Hokies Head to Kentucky To Take #15 Louisville (11-1-23)
By: Joey Raymond
All Photo Credit: Katie Lovell & Nate Gue-LMS Network
Turkey Legs and Kentucky Bourbon
This weekend we’ll see a matchup between the Virginia Tech Hokies, and the 15th-ranked Louisville Cardinals. A game that got a whole lot bigger after North Carolina lost yet again, this time against Georgia Tech. With the Tar Heels losing that means 2 teams sit at the top directly under Florida State. Let’s be honest here the Seminoles are going to the ACC championship. The question is, who is going to face them? When I wrote my season preview, and even as I’m writing this now, I can’t believe I’m saying this next sentence. Both the Louisville Cardinals and Virginia Tech Hokies are tied for the next-best record in the ACC. Furthermore, this game, whereas it’s still early, could determine who is going to the ACC Championship game.
What Happened Last Week?
We’ll start with the Hokies, and I’ll start with a one-word description of their performance, dominant. The Hokies played Syracuse last week, a team that no one knew what they looked like after losing to 3 of the best teams in the ACC. (Whether you want to agree that Notre Dame is in the ACC or not, they got a vote for expansion, therefore they count.) Coming into that game everyone was torn, Vegas had the Hokies as a 3-point favorite, and ESPN had Syracuse as a 69% favorite. No one told the Hokies that as they came out and beat up the Orange into a pulp. The Hokies won 38-10, giving up 0 rushing yards, and 137 passing yards. To go on top of that they went for 318 on the ground and 210 in the air. This was the most dominant we’ve seen the Hokies play all year.
As for the Cardinals, they came out of the open week seeking revenge for their loss to Pitt a week prior. They came out with a mission against a really tough Duke football team. That mission? Defense. The Cardinals pitched a shutout, not allowing a single point on offense. They held them to 51 yards on the ground and 151 in the air. The Cardinals’ offense didn’t look bad either, scoring 23 points, rushing for 234 yards on the ground, and throwing for 117. All en route to a dominating performance in their own right, winning 23-0.
What’s It Going to Take?
The Hokies need to get off to a fast start and establish their will early. Louisville is a really good sound defensive-minded team. If you can get them on their heels early, it’ll force them to do things your way, which can help the Hokies. The other key for the Hokies is defense. You’ll need to get Antwon Powell-Ryland busy early. The Hokies need to force Louisville to be one-dimensional. If the Cardinals beat you in the air, which is completely possible, tip your cap and call it a good game. You have to force them to throw it and get pressure on the quarterback.
The Cardinals will need to figure out defensively how to stop Kyron Drones. They managed to contain Riley Leonard of Duke, so I wouldn’t imagine that this is much different. Not only that but they’ll have to account for the two hottest hands on the Tech offense in Malachi Thomas and Bayshul Tuten, who both had their best games of the year last game. The other key for the Cardinals will be protecting quarterback Jack Plummer. The Hokies proved last week that they can get to the quarterback and get to him a lot. It’ll be interesting to see what offensive line protections Louisville draws up to stop the bull rush of this Hokies offensive line.
Our Prediction:
This is going to be an interesting game. This is the first game where the Hokies have a shot to prove themselves as legitimate. For the first several games out there the Hokies were lacking an identity. Now that they’ve found it, can they prove that it works against actual big-time opponents? The Cardinals had one bad game against Pitt, but outside of that have been a model for consistency in the ACC this season. They showed last week against Duke that game could be considered a fluke but can they continue that against Virginia Tech? I think that both of these questions get answered as a yes in this game. I think the Hokies prove that they can compete with legitimately good football teams and I feel like the Cardinals continue to be consistent. I have the Louisville Cardinals winning a close, hard-fought game. It’s going to be a game where either we see a ton of points scored or almost no points scored. This should be a really fun game to watch.
