Louisville Working to Improve Passing Game, Find Perfect Run/Pass Balance for QB Malik Cunningham
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - It was a busy offseason for Louisville quarterback Malik Cunningham. Ever since the end of the 2021 season when the Cardinals fell to Air Force in the First Responder Bowl, the coaching staff worked extensively to improve upon Cunningham's abilities as a pocket passer.
That's not to say that the Montgomery, Ala. native wasn't already a good thrower of the football. Last season, he completed 62.0 percent of his passes for 2,941 yards and 19 touchdowns to only six interceptions. His passing efficiency rating of 150.3 ranked sixth in the ACC and 38th nationally.
However, he wasn't perfect by any means. Quarterbacks coach Pete Thomas said over the offseason that he wanted Cunningham get more "comfortable making those elite throws that are going to take us from a good team to a great team." Given that he is an excellent runner, rushing for 1,031 yards and 20 touchdowns in 2021, working on the passing aspect of his game made the most sense.
Through the first two games of the season, Cardinals' offensive staff is still trying to find the perfect balance of passing plays and designed run calls for Cunningham. However, in order to do that, Cunningham has to perform better through the air than what he has shown early in the season.
Against Syracuse, despite going 16-of-22 through the air, the 6-foot-1, 190-pound signal caller struggled to get things going through the air, throwing for only 152 yards and two interceptions. He also looked extremely hesitant to run, compiling only 34 rushing yards in the process.
Last week against UCF, the offensive staff allowed him a little more free reign on the ground, and he looked much more like his old self. He ran for 121 yards and a touchdown, but while he did not throw an interception against the Knights and did a much better job at spreading the ball around, he still was only 14-of-29 for 195 yards.
So far, Cunningham is 30-of-51 with 347 yards and two picks through two games. If Louisville is going to find a better balance of passing and running plays for their marquee player, he'll have to do a better job when it comes to both his decisions as a passer, and the passes themselves.
“Well, he’s got to throw the ball better. There’s no question," head coach Scott Satterfield said. "He had some plays the other night we could have hit and extended some drives. He was excellent in the run game, did a great job with that and had some big plays. ... Malik has to continue to work and hopefully it will happen this week that we’ll be able to open it up and get the pass game going.”
To be fair to Cunningham, the relative lack of success through the air it isn't completely on him. He did a much better job at spreading out the ball against UCF, as opposed to just singling out Tyler Hudson like he did against Syracuse. The coaching staff has also taken some responsibility on this front, and say they need to scheme up more plays that get guys like Ahmari Huggins-Bruce, Dee Wiggins and Braden Smith involved.
"I think we have to do a better job, I have to do a better job, making sure that we script touches for them early and often," offensive coordinator Lance Taylor said. "If they haven't touched the ball, make sure that we get to some of the other plays where they're the primary receiver, and make sure that we get the ball in their hands. I've got to do a better job of that. We've talked about that as a staff, and we've got to mix all those guys in."
Taylor also isn't going to fault the lack of meaningful production in the pass game to only Cunningham, saying it's the entire offense's job to stay on track and make a play successful. Cunningham just catches a lot of the flack for simply being the quarterback.
"Receivers, tight ends, are we where we're supposed to be when we're supposed to be there?" he said. "Did we run a great route? Did we get open? Did we do what we were supposed to do Did we catch the ball when he got it to us? Up front, did we protect and make sure that he had a clean pocket and was able to keep his eyes down the field? That's on all of us as an offense. It always falls on the quarterback, and that's part of playing the quarterback position."
Plus, as much as Louisville wants Cunningham to continue to progress the passing game, they aren't going to blatantly ignore the success that he has had with his legs in the past, and what he continues to do with them now. They want to continue to draw up designed runs for him, like they did against UCF, but the exact amount really depends on the flow of the game. If Cunningham finds himself scrambling a lot, they might cut down on such plays to limit the hits he could take.
"He's a playmaker, and we didn't do that enough in the first game," Taylor said. "We came back, and that was one of the adjustments that we made. He wanted to make that adjustment. He reached out to me and said that.
"As a coach, you always want to limit the hits on your quarterback, but I think he does a great job. He has a knack for making guys miss, not always taking big hits, knowing when to get down and get out of bounds. It really depends on the flow of the game as far as the number of called runs for him, because he's obviously going to have the off-script, off-schedule scramble runs as well. You don't have to call a ton of cue runs, he's going to get his carries."
Louisville's next chance to iron out their perfect plan of attack with Cunningham is coming up this weekend, when they host Florida State in their home opener. Kickoff between the Cardinals and the Seminoles is set for Friday, Sept. 16 at 7:30 p.m. EST.
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