Virginia vs Louisville was probably the one of the best under the radar games I’ve seen all year. Virginia for several years has been one of the worst ACC football programs. They hired the high successful Bronco Mendenhall out of BYU. Mendenhall’s teams were know for toughness and physical play.
We knew that would be his goal at Virginia, but that it could take 2 or 3 recruiting cycles to get there. The season was disaster at the start. Virginia opened the season with losses to Richmond, A bad Oregon team, and Connecticut, but we started to see glimpses of what Mendenhall is capable of doing at Virginia. The high flying Louisville Cardinals came to town, and ended up playing for their playoff lives.
The Virginia was the better team upfront on both sides of the ball. Virginia’s dline pushed around the Louisville offensive line all day and forced the Cardinal’s into several penalties. Mendenhall got the game into the slugfest he wanted, and the Hoos led 25-24 after converting a 2 point conversion with under 2 minutes. Here is where stars shine though, and Louisville has one playing quarterback.
This was one of those games, where you had every reason to lose, but a great player lifts you to victory. QB Lamar Jackson marched the Cardinals to a game winning TD. He made plays with his legs. He made play with his arms. He saved Louisville’s playoff hopes.
Jackson totaled 361 yards through the air and 90 on the ground. He had 4 more TD passes, and a game-winning drive. There was a lot to criticize about Louisville’s performance today. They played lackadaisical and sloppy, but that’s when your front-running Heisman candidate lifts you to a win. Jackson makes this good team great.
My blogging buddy, @HokieSmash said this to our Louisville friends on Twitter:
3:30 wasn’t the start time Louisville
— Matthew (@hokiesmash) October 29, 2016
Kudos for getting the lead @Jeremy_CSZ @LvilleSprtsLive @CardSportsZone @_EthanMoore – I know you can’t be happy
— Matthew (@hokiesmash) October 29, 2016
Here I’m calling out Louisville for that Mike London style clock management – and they get a W here. That was awesome. @_EthanMoore
— Matthew (@hokiesmash) October 29, 2016
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