Points of Emphasis: Louisville vs. Jacksonville State

Here are the more significant storylines to follow ahead of Louisville football's season-opening matchup vs. Jacksonville State:

Aug 31, 2024; Louisville, Kentucky, USA; Louisville Cardinals wide receiver Jadon Thompson (2) scores a touchdown against the Austin Peay Governors during the second quarter at L&N Federal Credit Union Stadium. / Jamie Rhodes-Imagn Images

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - After demolishing Austin Peay to kickoff their 2024 season, the Louisville football program now has their first FBS opponent of the season on tap, and are welcoming Jacksonville State to L&N Stadium this weekend.

Here are some of the more notable storylines heading into Saturday's game:

Brohm Satisfied with Louisville's Approach to Kick Off Season

While there were plenty of lopsided scores in FCS vs. FBS games during week one, a handful of teams in the latter category struggled. No. 24 NC State trailing Western Carolina in the fourth before pulling away and No. 3 Oregon finding themselves in dogfight with Idaho are two of the more notable examples from this past weekend.

Louisville chose not to play with their food, and wound up pulling away with a 62-0 shutout victory in week one. Brohm commended his team for not overlooking the Governors, and treating them like they would a normal opponent.

"We did what we were supposed to do," he said. "I think we prepared hard, and we practiced well. These guys wanted to go out there and try to put on their best performance. It's always important that you do what you're supposed to do, and play well. Do the small things correctly, and challenge yourself to play your best. For the most part, I thought we did that for four quarters. Now we got to find a way to do it again."

By game's end, the Cardinals out-gained the Governors by 465 yards in terms of total offense, and only allowed their visitors to cross midfield once. Both in real time and on film afterwards, the game proved one major thing to the coaching staff: Louisville really is as deep as they suspected.

"I think it confirmed a lot of the things we thought," Brohm said. "I think we do have depth at a lot of positions. At certain positions, there's not a big drop off, which is great and is going to help our football team. There were definitely playmakers we saw early on that stood out in the game, and then there were others that emerged as well."

Rich Rod Returns to Louisville

A familiar face will patrolling the sidelines this weekend when Jacksonville State comes to town. For the first time since the 2006 blackout game when he was the head man at West Virginia, Rich Rodriguez - now the head coach at Jax State - will be coaching against the Cardinals in L&N Stadium.

While Rich Rod's trademark no huddle spread offense isn't as powerful as it was when he had Pat White and Steve Slaton at his disposal, it has served him well so far in his tenure with the Gamecocks. He guided them to a 9-2 record in 2022 during his first year, and posted a 9-4 mark last season in what was JSU's season at the FBS level.

"Coach Rodriguez has been coaching a long time, and was really one of the main ones to perfect the spread offense, and the ability to use the quarterback as a runner and passer with great tempo," Brohm said. "To hit some plays on you before you lined up, and he's been really good at it."

Last season, Jax State was one of the most prolific rushing teams in the nation, with their 236.7 rushing yards per game ranked third in all of the FBS, behind only Liberty and Air Force. The Gamecocks' defense wasn't too shabby last season, coming in at No. 43 with 352.8 yards allowed per game.

Gamecocks Stumble Out of the Gate

While Rich Rod's first two years at Jacksonville State carried a fair amount of success, well, the start of year three can only be described as a certified clunker.

The Gamecocks hosted Coastal Carolina for their first game of the season, and despite being 3.5-point favorites, the Chanticleers rolled them for a 55-27 road win. By game's end Coastal out-gained Jax State 552 yards of offense to 357.

The catalyst for the beatdown was a pair of costly first quarter turnovers by Jax State. On back-to-back drives, they gave up both a fumble returned for a touchdown and an interception, allowing Coastal Carolina to go up 17-3 after one quarter and 31-10 by halftime.

Brohm knows that JSU is going to be hungry, and will want to avenge their season-opening thud. But he believes if Louisville can start fast and put the Gamecocks on the ropes early like Coastal did, they have a very good chance to replicate week one.

"He knows how to take players and maximize their talent level, so we'll have our hands full," Brohm said "This is going to be a well coached team. It's going to be a hungry team coming off a loss at home that they weren’t happy with. They just turned the ball over quite a bit, and got down and couldn't overcome it.

"If the games close, and they are able to do what they want, which is utilize the quarterback in the run game, then they are very dangerous. It's important to try to find a way to get a lead and make them throw the ball more than they want."

Ahmari Huggins-Bruce Still Getting Up to Speed

Louisville's roster got a surprise boost just before the start of their season. Wide receiver Ahmari Huggins-Bruce, who transferred to South Carolina not long after the end of the 2023 season, re-joined the program in the week leading up to the Austin Peay game.

Huggins-Bruce spent his first three years as a Cardinal, and was a regular fixture of Louisville's passing attack, if not a touch under-utilized. Across 39 career games and 12 starts, the 5-foot-11, 170-pound speedster hauled in 80 receptions for 1,121 yards and 10 touchdowns, along with 11 rushes for 67 yards and a score.

"It's great to have him back on the team," Brohm said. "I think he's happy to be here. He's got some good buddies on this team that he's always kept in contact with. He wants to play football. Getting him back, there were some things we had to go through to get him eligible, and to get everything cleared - which didn't happen to the last minute."

With AHB being such a late addition, there is of course going to be an acclimation period even with the fact that he is familiar with Jeff Brohm's offense. That being said, he did get some run late against Austin Peay, even logging a nine-yard catch. As time goes on, especially with teams like Georgia Tech and Notre Dame around the corner, Brohm wants to increase Huggins-Bruce's work load.

"I think as we continue to progress through the season, you'll see him out there more and more," he said. "He's fast, he's got speed. He's been in our offense before, so even though he has been gone a while, I think we can get him back up to speed."

Jax State Sticking with Two-QB Approach

With Zion Webb exhausting his eligibility, Jacksonville State has to go with a different man under center for the 2024 season. Throughout spring ball and fall camp, it seemed to be a battle between Tyler Huff and Logan Smothers for the starting quarterback gig.

As it turns out, both saw plenty of reps against Coastal Carolina, and it will stay this way. Rich Rod announced during his coaches show earlier this week that, moving forward, he will use a two-quarterback system, and considering both Huff and Smothers as "co-starters."

As you can imagine, neither looked super impressive against Coastal. Huff went 7-of-14 for 173 yards and a touchdown, but also had two picks. Smothers went 7-of-13 for just 61 yards.

That being said, both quarterbacks have shown playmaking capabilities. A transfer from Furman, Huff completed 61.1 percent of his passes for 1,869 yards and 10 touchdowns last season, while also rushing for 591 yards and six scores. As for Smothers, we saw action in every game last season for JSU, completing 55.6 percent of his throws for 655 yards and six touchdowns, while also rushing for 283 yards and six scores.

Louisville Still Getting Adjusted to In-Helmet Communication

One of the biggest changes to college football came with the additional to in-helmet communication. In the wake of the Connor Stallions/Michigan controversy, the NCAA formally approved coach-to-player communications through the helmet of one player on the field.

Brohm and Co. were able to use this new-to-college technology during fall camp scrimmages, and there was definitely an adjustment period after having to rely hand signals and signs for so long. Even in Louisville's home opener, while Brohm called it "beneficial," there's still some kinks to work out.

"I thought it worked pretty good, he said. "The first half, I ain't gonna lie, there was five or six times I forgot to press the button. So I screwed it up. ... There were some kinks we got to work through, but in general, it's beneficial."

(Photo of Jamie Rhodes: Jamie Rhodes - USA TODAY Sports)

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