The ACC and SEC meet on Labor Day night for this interesting matchup between Ole Miss and Louisville. Both teams offer an explosive offense, with defenses expected to be improved upon from last year. This is the year for Ole Miss. They are loaded with experience and are led by stud Matt Corral. Louisville looks to rebound off of a disappointing 2020, and quarterback Malik Cunningham is back with the potential to be the most talented player on the field. This makes for an entertaining matchup to cap off Week 1 of college football on Monday Night.
Ole Miss Preview
I am expecting this game to be a shootout. I believe both defenses will struggle to keep up with the talent on the other side. One thing that could easily break this game open is turnovers. Ole Miss quarterback Matt Corral has struggled a bit with turnovers in the past. Last year, that had a direct correlation to the result of the game. Ole Miss simply didn’t win games when Corral committed turnovers. Luckily, Louisville’s defense has been absoluty atrocious at forcing turnovers.
While the Cardinals defense should improve, I don’t see Corral having much of an issue producing at a high level. Ole Miss has more than enough weapons to put a lot of points on the board. If they limit turnovers and improve on the defensive end they have a good chance of leaving Atlanta with a perfect 1-0 record.
Louisville Preview
All eyes will be on Malik Cunningham Monday night, and for a good reason. He has sneakily been very impressive in his college career and is a very talented player all-around. In fact, I’ve even seen Cunningham’s name on a few Heisman watch lists with a potential longshot chance. What makes Cunningham do dangerous for opposing defenses is his ability to produce through the air and on the ground. Malik was near the top of the board in almost every QB category in 2020 except one, turnovers. Louisville battled with turnover problems for the entirety of the 2020 season.
Unfortunately, the defense wasn’t much help in balancing that out. Louisville looks to replace two receiver stars in Tutu Atwell and Dez Fitzpatrick, who controlled the bulk of attention last year. They have lots of talent on the offensive end and should be able to score points against the shaky Ole Miss defense. Again, if the turnover trend continues Louisville will have a really tough night in Atlanta.
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