Wake Forest vs Louisville Highlights

The Deacs are back in the win column after defeating the Louisville Cardinals in what will undoubtedly be remembered as the Matt Colburn II revenge game. There are a lot of highlights to get to from this one, so let’s jump right in.

This game started off about as bad as any game can, with Louisville running back Trey Smith taking off for a 52 yard touchdown run on 4th and 1.

The Cardinals took a 7-0 lead a little over 2 minutes into the game.

Thankfully, the Wake Forest offense answered quickly, tying the game up at 7 all in under 100 seconds. Quarterback Sam Hartman stepped up in the pocket and found tight end Jack Freudenthal, who refused to go down until he got to the endzone.

Credit the O-line for giving Hartman time to adjust and find the open guy. That play capped a 6 play, 81 yard drive for the Deacs.

After a punt from the Cardinals, the Wake Forest offense marched right back down the field, scoring on an 8 play, 80 yard drive that took a little over 2 minutes.

Hartman appeared to be running the RPO, but the defense just kind of forgot about him, allowing him to scamper 12 yards and dive into the endzone for a touchdown. The Deacs took the lead here, 14-7, and never looked back.

After the defense forced a 3 and out on the next Louisville drive, the Deacs scored another touchdown, going 63 yards in 7 plays.

This is just a great play design from the coaching staff: line up 4 guys on one side of the field in order to get your biggest receiver isolated with 1 on 1 coverage on the other side of the field. That’s an easy catch and score for Scotty Washington.

Louisville would respond, cutting into the 21-7 Wake Forest lead with a 1 yard Trey Smith touchdown run.

Smith finished the game with 98 yards and 3 TDs on 13 carries.

On literally the next play from scrimmage, Matt Colburn carried the ball over the right side, found a huge whole, and ripped a 74 yard TD run to increase the lead to 28-14.

My favorite part of this run is that the whole thing took place right on the Louisville sideline, giving Bobby Petrino a perfect view of Colburn torching his defense.

The Deacs scored a touchdown on the very next play from scrimmage (again!) when Cameron Glenn forced Marcus Riley to fumble the ball, allowing Carlos Basham Jr. to scoop it up and take it 23 yards for the score.

Basham narrowly missed the tackle in the backfield, never gave up, and was rewarded for his hustle with a touchdown to give the Deacs a 35-14 lead.

Louisville ended their first half with a score on a difficult TD grab from Seth Dawkins.

The Deacs were content to run out the clock and head into the half with a 35-21 lead.

Wake started where they left off in the 2nd half. After going 14 yards in 3 plays, Colburn blew through the line and took off for the endzone, this time going 56 yards for the score.

The Cardinals responded on their next possession with a long, sustained drive to cut the lead back to 14. The 10 play, 89 yard drive was capped off by a Hassan Hall 12 yard touchdown run.

There were so many scores in this game my hands are starting to hurt from making all these gifs. It was definitely a bad day to bet the under.

The Deacs scored yet again on their next possession, with Cade Carney just running straight through the 253 pound Amonte Caban to give Wake a 49-28 lead.

Carney finished the game with 83 yards on 14 carries.

The final Wake Forest touchdown of the game would go to Matt Colburn, as he ran it in from 12 yards out for his 3rd score of the game.

Colburn finished the game with a career high 243 yards and 3 TDs on 20 carries. It would absolutely suck to be a coach who recruited this guy and then decided you didn’t think he was good enough for a scholarship.

The Deacs went on to win the game by a final score of 56 to 35, giving Petrino and the Cardinals their 5th straight loss.

What was your favorite play from Saturday’s win?