Louisville Looking to Start Strong in Conference Play
September 19, 2024 | Football
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The University of Louisville football is set to begin play in in Atlantic Coast Conference on Saturday against Georgia Tech at L&N Stadium, and the Cardinals are ready prepared for another run at the ACC title game.
Linebacker Benjamin Perry and center Pete Nygra are ready to begin conference play after a pair of big wins to open the season, defeating Austin Peay 62-0 and Jacksonville State 49-14.Â
Coming off the bye week, Louisville is ready to begin a key stretch of games, with eight being ACC games and the other two are on the road against No. 17 Notre Dame and in-state rival Kentucky.Â
"The coaches have emphasized that ACC play is very important. Going from last week to this week, it is a step up in competition," said defensive back Benjamin Perry. "But every game is important because we have a big end goal."Â
This week, Georgia Tech comes into town to start ACC play for Louisville, which means the team is putting in extra attention to detail and increasing their focus to match the new level of competition. Louisville opened the 2023 league schedule with a 39-34 win over the Yellow Jackets last season.
"Conference play is everything. This is when games start to matter towards our conference record. Obviously, the goal is to get to the ACC championship," said offensive lineman Pete Nygra. "We just try to keep it about us though. Just proving ourselves every week, getting better and playing the best ball we can."
UofL head coach Jeff Brohm already knows that Georgia Tech is a tough opponent. During his first season coaching the Cards, he led the team to their first ever win against the Yellow Jackets in a late-game comeback.on the road. Â
"This is a challenging football team that we're going to have to play good football to win and I think that's how it's going to work in this conference," he said. "I do think there's a lot of parody, I think there's a lot of teams that can beat anybody on a given day."
Last year the Cards went 7-1 in ACC play and made it to their first ever ACC championship game. Louisville is looking to build off of this momentum in Brohm's second year.Â
"I told our team the other day, 'this is starting a long run of games where it's going to be four quarters of back-and-forth and if you're not mentally and physically ready to get that done, you're not going to win,'" Brohm said. "So, we've got to be able to withstand the momentum swings and hang in there and continue to fight to the end and hope that we're good enough to win when it's all said and done."
Louisville and Georgia Tech will meet on Saturday afternoon at L&N Federal Credit Union Stadium. Kickoff is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. ET and can be seen on ESPN 2.
