Watch, Read, Listen: FSU vs Louisville Preview

Louisville Cardinals head coach Scott Satterfield is in the early stages of a pivotal year three. After a rocky 2020 season and some offseason hijinks, it was beginning to seem like neither Louisville nor Satterfield were entirely pleased with their present situation.

The trend continued downward after a blowout loss to Ole Miss in week one. However, a big victory last Saturday over a solid UCF team may be the change in fortune the Cardinals need. A change that the Florida State Seminoles are desperately striving for as well.

Offense

Satterfield’s background is on the offensive side of the ball and his teams tend to reflect his style.

• They heavily rely on pistol sets that give flexibility while giving away minimal information pre-snap
• They base their offense off of stretch which gets the defense moving laterally
• Then they use misdirection PA or inside zones to take advantage of flowing defenders
• The key to their offense is quarterback Malik Cunningham who is a runner first but whose passing game continues to improve throughout his career.

Defense

Their defense tends to operate under one directive: stop the run.

• They play a one-gap 3-4 that allows quick upfield movement by the defensive line
• Their linebackers are aggressive in run fits and are heavily involved in the pass rush via stunts
• This aggressiveness can leave them a bit vulnerable to the passing game.

Some of these concepts are a bit difficult to fully grasp on paper. So lets jump into the film to see what they look like on the field.