Louisville football vs Clemson preview from coach Jeff Brohm
Louisville football takes on Clemson Nov. 14 night at L&N Federal Credit Union Stadium. Ahead of the game, coach Jeff Brohm previews what he expects.
- Louisville rebounded from its first loss of the season by rattling off three straight wins. Starting with Clemson, it’ll look to do the same over the final three games of the regular season.
- With five teams with one loss in ACC play ahead of the Cardinals in the conference standings, several scenarios would have to take place for U of L to reach the league title game.
Jeff Brohm has a notebook full of all the small details his 21st-ranked Louisville football team needed to address before Friday’s game against Clemson.
As Brohm went over film of the Cardinals’ 29-26 loss to California, the overarching issue was what he referred to as “mental busts.” That looked like penalties, empty drives, missed opportunities to get to Cal quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele and busted coverages, to name a few.
Louisville’s defense gave up 158 receiving yards to Jacob De Jesus, which included the game-winning 3-yard grab in overtime. Its offense was held to two touchdowns and had two three-and-outs with a turnover on downs during the fourth quarter.
“Every game contains a ton of plays, and we’ve dissected it fully,” Brohm. “I think we understand what we could have done better at and what we need to try to improve on. And now we’ve got to go do that.”
Louisville rebounded from its first loss of the season by rattling off three straight wins ahead of its Week 11 game against Cal. It’ll look to do the same over the final three games of the regular season. That starts with getting the program’s second-ever win over Clemson.
The Tigers are coming to the Derby City fighting for bowl eligibility. And much like the Cardinals, they haven’t forgotten about what happened last year. Louisville built a 17-7 halftime lead over the Cardinals and used the momentum to power the 33-21 victory.
Defensive lineman Jordan Guerad said Louisville ruined Clemson’s 2024 season with the win and is expecting the Tigers to want revenge. But U of L’s counter is to use the same mindset this year as the team had last time around.
“I feel like we came in very focused, all the way down to the small details,” added running back Keyjuan Brown, who had a 1-yard touchdown run against the Tigers last year. “And you have to be like that playing teams like this. So, we’ve really just got to come focused.”
Though it’s highly unlikely that Louisville will make the ACC championship game, winning its last two games would help. With five teams with one loss in ACC play ahead of the Cardinals in the conference standings, several scenarios would have to take place for U of L to reach the league title game.
One of the scenarios would get Louisville a rematch with Virginia in Charlotte, North Carolina — the Cavs would also have to win out, Georgia Tech would have to beat Boston College but lose to Pitt, the Panthers would have to lose to Miami and Duke would have to lose to North Carolina and/or Wake Forest.
Virginia and Duke, who will face each other on Saturday, are two of those teams with one loss in ACC play.
While Louisville’s path to the ACC championship is no longer fully in its hands, beating Clemson would put it two wins away from the second double-digit win season of Brohm’s three-year tenure.
“We’ve had two overtime losses that we could have won,” Brohm said. “We’ve just got to find a way to get over that hump. There’s plenty more challenges ahead, including this one and more beyond. So, we will have to really be dialed in.”
Reach Louisville football, women’s basketball and baseball beat writer Alexis Cubit at acubit@gannett.com and follow her on X at @Alexis_Cubit.
