No. 23 Louisville plays its second ranked opponent in the young season when the Cardinals host No. 16 SMU on Saturday for what’s expected to be one of the top Atlantic Coast Conference games this season.
Louisville (1-1, 0-0 ACC) routed Villanova 59-13 last Friday, enabling the Cardinals to move up a spot in this week’s Associated Press Top 25 poll. Louisville fell to then-No. 9 Ole Miss 41-38 in its season opener on Sept. 6.
The Mustangs (2-0, 1-0) also moved up a spot after taking care of UC Davis 56-10 in Dallas last Saturday.
The highly anticipated matchup will pit familiar opponents as they will meet for the third time in as many seasons. They’re also putting up nearly identical offensive numbers as both enter Week 3 ranked in the top 10 in total offense among FBS schools. SMU is seventh at 566 yards per game, while Louisville’s 552 ypg average ranks 10th.
Kevin Jennings paces a potent Mustangs attack. The fifth-year quarterback leads the conference with 767 passing yards and is tied with Miami’s Darian Mensah with eight touchdowns.
Jennings also can run. Two years ago, Jennings ran for 113 yards as the Mustangs beat the Cardinals 34-27 on the road, a win that helped them earn a College Football Playoff bid in their first ACC season.
“Containing him in the pocket, creating some push and pressure, also defending things early to not give him easy, simple reads, all that will be important,” Louisville coach Jeff Brohm said.
Louisville features a mobile quarterback as well in Lincoln Kienholz. The Ohio State transfer ranks fourth in the conference with 639 passing yards, and his 111 yards rushing lead the team.
In praising Louisville’s quarterback, SMU coach Rhett Lashlee nearly echoed Brohm’s comments about Jennings, adding that Kienholz can make “defensive coordinators go crazy” by extending plays.
The difference is that Kienholz is finally getting a chance to play after basically sitting for three seasons. While the quarterback had shaky moments early in both games, Lashlee said he’s been able to get over that.
“Then he just balled,” Lashlee said. “So he’s gained a lot of confidence, and that’s your biggest fear as a coach.”
Jennings and Kienholz rank second and third nationally in yards per completion at 19.2 and 18.8, respectively.
The two schools also account for four of the ACC’s top five players in average yards per reception. SMU’s Jalen Hale is first with a 40.3-yard average, and Louisville’s Lawayne McCoy is next at 32.8. Louisville’s Jaleel Skinner is third at 27.4, and SMU’s Yannick Smith is fifth at 25.2.
SMU throttled Louisville 38-6 in Dallas last November, but the Cardinals came in hobbled as they were without their starting quarterback and top two running backs, also losing their top receiver during the game. Lashlee dismissed that game as an “outlier,” adding that Louisville’s defense also has shown improvement at all levels.
Cardinals defensive end Clev Lubin, who tied for fourth in the ACC with 8.5 sacks last season, is tied for the national lead with two forced fumbles this season.
SMU safety Jimmy Wyrick is tied for the team lead with 11 tackles and his two sacks are tied for sixth in the ACC.
Louisville may bolster its defense as linebacker Kalib Perry, who missed the first two games, was added to a recent lawsuit in a local court that would allow him to play a fifth season. Perry ranked fifth on the team last season with 55 tackles and went undrafted before participating in minicamps with the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers and Tennessee Titans.
Meanwhile, SMU is looking to add 2025 All-ACC first-team safety Ahmaad Moses, who is part of a Texas court case, but he still hasn’t been medically cleared to return.
