Three Bold Predictions for Louisville Football in 2025

The college football offseason might be in full swing, but we are actually just over 100 days away from Louisville returning to the gridiron of L&N Stadium to face Eastern Kentucky and kick off year three of the Jeff Brohm era.

There is still plenty that will unfold over summer workouts and fall camp, but with that being said, here are our three bold predictions regarding the Cardinals' upcoming 2025 season:

1. Isaac Brown and Duke Watson will both crack 1,000 rushing yards.

While Penn State's running back tandem of Nicholas Singleton and Kaytron Allen is the best one-two punch as the position in college football, Brown and Watson are very much in the discussion for No. 2. Brown has already eclipsed this mark, rushing for 1,173 yards and 11 touchdowns last year as just a true freshman. While Watson ran for *just* 597 yards and seven scores as a fellow true frosh, he's still extremely capable of cracking 1,000 yards. Why? Because his 8.91 yards per carry led all of the FBS, and he didn't get more than seven carries in a game until the final four games of the season. Considering that Brown and Watson didn't even become No. 1 and 2 on the depth chart until over a month into the 2024 season, they have the potential to rack up some serious yardage in 2025.

2. Stanquan Clark will be an All-American.

On a defense that has a handful of high impact playmakers, Clark might be the most talented and have the highest ceiling out of anyone. After getting a fair amount of playing time as a true freshman in 2023, he broke out in a massive way the past season, logging 76 tackles (43 solo), eight for loss, two interceptions, two pass breakups and two forced fumbles. While it was T.J. Quinn who led Louisville in tackles last season, Clark probably has a case to be made as the best run defender on the entire team. Not to mention that, in linebacking room that had their struggles against the pass last year, Clark was by far and away the best in this department. While he was held out of spring ball as a precaution due to injury, considering the jump he made from 2023 to 2024, it's wouldn't be out of the question to see him make the jump to All-American caliber linebacker in 2025.

3. Louisville will go undefeated at home.

For the first time since the 2008 season, Louisville will feature a whopping eight-game home slate for the 2025 season. Believe it or not, they have a very good chance to pull off a clean sweep with this set of game. They open with three games against non-power conference competition (Eastern Kentucky, James Madison and Bowling Green), so starting 3-0 should be fairly doable. They've already snapped the Governor's Cup losing streak to Kentucky, not to mention the Wildcats are on the downturn overall. Virginia head coach Tony Elliott might be on the hot seat, and there's a power struggle at Cal following a massive portal exodus. Boston College has given headaches to Louisville in the past, but have the much better team on paper. The biggest hurdle here, obviously, is Clemson. They will be the preseason ACC favorite, likely a top-five team, and a heavy national title contender. However, Brohm has historically gotten his teams up for big games, and he's already knocked off the Tigers in Death Valley last season.

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