plays.
12:30 – UL | Tiyon Evans powered across the goal line from three yards out to finish off Louisville's 6-play, 75-yard scoring drive that took 2:14.
02:35 – UL | James Turner converted on his second field goal of the day with a 25-yard boot to cap off a 10-play, 59-yard drive that lasted 4:10.

Up Next

The Cardinals will be back on the road to take on Boston College in the Cardinals' third ACC matchup of the season.
The game is scheduled to kickoff at 12:00 p.m. at Alumni Stadium in Chestnut Hill, Ma. and will be televised on the ACC Network.