Louisville Clowns Wake Forest, 45-21

Seriously, I just don’t know what to say. I’ve been sitting here for like, an hour. It was a rough performance from a team that’s had a month off. Multiple star players are out for many different reasons. There’s only one more game left. Whether or not a significant number of bowl games will be played is also up in the air. So...what are we doing? The offense was absolutely putrid, especially in the first half. Rough execution, headscratching playcalls, and just nothing to say, really. Then in the second half, the defense got in on the “fun”, making long sustained drives look absolutely easy, including giving up multiple third and long attempts, one of which was a terrible DPI, with Wake Forest only down 7 points. Then the special teams got in on the fun, giving up an absolutely baffling onside kick after a touchdown that had increased Louisville’s lead to 14. I’m just kind of at a loss. Nobody had a good day today; coaches, players, fans, the program vis-a-vis injuries and opt outs, every aspect of today’s game can most charitably described as something like “ugh”. That said though, I also find it difficult if not impossible to find myself to care. This season is a wash; no eligibility is being burned, I don’t really think any recruiting efforts will be drastically impacted one way or the other, they hadn’t played in a month, and we only have one game left anyway.

I dunno, maybe I’m missing something, but I feel like the only potential larger conversation to be had in the aftermath of this is with respect to offensive playcalling, but even that I’m sort of shrugging about today given the lack of Kenneth Walker III and who knows how many others at this point and, again, it’s been a month off, and it’s not like with a bowl game where you spend a month planning for a single team with a season’s worth of tape and everything. It’s a month off riddled with missed practices, COVID diagnoses, postponements, cancellations, national uncertainty, fear, frustration...it’s extremely 2020, if I’m being entirely honest with everybody. So with that said, as bad as it was (and boy howdy it was) I’m just kind of shrugging and waiting for the season, the year, and hopefully the pandemic to finally be a thing of the past. I’m sorry I don’t really have anything particularly insightful to say, but “boy howdy, that game was YIKES” more or less covers it.

Feel free to do a deeper dive in the comments, everybody. I just feel like I’ve got nothin’. On to the last. Go Deacs.

—SF