NCAA Football: Notre Dame at Louisville
USATSI

One of the great college football traditions usually arrives this time of year. Within the first few weeks of October, there is a team that has yet to lose a game and I have no idea whether that team is good or not. I'll watch it win game after game and think to myself, "OK, but what does it mean?"

This year's mystery team? Louisville. 

The Cardinals beat Notre Dame 33-20 on Saturday to improve to 6-0 and climbed to No. 14 in the latest AP Top 25 as a result. They're now 3-0 in the ACC with five wins over Power Five competition. But, like I said, I can't tell if it's any good. Or, at least, I can't tell if it's as good a team as the one I've seen some begin comparing to the Cardinals -- a team from last season that had me asking myself the very same questions around this time.

Is Louisville this year's TCU?

There are plenty of similarities. Like TCU and Sonny Dykes, Louisville is led by an intelligent, offensive-minded coach in his first year at the school. Jeff Brohm is one of the primary reasons to believe in this Cardinals team as he's long been one of the more underrated coaches in the sport. Following the win against Notre Dame, Brohm had won four of his last six games against teams ranked in the top 10 of the AP Top 25. 

Like TCU, Louisville's offense features fast, reliable skill position players who may not be household names but are capable of explosive plays. Jawhar Jordan averages 108.8 rushing yards per game and his eight rushing touchdowns are tied for fourth nationally. Jamari Thrash is a big-play threat a la Quentin Johnston last year, and his 17.3 yards per reception ranks ninth among players with at least 25 receptions this season.

Then, there's the quarterback situation. The biggest reason I'm hung up on whether this Louisville team is any good is QB Jack Plummer. He's not great, he's not terrible, he's just fine. He'll make some plays, but I always feel like he's a play away from making a big mistake. Plummer has thrown 12 touchdowns to six interceptions, but five of those touchdowns came in a win over Boston College. I had the same concerns about TCU's Max Duggan last year, and he ended up in New York as a Heisman finalist. I don't think Plummer needs to book December hotel accommodations for New York just yet, but who knows?

Another similarity between the Cardinals and last year's Horned Frogs is an affinity for playing in close games. If you remove the 56-0 win over Murray State, their five wins have come by an average of 11.2 points. Last season, TCU went 6-1 in one-score games and its first loss wasn't until a 31-28 defeat to Kansas State in the Big 12 Championship Game. Three of Louisville's wins have been of the one-score variety, and the Cards are one of only five teams in the country to have played at least three one-score games and win them all. It's not the best way to go about winning games, but it makes for an entertaining product that will earn you plenty of bandwagon fans should you keep pulling off the victories.

Will the Cardinals keep doing so? The schedule certainly works in their favor. They're one of three undefeated teams remaining in the ACC alongside Florida State and North Carolina, and potential pairings between the three teams won't happen aside from a potential ACC Championship Game. Louisville doesn't have to play Clemson, either. It has five ACC games remaining with three home games against Duke, Virginia Tech and Virginia. There are also road games against Pitt and Miami. There isn't a game remaining the Cardinals can't win.

Of course, there isn't a game on there they aren't capable of losing, either. That's the problem with these Cardinals. Hopefully I'll figure them out before they're 12-0.

Narrative Flip of the Week

What happens if Oklahoma wins the Big 12 and reaches the College Football Playoff under Brent Venables before USC wins the Pac-12 and reaches the College Football Playoff under Lincoln Riley?

We just finished wondering whether Louisville is this year's TCU. Last year around this time, TCU first started grabbing national attention after pounding Oklahoma 55-24. It was Oklahoma's second straight loss, and the following week the Sooners spanked 49-0 by Texas. It was a rough stretch in a disappointing Oklahoma season as the Sooners would finish the year 6-7. All of which was made worse by watching USC win 11 games under Riley as former OU QB Caleb Williams won the Heisman. Things feel a lot different in 2023, though.

The Sooners got their revenge against Texas in a 34-30 Red River Rivalry thriller Saturday, and while USC is undefeated itself, I've got a lot more confidence in Oklahoma than the Trojans right now. Something about struggling to beat Arizona State one week and needing triple-overtime to take care of Arizona the next will have a person questioning how good a team is.

Given how these teams are playing (Oklahoma plays defense, too) and the remaining schedules, the Sooners look like the team to back in this off-field rivalry.

Caleb Williams Highlight of the Week

I may have doubts about USC's ability to keep winning games, but the one thing about the Trojans I do not doubt is Caleb Williams. As proven on this play, he does not skip leg day.

Punter of the Week

Talk about no good deed going unpunished. North Carolina's Ben Kiernan turns a possible disaster into a first down for the Tar Heels and gets absolutely annihilated for his troubles. The video doesn't do the hit justice. For that, you need to take a look at Kiernan's facemask following the hit.

