Clemson Football Oppo Research: Louisville Cardinals

Clemson will come off the second bye of the 2024 season to host the Louisville Cardinals.

What: Louisville Cardinals at Clemson Tigers

When: November 2nd, time to be determined

Where: Clemson Memorial Stadium in Clemson, South Carolina

Series History: Clemson leads the all-time series 8-0. The Tigers won their last meeting 31-16 in 2022 in Death Valley.

Louisville 2023 Statistics

All stats per teamrankings.com against FBS competition only

Points per game: 28.8 (52nd)

Yards per game: 395.1 (51st)

Points allowed per game: 22.9 (37th)

Yards allowed per game: 328.6 (22nd)

Some sharp eyes spotted Louisville’s relatively easy ACC schedule last season. The Cardinals took advantage of that schedule to grab a spot in the ACC Championship Game.

Unfortunately, Louisville wasn’t in their best form at the end of the season. Even though Florida State started their third-string quarterback in Charlotte, the Cardinals were not able to take advantage. The Louisville offense was exposed against the Seminole defense.

Some things haven’t changed for 2024. The Cardinals again have a favorable schedule. The offense in Jeff Brohm’s second season in Louisville is ‘to be determined’.

Brohm recruited Tyler Shough from the transfer portal. Shough played at Texas Tech, is 24 years old, and is entering his seventh season in college football. His age hints at his strength: he is experienced and mature. His career length hints at the drawback with Shough: he hasn’t been healthy consistently throughout his career, which started at Oregon.

The Cardinals are untested at wide receiver but have multiple tight ends who are targets. The running back room will be mostly by committee too. The offensive line lost both tackles and their center.

The defense for the Cardinals was the strength of the team last season and they look to hold strong this season. They have solid players who are experienced along the starting lineup. The question will be depth, where multiple freshmen are expected to be part of the two-deep.

Louisville might make a run at the ACC Championship Game again simply because of their schedule, but that doesn’t necessarily mean anything when they visit Death Valley this November. The Tiger offense will be challenged by the Cardinals. The offensive line will be relied on to keep players like Ashton Gillotte and Mason Reiger out of Cade Klubnik’s pocket.

On the other side, the Tigers hold a definite advantage. They will need to be disruptive up front and prevent Shough from being able to take his time in the pocket.

Clemson will be coming off their second bye of the season for this game. Meanwhile, Louisville will be in the middle of a three-game road stretch, having just come off a trip to Boston College and looking at a West Coast flight to play Stanford after a bye week.