Schedule Release Energizes Louisville Coaches & Players

While Louisville Football has already had a high-energy fall camp through its first three days, today's schedule release gave them a bit more juice.

Following a change in the 2020 scheduling model, this morning the Atlantic Coast Conference finally unveiled the week-by-week 2020 football for all of the league's members including Louisville's - and the fans aren't the only ones excited to know the details.

Prior to the third day of the football program's fall camp, the players and coaches were able to take a look at their new schedule before hitting the practice fields. It's safe to say that it got them all juiced up.

"It's awesome. It's awesome to finally see team with actual dates," defensive coordinator Bryan Brown said in a teleconference after practice. "Our guys are excited. ... (Practice) had a little extra 'oomph'."

But don't just take his word for it. While redshirt junior cornerback Anthony Johnson admits that the new schedule is unorthodox, he's excited about the level of competition they will face.

"The new schedule is definitely different, but we actually like it," Johnson said. "We like for the fact that we get to compete against an ACC opponent almost every week, and we just get to showcase how good we are. (I'm) looking forward to the competition."

Louisville won't head straight into ACC play like they were originally supposed to. In this updated schedule, they will now open up with the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers at home on Saturday, Sept. 12. They might not be a Power Five school, but Louisville still respects what WKU brings to the table.

"Western Kentucky is not a pushover," Brown said. "To go 9-4 in Conference USA, that's really good. And they're returning most of their guys from this past season. We got our hands full with Western Kentucky."

Johnson shares Brown's sentiments, saying "it will be a really good game" and that they "will not take them lightly. He believes it will give them the opportunity to see what they can do ahead of ACC play.

Brown is also excited for the amount of Friday night games they will play. Louisville will play three of them in 2020, more than any other team in the ACC.

"Anytime the guys play under the lights, I think it's a little bit extra motivation," he said. "It's just like high school - going back to their Friday night days."

But it didn't take a schedule release to get the team energized in fall camp. Even though camp has only lasted three days so far, Brown notes that the atmosphere has been exciting and refreshing.

"It's been awesome. The main thing is just getting back out there with those guys," he said. "It's been great to be out there competing each and every day. The guys are just loving it man, and eating it up, and it's competition on both sides like no other. We're excited just to continue to try to get better each and every day."

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