Teams, fans, announcers, and coaches have been using the portal and opt-outs as excuses for losing bowl games in recent post-seasons.
Hey, it is what it is at this point, and sometimes you just have to go out and play.
That’s what Louisville did Tuesday when they defeated Washington 35-34 in the Sun Bowl. The Cardinals were down a whopping 22 players, 18 who hit the portal and 4 opt-outs.
Louisville Jeff Brohm didn’t use it as a crutch. He lined up who he had available, and won a game that sent Louisville to a very solid 9-4 season, even with a stunning loss to Stanford. Tuesday, a depleted secondary that struggled against Huskies, made the game-saving play on a Washington 2-point attempt.
When you look at the ACC this year, Louisville was sometimes lost in the shuffle. Miami was in the top 10 most of the year. Clemson was your brand that won the ACC. SMU the newcomer that got to Charlotte. Even Pittsburgh had a 7-0 start, and Georgia Tech got attention for some big wins and an 8 OT loss to Georgia.
Louisville has been flying under the radar all season, but if you looked close enough they were one of the ACC’s better teams, and by the end of the season they were playing some of the best football in the ACC.
I was at the Clemson and Louisville game, and I was floored by how well Louisville played. It was a TOTAL beatdown. They dominated from start to finish in a way Georgia, South Carolina, and Texas didn’t when they beat Clemson.
This team quietly gave Notre Dame their toughest game of the year outside of the loss to NIU. They destroyed Kentucky on the road. When Louisville was right they were very good, and Tuesday’s win solidified the Louisville program under Jeff Brohm.
Louisville has gone 19-8 (12-4) in the last two years under Brohm. It’s the ACC’s best coaching record of the last 2 years. Even better than Clemson’s Dabo Swinney and his 19-8 (11-5) record.
The Cardinals did their part to try and salvage the ACC’s abysmal bowl season, and proved at the same time they are a force to be reckoned with in the ACC next year. That’s a top 25 team and needs to be ranked in the final 2024 poll.
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