Points of Emphasis: Louisville vs. Notre Dame

 After having to mount another second half comeback at NC State, the Louisville football program is returning home for a massive showdown, hosting Notre Dame for a ranked matchup under the lights and in primetime.

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

Notre Dame Matchup Providing a 'Tremendous Opportunity' for Louisville

Louisville is off to their best start to a season in a decade, now sitting at 5-0 approaching the halfway point of their season. Now, arguably their biggest matchup of the season is on tap, and Brohm and the Cardinals couldn't be more excited about the "tremendous opportunity" they have right in front of them.

"We're definitely excited about this week," he said. "I know our players are looking forward to playing a top quality opponent like Notre Dame in front of a great atmosphere at our stadium. It's just a tremendous opportunity for our football team that Saturday night."

It's not hyperbole to say that the matchup between the Cardinals and the Fighting Irish this Saturday is one of the most anticipated home showdowns in the history of Cardinal Stadium. Louisville finally jumped back into the the AP Top 25 after besting NC State, while Notre Dame is back in the top-10 after capturing a road win at Duke. An undefeated mark is on the line for the Cardinals, while College Football Playoff hopes are at stake for the Irish. The game will also be televised to a national audience on ABC, and got the primetime 7:30 p.m. slot.

The amount of local and national hype being generated heading into this game - at least for a home contest - hasn't been seen since the 2016 season when Lamar Jackson and the No. 10 Cardinals eviscerated No. 2 Florida State. Fortunately, Brohm doesn't think all the hyper surrounding the showdown with the Irish will distract his team from the task at hand.

"Our guys have worked really hard," he said. "They know what's ahead of us. We try to treat everything as a one-game season. Without question, this is an unbelievable opportunity for our football team to go out and play a high quality opponent."

Louisville's Defense Takes Massive Step Forward at NC State

Over the their first four games of the 2023 season, the Louisville football program had began to make a name for themselves when it came to their offensive prowess. However, the script was flipped in their showdown with the Wolfpack.

Instead of lighting up the scoreboard at Carter-Finley Stadium in and riding their offense to victory, Louisville relied on a hard-nosed and aggressive defense to capture a win, escaping Raleigh, N.C with a come-from behind 13-10 win to maintain their undefeated status.

"Our defense was aggressive in their approach all day," head coach Jeff Brohm said. "We got after the quarterback, we challenged routes. When you have two really veteran corners that can guard one-on-one, we allowed them to do that. That really helped us win the football game." 

On top of holding NC State to just 10 points, Louisville only allowed them to put up 201 total yards of offense. It was the Wolfpack's lowest offensive output since Notre Dame held them to just 198 yards back on Oct. 8, 2016.

By game's end, Louisville had totaled just a pair of sacks, but the front seven was in Armstrong's face all night long and forcing him to make hurried throws, finishing just 13-for-25 for 112 passing yards. This increase in pressure also stifled the NC State run game, with Louisville generating eight tackles for loss and limiting the Pack to just 89 yards on the ground with 61 of it coming from Armstrong.

Of course, this defensive effort isn't complete without a complementary showing from the secondary. This unit played tight coverage all night long, forcing Armstrong to hold the ball longer than he wanted, which was part of the reason with the front seven and defensive line had so much success against him. On top of that, all three turnovers by Armstrong - two interceptions and a fumble - were generated by the secondary. 

Sam Hartman Making His Return to Louisville

Notre Dame quarterback Sam Hartman has gotten off to an incredibly efficient start to his final season in college. He's completed 66.2 percent of his passes for 1,458 yards and 14 touchdowns with zero interceptions. This has come in spite of the fact that Notre Dame does not have a receiver with more than 300 receiving yards.

"Anytime you have that experience, it's a plus, and he definitely utilizes that," head coach Jeff Brohm said. "He’s very calm in the pocket. He's played a lot of football. He's played in a lot of different offenses. This offense fits him very well, because they run the football, utilize the tight ends, ask him to do enough but not carry the football team on his back. But when he has to, he could do that for sure."

But his high-level play both this season and in season's past is only one part of the storyline. On Oct. 29, 2022 while still at Wake Forest, Hartman was responsible for six turnovers in the third quarter aline: three forced fumbles and three interceptions, two of which went the other way for touchdowns. It was part of an eight-turnover day for the Louisville defense, who came out with a 48-21 win over the No. 10 Demon Deacons.

While it will be near impossible to recreate this this type of defensive performance on Saturday, Louisville sees the value of bringing pressure in this matchup.

"I think as you watch him play, just like every quarterback, and just what they did to him here last year, if you can apply some pressure, get after him, and make the decisions harder for him, cover receivers tighter and get in the backfield, it affects everybody," Brohm said. "It definitely affected him this past year when they played him, so that's a key for everybody, and definitely for a guy with his type of experience."

