Louisville coaching change gave Kentucky a lot to prepare for this week

There are a lot of unknowns for Kentucky’s defense to plan for this week like questions at quarterback and wrinkles that might come with a new play caller.

After the recent firing of coach Bobby Petrino, there’s just one game’s worth of tape on Lonnie Galloway, the co-offensive coordinator who took over play calling for the Cardinals last week versus North Carolina State.

Neither UK head coach Mark Stoops nor defensive coordinator Matt House believed the Cardinals will be redesigning the playbook this week in preparation for Kentucky, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a lot for which to prepare.

“There’s a lot of different ways they can go and a lot of different plays, a lot of different styles,” Stoops said of a Petrino offense.

There were some differences in Galloway’s play-calling style, but House still sees similarities in system.

“It’s hard to invent a system in a week,” House said. “I’m sure they’ll have some wrinkles, they’ll see some things off tape they want to take advantage of.”

Tape from Louisville’s game last week — the first without Petrino — shows where the Cardinals might want to feature different parts of the offense overall with Galloway making calls, so UK has “a pretty good idea of what they want to do, but it’s only one game, so it’s hard to get a total feel,” Stoops said.

In the 52-10 loss to North Carolina State, Louisville ran the ball 38 times for 254 yards with quarterback Malik Cunningham getting 100 yards on 14 carries. The Cardinals averaged 6.7 yards a rush.

Louisville is No. 120 in scoring offense nationally (out of 130), averaging 20.6 points a game. Versus ranked teams, that number drops to just 17.7 points.

The Cardinals don’t have a player who is averaging more than 50 yards per game on the ground this season. They are averaging 133.8 yards on the ground a game.

Opponents have scored 135 points this season off Louisville turnovers (15 interceptions, 10 fumbles).