Game: Florida State Seminoles @ Louisville Cardinals
Time: 7:00 p.m. ET
Odds: Seminoles -2.5, Cardinals +2.5
Total: 57
The Florida State Seminoles are looking for their best start since 2015 with a victory on Friday night in Louisville. As a result of its season-opening 31-7 loss to Syracuse, Louisville now has an ACC loss under its belt. Tonight marks Florida State’s inaugural ACC contest.
After one of their biggest wins in recent memory, a 24-23 triumph over LSU in New Orleans on September 4, the Seminoles (2-0) enjoyed a bye last week. After trouncing Duquesne 47-7 in Week 0, Florida State opened a season with back-to-back victories for the first time in coach Mike Norvell’s three years in Tallahassee. It’s a welcome change of pace after Florida State lost its first six September games under Norvell—two in 2020 and four in 2021.
Louisville (1-1, 0-1 ACC) picked up an unexpected 20-14 victory at UCF as the underdog after dropping its first game to Syracuse. In the final six minutes of last week’s game, the Cardinals’ defense made three critical stops to hold off the Knights and pick up the win. Tonight marks the Cardinals’ first game at home this season.
Malik Cunningham, the quarterback for Louisville, has yet to complete a touchdown pass this year, but he did score on a run last week against UCF. He had 121 rushing yards and 195 passing yards last week against the Knights. Against Syracuse, Cunningham was only able to gain 34 yards on the ground and he threw two interceptions. Cunningham is moving up the all-time passing list at Louisville. He has thrown for over 8,000 yards in his career.
Against Florida State last year, Cunningham completed 25 of 39 passes for 264 yards and four total touchdowns (two passing, two rushing). Louisville took an early lead of 24 points and went on to win 31–23. The Louisville quarterback presents a challenge for the FSU defense, which allows 256 yards per contest. That places them 19th nationally and second among ACC teams.
Florida State is 4-1 SU and ATS in its last five games. The Seminoles have struggled recently against Louisville. In their last six games versus the Cardinals, the Seminoles have gone 2-4 SU and 1-5 ATS. FSU has struggled on the road as well, picking up just two victories in their previous 16 contests away from home.
Louisville prefers to play at home, where they have a 12-6 SU record over their last 18 games. In the series against the Seminoles, the Over is the trend. In the previous eight meetings between the two teams, the Over is 6-2. In the last five Seminoles-Cardinals games played in Louisville, the Over is also 4-1.
Florida State’s offense has been very good in its two games thus far. The Seminoles are scoring 35.5 points a game and averaging 515 yards of total offense. Louisville gave up 31 points to Syracuse and the Cardinals are allowing 394 yards of offense per game.
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