WKU at Louisville 9/12/20 - College Football Picks & Predictions

The Western Kentucky Hilltoppers travel on the road to Cardinal Stadium to take on the Lousiville Cardinals. Western Kentucky won the final four games of last season, kicked off with a decisive road win over SEC opponent Arkansas. They finished their season in the SERVPRO First Responders Bowl with a 23-20 win over Western Michigan finishing 9-4. Louisville finished off a 8-5 season with a 38-28 win over Mississippi State in the Music City Bowl.

Louisville returns dynamic quarterback Micale Cunningham who threw for an impressive 22 touchdown passes to just 5 interceptions after earning the starting job in week 3. Cunningham threw for 2000+ yards while adding in 482 rush yards and 6 touchdowns on the ground. The switch at quarterback was to compliment starting running back Javian Hawkins, as just a freshman Hawkins rushed for 1525 rush yards and 9 touchdowns.

The combination of Cunningham and Hawkins led the Cardinals to the third-best rushing attack in the ACC averaging 212.8 rush yards per game and the 2019 Cardinals averaged 33.1 points per game which was second in the ACC last season.

Western Kentucky will be faced with the daunting task of breaking in a new quarterback without a proper offseason and will be thrown right into the fire with a road trip to a Power 5 opponent. The expected starter for the Hilltoppers is Davis Shanley who saw no action last season. In 2018, Shanley completed 68% of his 141 passes for 942 yards for three touchdowns and two interceptions. Shanley wasn’t necessarily a huge running threat but ran 38 times for 91 yards and a touchdown in 2020. 

Louisville was the 109th ranked scoring defense in 2019 allowing over 33 points per game and was burnt all season long by opposing rushing attacks allowing over 200 yards per game on the ground, the 19th worst rush defense in the NCAA last season. Western Kentucky was solid on the defensive end last season allowing 20.1 points per game to rank 22nd in scoring defense.