Louisville Cardinals
Last year: 8-5 (5-3 ACC), beat Mississippi State, 38-28, in Music City Bowl Best win: vs. Virginia, 28-21 Worst loss: at Miami, 52-27
Coach: Scott Satterfield (second year, 59-39 career)
Starters returning: 15 (8 offense, 7 defense, 0 specialists)
Offensive player to watch: QB Micale Cunningham. Cunningham made strides as a sophomore last season. He missed the Notre Dame opener while recovering from an injury but grabbed the starting job the next week and finished 2019 with a 62.4 completion percentage (up from 59.7 as a freshman on just 67 attempts), 2,061 yards, 22 touchdowns, and just five interceptions. He also rushed for 482 yards and six scores. There were a lot of good things happening on offense in Satterfield's first season in Louisville, but Cunningham stirs the drink, and as his level of play rose, so did the Cardinals'.
Defensive player to watch: LB Rodjay Burns. As a junior in 2019, Burns tallied 83 tackles, 11 for losses, two sacks, a pick, two breakups, and a forced fumble.
Special teams player to watch: KR Hassan Hall. Hall, a sophomore in 2019, averaged 30.5 yards per return (third in ACC) and scored one TD.
Schedule: vs. Western Kentucky, vs. Miami, at Pittsburgh, bye, at Georgia Tech, at Notre Dame, vs. Florida State, vs. Virginia Tech, at Virginia, bye, vs. Syracuse, at Boston College, vs. Wake Forest.
Win-loss prediction: 8-3 or 9-2. Regarding their schedule, the Cardinals lucked out with the revised slate, avoiding traditional Atlantic rival Clemson. Notre Dame was already on the schedule, so that's not an addition. With the Tigers gone, where are the losses going to come from? I don't see many. The Irish will be favored, perhaps heavily, but otherwise ... perhaps Pitt could be a pothole for the Cards, possibly FSU, VT, or UVa? But I think Louisville is in line for a strong season, especially if the defense can improve a bit. It was atrocious in 2018, giving up 44 points per game. It was a bit better in 2019, but still allowed 33.4 points per game, most in the ACC. The offense was really good -- tying for second with UNC in terms of points per game at 33.1 -- and returns a 1,500-yard rusher in Javian Hawkins and a pair of strong receivers in Tutu Atwell (70 catches, 12 TDs) and Dez Fitzpatrick (35, six) in addition to Cunningham. The line needs to be better: Despite those numbers, it still gave up the most tackles for losses of any team in the nation. Satterfield's bunch was not without its faults in 2019, but Satterfield -- who won at least 10 games in three of his six seasons as head of Appalachian State's program -- was named conference coach of the year for turning a two-win disaster a year earlier into a formidable foe in just one year. With his program more firmly established, it's easy to see the upward trajectory of this program.
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