Louisville football: Five good questions about the Cardinals

Q: Is this the year Louisville finally features a vintage Bobby Petrino offense?

A: During Bobby Petrino 1.0 (2003-06), Petrino’s U of L attacks scored 40 points or more in 31 of 50 games as the Cardinals went 41-9. Petrino 2.0 — which has coincided with U of L’s move up to the ACC the past two seasons — has featured no such explosiveness. While going 17-9, Petrino’s offenses have gone above 40 points only four times — and two of those were against FCS foes Murray State and Samford. Part of the issue the past two years has been a revolving door at quarterback, a problem Lamar Jackson is expected to end in 2016.

Q: Over a full season, can Lamar Jackson replicate his final two games of 2015?

A: Jackson electrified Louisville football with his final two performances of 2015. The 6-foot-3, 205-pound product of Boynton Beach, Fla., came off the bench with U of L trailing Kentucky 21-0 and rallied the Cards to a 38-24 win by gashing the Cats with his legs (186 yards rushing, two touchdowns). Jackson followed that up with a stellar showing in Louisville’s Music City Bowl victory over Texas A&M, hitting the Aggies with 226 yards rushing and 227 passing. Talk out of the U of L camp has been Jackson is much more in command of Petrino’s playbook as a sophomore and has refined his passing mechanics. If that chatter proves true, Jackson could be sitting on a monster season.

Q: Will the U of L offensive line step up after flailing a year ago?

A: Given how many issues Louisville had on its offensive front in 2015, it’s a minor miracle the Cardinals went 8-5. U of L surrendered a whopping 43 sacks and was victimized by 97 tackles for loss. This season, we’ll find out if the lumps taken by a youthful offensive line in 2015 will produce improvement. Ex-Lafayette lineman Tobijah Hughley, a senior, is a veteran anchor at center. Sophomore Geron Christian, a 6-foot-6, 314-pound product of Ocala, Fla., is considered to have star potential at left tackle.

Q: How reliable will the Louisville kicking game be?

A: U of L loses both place-kicker John Wallace and punter Josh Appleby from a year ago, so the Cards’ kicking is a great unknown entering 2016. At punter, Louisville signed true freshman Austin Johnson — the Desales High School starting quarterback — to a scholarship and he was expected to battle redshirt freshman walk-on Mason King (St. Xavier) for the job. At place-kicker, Austin Laszewski, a freshman preferred walk-on from Hollywood, Fla., was battling with redshirt freshman walk-on Blanton Creque (Collins High School in Shelbyville) and sophomore walk-on Evan O’Hara (Boone County).

Q: Is this the year U of L breaks through vs. Clemson and Florida State?

A: In its two years in the ACC, Louisville has been a notch below the league’s elite — Florida State and Clemson. Interestingly, the Cardinals have been far more competitive with Clemson than FSU. Two years ago, U of L lost 23-17 in Death Valley after the Cards failed to score on 4th-and-goal from the Tigers’ 2-yard-line with 21 seconds left. Last season, Louisville missed a 38-yard field goal and threw an interception in the final 2:28 of a 20-17 home loss to Clemson. Florida State, conversely, rallied to beat U of L going away (42-31) in 2014 and just beat the Cards going away (41-21) last year. For many Cards backers, the 2016 season will be defined by whether Petrino and Co. can break through against the ACC’s two big boys.

This story was originally published August 30, 2016 at 10:10 AM with the headline "Louisville football: Five good questions about the Cardinals."