Does Louisville Football’s Weak Schedule Open the Door to a Deep Run in 2026?
After a horrific end-of-season collapse in 2025, the Louisville Cardinals are looking to make things right this year, as they were rewarded with a more-than-favorable schedule. Despite starting the year off 7-1, the 14th-ranked Cardinals fell victim to the ever-so-common mid-season complacency bug, which led to them dropping games and blowing leads to Cal and Clemson. Looking ahead, Louisville had a great offseason within the transfer portal, picking up 34 players, including their new starting QB, Lincoln Kienholz, who was previously the backup at Ohio State. On top of the impressive performance in the transfer portal, Louisville is retaining head coach Jeff Brohm through 2033, as he signed an eight-year, $64.8 million extension to try to bring a championship to his alma mater.
Outside of the new QB joining the Cardinals’ squad, there are plenty of other bright spots that decided to play under Brohm this year. One of those players is wide receiver Lawayne McCoy, who is looking to be one of Kienholz’s top targets. McCoy chose to stay in the ACC after spending his past two years at Florida State, where there wasn’t much of a product offensively, let alone winning games. Another receiver coming in from the transfer portal is Tre Richardson out of Vanderbilt, who had a dazzling freshman year with the Commodores. Richardson was one of the more sought-after freshman receivers in the transfer portal, and the fact that Brohm was able to get him to come to Louisville is huge for the program and is yet another reason why they have the ability to go far.
As for the schedule, which is no strong test, the Cardinals should be licking their chops knowing they don’t seem to be tested too much. Their season opener, which also happens to be their hardest game, is against Ole Miss in Nashville and should be good preparation for the season to come. After that, there isn’t much strength, with SMU being the toughest ACC opponent, with that game taking place in Louisville. The toughest place they’ll have to play is in Raleigh against NC State, which is not something to be trembling about by any means. Brohm’s squad will also travel to Atlanta to face off against Georgia Tech late in the season. Georgia Tech did have a great 2025 campaign; however, they lost a lot of players this offseason and will most likely not come close to last year’s success. Other than those teams, the 21st-ranked Cardinals are mostly feeding on the ACC bottom feeders, with Syracuse, UNC, and Stanford all on the schedule. This is a real opportunity for Louisville to be a top-10 team come November and give the Cardinals head coach his first of many chances to make a run in the playoffs.
