Dabo Swinney on the challenge of facing Louisville, Scott Satterfield

Louisville has never beaten Clemson, but Saturday night could be a first for the Cardinals program if the Tigers offense does not click. 

On Wednesday, Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney spoke with the media about what makes Louisville difficult to conquer. 

“They’re tough, they’re physical,” Swinney said. “They have a lot of option principles to what they do, which creates a lot of challenge schematically. They use their personnel well. They’re incredibly balanced offensively. And then defensively, they got a good scheme, good players. And again, just well-coached.”

The Cardinals offensive attack is led by quarterback Malik Cunningham. They are posting 245.4 yards per game through the air and 202.8 yards per game on the ground. Despite being the signal caller for Louisville, Cunningham leads the ACC in rushing touchdowns with 13 and is fifth in the nation in that category. 

The Clemson defense remains one of the best in the country, but they struggled more than usual against their biggest dual-threat opponent this year, Syracuse. The Orange only scored 14 points, but they outgained Clemson 356-314. Cunningham will present that same challenge on Saturday.

“They’re a 4-4 team, but they’re a lot better than that,” the Clemson coach added. “They’ve had a lot of competitive games. They’ve had two that were tied in the last minute of the game, including at Wake Forest.”

Louisville has lost three of their last four games, but two of the losses came by a total of four points. Their game against No. 9 Wake Forest ended 37-34.

Tigers have been dismal on the road

Clemson is 1-3 and has not scored more than 20 points away from Tiger Stadium. It might take more than 20 points to top the Louisville offensive attack on Saturday.

“We’ve gotta play our best road game, that’s for sure,” Swinney added. “Something we haven’t done this year. Hopefully that’s something we can get changed in the month of November.”

 Quarterback D.J. Uiagalelei is completing just 52.5% of his passes and averaging 149.5 passing yards per game on the road. He’s thrown only three touchdown passes, and he had zero scoring throws in two of the four games away from Clemson.

Swinney has faced Satterfield as a head coach twice in his career, and the two coaches know each other relatively well. Clemson beat Louisville 45-10 in 2019, and the Tigers defeated Appalachian State 41-10 in 2015 while Satterfield was the head coach in Boone.