The Virginia football team will play its final road game of the 2023 season when the team travels to Louisville for an ACC matchup on a Thursday night. Louisville made a big move this offseason with the appointment of Jeff Brohm to be the 24th head coach in the history of its program. Brohm was a standout quarterback for the Cardinals’ program during the early 1990s and is a member of the team’s “Ring of Honor.”

This Cardinals team will also look pretty different from the one the Hoos faced in October of last year, as Louisville has plenty of younger players who will need to step up and a bunch of new faces coming from the transfer portal. The 2023 game will mark the 12th meeting between these two programs in a series that Louisville leads all-time 6-5.

Let’s take a closer look at Virginia’s final road opponent of the 2023 season.

Louisville Cardinals

• Date: Thursday, Nov. 9 @ 7:30 PM ET (ESPN)
• Location: L&N Federal Credit Union Stadium – Louisville, KY (artificial turf field)
• 2022 Record: 8-5
• Coach: Jeff Brohm, entering 1st season
• Last Meeting: Oct. 8, 2022 – Louisville won 34-17
• Last Bowl Appearance: 2022 Wasabi Fenway Bowl vs. Cincinnati – Louisville won 24-7
• Key Returning Players: RB Jawhar Jordan, WR Ahmari Huggins-Bruce, C Bryan Hudson, OT Renato Brown, CB Jarvis Brownlee Jr., SS Josh Minkins, DE Ashton Gillote, DT Dezmond Tell

What To Expect On Game Day

What’s To Like: Intimidating Defense. The Cardinals’ defense ranked first in the nation in total sacks with 50 and first in the nation in sacks per game, averaging 3.85. What stands out about this statistic is that Louisville didn’t have one player with double-digit sacks, but did have seven players with at least 3.0, and four players with 6.0 or more. That includes returning lineman Ashton Gillote, who had 6 sacks last season. The defensive line and linebacker group had a lot of depth in 2022 and the unit found multiple ways to get to the quarterback.

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