– The Beak Preview: Louisville vs. Southern Miss
Last week we had the Golden Panthers and this week we stay on the road to face the Golden Eagles.
There are only 26 teams left in college football who have not lost a game. At least two teams will fall from this list after the weekend. One of those undefeated teams is our Louisville Cardinals. They will put that 4-0 record on the line as they travel to Hattiesburg this weekend to face an old foe Southern Miss. These two teams haven’t done battle since the Cardinals defeated the Golden Eagles 31-28 in the 2010 Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Bowl. The Golden Eagles will be primed and ready for this game as they have already schedule it to be a black out and haven’t beaten the Cards since 1999.
Coach Strong:“We’re going on the road for the second-straight week,” “What’s going to be critical for us is that we maintain our focus, emotions and our confidence – play with confidence and compete.” – UofLsports.com
As mentioned above these teams are very old foes. The Cardinals and Golden Eagles were in Conference USA together from 1996-2005 and they first played each other back in 1949. The Golden Eagles hold an 18-10-1 advantage in the series and the Cards are just 3-11 all-time in Hattiesburg. Needless to say that we have seen our fair share of heartbreak in this battle. I just hope we don’t experience one this weekend.
Things are a lot different than they were back in those days as in this meeting the Cardinals come into the game ranked as the 17th best team in the nation, according to the USA Today poll and the 19th ranked team according to the AP poll. Louisville is 4-0 for the first time since 2006 after beating FIU last Saturday, 28-21. While their performance was underwhelming last weekend the young Cards continue to show quite a bit of character and have a very solid team on both sides of the ball. The 0-3 Golden Eagles are off to a rough and bumpy start this season. They have lost all three of their games by double digits including a big loss against Western Kentucky last Saturday 42-17. Unlike the Cards who had most of their main contributors return for this season the Golden Eagles lost a ton to graduation and are facing a re-build.
The Golden Eagles also have a new coach. Ellis Johnson former defensive coordinator for the Golden Eagles (1988-89), was hired last December to replace Larry Fedora, who left for the head-coaching job at North Carolina.
Coach Johnson:“I think Larry’s obviously left a challenge on some accomplishments, but we’ve got a good bunch of football players we have to work with. I think we had a good recruiting class. We feel good about it right now. We’ve got a little tougher schedule. It’s going to be a lot harder than the last several years.”
This one will be close early as the Golden Eagles will be primed on pure emotion but in the end over-all talent will win out in this battle. Our Cards are a class above anyone else who has romped Southern Miss this season. I look for the Cardinals to run away with this one and Teddy QB will have a huge bounce back game through the air.
The Beak Prediction:
Louisville 45 Southern Miss 10