Prolific Louisville Offense Hits Speed Bump Against NC State

The offensive side of the ball got off to a blazing hot start for the Louisville football program. Over their first four games of the season, the Cardinals were averaging 43.0 points and 542.0 yards per game, and had just come off of a 56 point and 582 yard effort against Boston College.

However, in their first true road matchup of the season at NC State, that side of the ball struggled to get out of first gear all night. While the Cardinals did wind up with the win, they only put up 13 points and 306 yards of offense in the process.

"It wasn't the first half we wanted, so we just had to regroup," head coach Jeff Brohm said after the game. "I just think we came out and made enough plays. We moved the ball some on offense, just turned the ball over multiple times, which is disappointing. So many things to get corrected."

Sporting a prolific rushing attack entering the matchup, Louisville was held to just 20 yards on the ground, with star all-purpose back Jawhar Jordan only going for 32 yards. Quarterback Jack Plummer was also hit-or-miss, going 21-for-35 with 286 yards and a touchdown, but two awful turnovers and a lost fumble.

While Plummer and the offense certainly were not executing at a high level, Brohm believes their inefficiency was also partly because of the pressure that NC State kept bringing.

"Unfortunately on the first sack, there was a fumble. We had somebody run the wrong route. He was ready to throw it vs. blitz and he did not run the route, so we got sacked," he said. "After that, I think he just pressed a little bit. But he he was getting pressured. It really wasn't our offense line's fault, they were bringing everybody. Like I said, I need to have a better plan to make sure that we can negate that a little more often, because the heat affected Jack."

Notre Dame Defense to Present a 'Great Challenge' to Louisville

When looking at the Fighting Irish, it's easy to focus on their offense and the weapons they have on that side of the ball. After all, quarterback Sam Hartman has already thrown for 1,458 yards and 14 touchdowns with no interceptions, and running back Audric Estime leads the FBS in rushing with 672 yards.

However, a large reason that Notre Dame has had the season that they have had so far this season has been due to the efforts of their defense. Louisville head coach Jeff Brohm knows that, despite his team's early success on offense, they will have their hands full when they have the ball.

"This will be the most talented defense we've played to date without question," he said. "They've got talent and size and athleticism at all the positions. ... This is going to be a great challenge for us on offense to be efficient, move the ball, get points."

So far this season, Notre Dame has the No. 11 defense in the FBS with 271.0 yards allowed per game, and the No. 14 scoring defense at only 13.0 points allowed per game.

Where the Irish really make their hay on defense is in their secondary. They've limited opposing quarterbacks to just 146.8 passing yards per game, which ranks No. 4 nationally, with their passing efficiency defense rating of 91.30 coming in at 3rd. 

That's not to say that Notre Dame is lacking in the front seven. While they a lot of their pressure doesn't get home (106th in sacks per game at 1.50, 122nd in tackles for loss per game at 4.2), they do a solid job at limiting the run, with their rushing defense of 124.2 yards per game coming in at 50th nationally. According to Pro Football Focus, their five highest graded defenders are all in the front seven.

Brian Brohm to Have Jersey Honored Prior to Kickoff

Prior to kickoff of Louisville's primetime matchup with Notre Dame, Brian Brohm will have his No. 12 jersey added to Louisville's Ring of Honor. He will be the 28th jersey to be honored in program history, and the second this season after running back Ernest Givens was honored during Louisville's home opener vs. Murray State last month.

"It's a huge honor to have my jersey number going up in the Ring of Honor," said Brohm, who is now the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for the Cardinals. "There's obviously a lot of great players that have played in this program. A lot of great names that are up there on the Ring, and a lot of great names that haven't been up there that are going to go up there at some point."

Brohm, a Louisville, Ky. native and Trinity alum, played for the Cardinals from 2004 to 2007. To this day, he is one of the most prolific quarterbacks in UofL history.

His 10,775 career passing yards is second in school history to Redman, his 65.8 career completion percentage ranks third to Bridegwater and Stefan LeFors, and his 71 career touchdown comes in at fourth behind Redman, Dave Ragone and Bridgewater.

Brohm also saw plenty of success during his time on campus, going 24-9 as a starter. He helped guide the Cardinals to their best record in school history in 2006, going 12-1 including a 31-14 victory over Wake Forest in the Orange Bowl.

"I had a lot of good times playing in this program," he said. "Had a lot of good teams when I was playing, a lot of good players that I played with. A lot of credit goes to a lot of other people that helped me get up there. But definitely, it's a huge honor. But yeah, it makes it a little extra fun to have it during such a big game.