Cards Return to Action to Face Stanford

LOUISVILLE, Moving up to No. 19 in the College Football Playoff Rankings, the University of Louisville looks continue its rise when it faces a must-win game Saturday against Stanford at 3:30 p.m. on the ACC Network.

Louisville looks to win its fifth-straight Atlantic Coast Conference road game as it makes its first trip to Stanford Stadium to face the Cardinal. Louisville looks to improve to 7-3 overall and 5-2 in the ACC, with an outside shot at reaching its second ACC title game. The Cardinals need help in the standings, but can stay in the race with a key win on Saturday.

"We're excited to get back to wor Ik this week," head coach Jeff Brohm said. "think that showing improvement, getting better, correcting mistakes, and trying to find ways to play our best is always the goal and we have to continue to work hard to do that. There can't be any let-up. Anytime you go on the road, you have to play a clean, sound football game and that's what we're going to have to do in order to win. We're looking forward to continuing to work this week and going out west and playing a quality football team and trying to find ways to win."

The Cardinals kept their regular travel schedule as it made its trip all the way across the country. Louisville flew out Friday and made the four-hour flight to California, and Brohm kep the team under the same schedule.

"Well, we've talked about it a lot and I've done it a lot as a player, going east to west, and I think we have a good plan," Brohm said. "Stay on your normal routine as much as you can. We prepare all week, and we go out there, the plane ride is a bit longer than normal. You get there and have your meetings and go out the next day and play. We're not going to over-emphasize all those things. We got a job to do, and I think we have a good plan to get our work done here and go out there and play football and find a way to win."

Louisville enjoyed its second bye week of the season last week after a 33-21 win over No. 11 Clemson Nov. 2, The off week was well deserved as the Cardinals were nursing a number of key injuries and just needed some time off as the final three games appeared on the schedule. Louisville has had to shuffle its offensive line an its still not healthy, but the time off certainly was a positive.

"I think the bye week came at a time where we have some guys nicked up and they need to get refreshed and get healthy and get ready for this last stretch of three football games," Brohm said. "That was important that we did that and I felt for the most part that we got that done and we continue to get at least a little bit of work in. The preparation for Stanford we got some young guys some repetitions as well this past week and then we got a bonus practice yesterday that I thought was beneficial. We are on our normal week routine, the players are off today and will be back on the field tomorrow and I think we will get a few guys back that will hopefully help us and will give us just a tad bit more depth which you want at this point in the year. We want to continue to improve and continue to try to play as clean as we can in all three segments and be very efficient in doing it so we need to push ourselves to get that done."

The defense has been under a microscope for most of the season but the unit has played well in its last two victories. Facing one of the nation's top offensive units in Clemson, the Cardinals stuffed the Tigers for most of the game, giving up yards late as Clemson attempted to get back into the game.

"I definitely think that they believe that they can perform at a high level. As we've identified problems throughout the season, the bottom line a lot of times we've just given up a lot of easy, wide-open plays. For whatever reason the bust was, coaching-wise, player-wise, we had it. So, it was a matter of we have to clean up these things here. We have to make this team earn their points. I think if you make them earn it and you challenge things every play, you don't give up something wide open, you're going to have good success. I think last week our defense definitely responded in that aspect; it helped us play a cleaner game."

University of Louisville Athletics

Related News

Related Videos