Return of the King of the Week

In last week's Monday After, I wrote about the Georgia Bulldogs and how this year's version doesn't look the same as the teams that won national titles. Well, the team that beat Kentucky into a pulp Saturday looked like the kind of team that wins a national title.

What I loved about the Dawgs performance in a 51-13 win was how aggressive they were from the jump. Georgia has struggled to run the ball all season and decided to let Carson Beck cook. Beck tied a career-high with 35 pass attempts and didn't throw a single pass in the fourth quarter. And, shock of all shocks, being able to throw the ball effectively opened up the run game for Georgia late!

Georgia's 5.58 yards per carry against Kentucky was the highest yards per carry it has had in any game this season. 

Golden Arm Punter Leaderboard of the Week

I enjoy creating stats that don't exist but should, and The Golden Arm Punter is a stat we don't track but should. For those who don't know, an arm punt is a term given to an interception thrown by a quarterback that's thrown deep enough downfield to effectively serve as a punt.

Buffalo Bills QB Josh Allen is the king of arm punts in the NFL. On third down, he's never shy about launching a pass 55 yards downfield because it's no different than a punt if intercepted. But, if it's caught, it's a lot different!

So, to figure out the best arm punter in college, all we have to do is look at the average air yards on a QB's interceptions. An air yard is any yard a pass travels past the line of scrimmage. For this week's update, I'm limiting the field to players who have thrown at least three interceptions. Consistency is key, after all.

Arm PunterAir Yards per Interception (min. 3 INT)

1. Joe Milton, Tennessee

32.3

2. Jack Plummer, Louisville

29.0

3. Cade McNamara, Iowa

28.3

4. Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi, Colorado State

23.6

5. DJ Uiagalelei, Oregon State

23.3

6. Byrum Brown, USF

23.2

7. Carson Beck, Georgia

23.0

7. Drew Pyne, Arizona State

23.0

7. Brendon Lewis, Nevada

23.0

7. Carter Bradley, South Alabama

23.0

Thoughts and Prayers of the Week

Thoughts and prayers.

Coaching Decision of the Week

I almost led this week's column with Mario Cristobal and Miami's idiotic decision to hand the ball off in the final seconds against Georgia Tech instead of simply kneeling out the clock. If you aren't aware of what happened, Miami had a 20-17 lead in the final minute against Georgia Tech. The Yellow Jackets had no timeouts remaining, and with 33 seconds left in the game, all Miami had to do was kneel.

Instead, it went brain-dead, ran a play, fumbled and watched Georgia Tech score the game-winning touchdown. It was a mind-numbingly awful decision and one for which there's absolutely no excuse. It's a decision that only becomes worse when you remember Cristobal made a similar mistake while coaching Oregon during the 2018 season.

We're prone to hyperbole in the world of sports, as well as recency bias. However, I don't think I'm overreacting when I say it was the dumbest coaching decision I've ever seen in a football game. Many coaching decisions we argue about are subjective, but this one seems cut-and-dried.

Heisman Finalist of the Week

LSU's win-loss record at the end of the season will likely make it impossible for Jayden Daniels to win the Heisman Trophy, but if he keeps playing the way he has been, he needs to be in New York for the ceremony. He may not be the best QB in the country, but there's a strong argument to be made that nobody does more for his team every week than Daniels. He comes up with big play after big play while taking big hit after big hit. In LSU's win over Missouri, he had to leave the game for a bit after taking a monster hit on a touchdown run only to see the touchdown taken off the board due to a holding call.

Whoopsy Daisy Rate Update of the Week

Whoopsy Daisy Rate is a statistic that divides a quarterback's fumbles and interceptions by their snaps to determine how often they commit a Whoopsy Daisy. It is a statistic on the cutting edge of science and data evolution in football that will one day change the world.

QBLowest WDRQBHighest WDR

1. Garrett Greene, West Virginia

0.00%

1. Keyone Jenkins, FIU

4.14%

2. Drew Allar, Penn State

0.30%

2. Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi, Colorado State

3.93%

3. Jordan Travis, Florida State

0.35%

3. Brendon Lewis, Nevada

3.66%

4. Bo Nix, Oregon

0.36%

4. Zeon Chriss, Louisiana

3.59%

5. Shedeur Sanders, Colorado

0.45%

5. Jiya Wright, ULM

3.48%

6. Gavin Wimsatt, Rutgers

0.56%

6. Connor Bazelak, Bowling Green

3.39%

7. Brady Cook, Missouri

0.65%

7. KJ Jefferson, Arkansas

3.39%

8. Kyle McCord, Ohio State

0.78%

8. Gunnar Watson, Troy

3.33%

9. Jaxson Dart, Ole Miss

0.79%

9. Garrett Shrader, Syracuse

3.29%

10. Jayden Daniels, LSU

0.96%

10. Luke Altmyer, Illinois

3.25%

College Football Playoff Projection of the Week

  1. Georgia
  2. Michigan
  3. Oregon
  4. Oklahoma

Until the next Monday After!