Florida State (2-0) will travel to Louisville (1-1) to take on the Cardinals in the Seminoles first ACC game of the season. Friday's game is scheduled to kickoff at 7:30 p.m. eastern and will be televised by ESPN. Roy Philpott will handle the play-by-play, Andre Ware will handle analyst duties and Paul Carcaterra will be the sideline reporter. It will also be the first home game for Louisville this season after road games at Syracuse and UCF to open up the season.

FSU leads the all-time series with a record of 16-6 including a 6-3 record in games played at Louisville. The Cardinals have won the last two meetings between the two programs.

The weather forecast for Friday in Louisville calls for a high of 87 degrees, a low in the mid 60s, with little to no chance of rain and wind gusts between 5 and 10 miles per hour.

Louisville 7 Syracuse 31

Louisville 20 UCF 14

The Cardinals are led by coach Scott Satterfield, who is in his fourth year leading the Louisville program where he has compiled a 19-20 overall record. He is 2-1 record against FSU. Satterfield is in his 10th year as a head coach, where he has compiled an overall record of 70-44.

Lance Taylor, who is in his first season at Louisville, is the team's offensive coordinator. He spent the three previous seasons on Notre Dame's staff, where he coached the running backs and was the Irish's run game coordinator. Prior to his stint at Notre Dame, Taylor spent two seasons with the NFL's Carolina Panthers as their wide receivers coach. The former Alabama wide receiver also spent three seasons at Stanford as the Cardinal running backs coach and one season at Appalachian State.

Bryan Brown is back as the Cardinals defensive coordinator, a post he held since 2019 when Satterfield took over the program. Brown spent 2012-18 on staff with Satterfield at Appalachian State, where he served as cornerbacks coach from 2012-2017 before being promoted to defensive coordinator in 2018. He also has stints at the college level at Rutgers, Delta State and Ole Miss.

Former FSU linebacker Derek Nicholson (2005-08) is in third season as the Cardinals linebackers coach.

The Cardinals' version of the shotgun spread offense is led by super senior quarterback Malik Cunningham, who hasn't quite had the start to his season that many experts predicted.

Cunningham, who is 6-foot-1 and 190 pounds, and the Cardinals offense has been inconsistent and lacking in production especially when it comes to putting points on the board. Louisville has scored just three touchdowns in its first two games. They are currently ranked 122nd out of 131 FBS teams in scoring offense. It is important to note that it is early in the season and statistics can often be overscrutinized but both Syracuse and UCF rank among the top 26 teams in total defense through two games.

The Cardinals offense was always going to be centered around its dual-threat quarterback, but it has probably been more Cunningham-centric than Satterfield imagined heading into the season. And from a passing perspective, Cunningham hasn't lived up to his preseason hype. So far this season he has completed 30 of 51 passes, including just 14 of 29 against UCF last week. He was more efficient in the opener against Syracuse but could only produce 152 passing yards on 16 completions. Cunningham has also thrown two interceptions and still hasn't thrown a touchdown pass.

The strength of his game, at least so far this season, has been his ability to make plays with his feet. He led the team in rushing against UCF with 121 yards on 17 carries. And maybe more concerning for the Cards offense is the fact that he leads the team in rushing (factoring out sack yardage) with 176 yards. He is still the team's second leading rusher by a wide margin even when you factor in yards lost because of sacks.

Just how dependent on Cunningham has their offense, which ranks 85th in total offense, been? The Cards have produced 755 yards from scrimmage through two games of which 502 yards have come from the arm or legs of Cunningham.

The key for the FSU defense is pretty clear, unless other playmakers step up for Louisville Friday night: Don't allow Cunningham to beat you, particularly with his legs. He is a streaky passer who has completed just 62 percent of his career attempts. You have to believe because of this and the lack of production from the players around him that FSU will try to force him to throw the ball to win the game.

Other than Cunningham, only running back Tiyon Evans, and wide receivers Tyler Hudson and Ahmari Huggins-Bruce have offered much production through the early stages of this season.

Evans, a 5-11 and 220-pound sophomore, is averaging 5.1 yards per carry on 32 attempts this year. He ran for 89 yards against Syracuse and 75 yards against UCF. He is responsible for two of the team's three touchdowns. The Cardinals third-leading rusher only produced 21 yards.

Hudson, a 6-2 and 197-pound senior, has been the team's most productive weapon outside of Cunningham. He leads the Cards in both receptions (11) and receiving yards (169). Eight of those catches came against Louisville, so expect FSU to make him the primary focus as it relates to how the Seminoles operate from a coverage standpoint.

Huggins-Bruce, a 5-10 and 163-pound sophomore, is third on the team in receptions (four) but would be considered the Cardinals deep threat with an average of 24.8 yards per catch.

Louisville does have one of the best tight ends in the country in the form of Marshon Ford. The 6-2 and 240-pound junior hasn't been featured as much in the passing game as might have been expected entering the season and is likely to be called on more against FSU than he has all season. His five catches rank second on the team and have produced 50 yards. In three career games against FSU, Ford has totaled 11 receptions for 150 yards. Last year he caught six passes against FSU.

Louisville has a veteran offensive line whose starters have combined to start 127 career games. They average 6-4 and 307 pounds. Left guard Caleb Chandler, 6-4 and 297 pounds, is the most veteran of the bunch having started 43 career games. The Cards rank 53rd in rushing offense behind their starting five, where they average 181 yards per game on the ground. One of the reasons the Cards are struggling throwing the ball may be their inability to protect a mobile passer. Louisville has given up five sacks in two games. Only 32 teams have given up more sacks so far this season and six of those have played an additional game. It is also one of the reasons, along with inaccuracy of Cunningham, that Louisville has only converted 36 percent of their third-down opportunities.

The Cardinals run a 3-4 defense and struggled to slow either of their first two opponents down until the second half of last week's UCF game. Louisville has given up 788 yards of offense of which it gave up 692 yards in the first six quarters before holding UCF to just 96 total yards in the second half to secure the victory over the Knights.

Where they have really struggled has been against the run. They are giving up over 207 yards per game on the ground. Syracuse ran for 207 yards on 40 attempts, and UCF ran for 208 yards on 38 attempts. They did hold the Knights to 45 second-half rushing yards. This begs the question, does the fact that they gave up over 200 yards in back-to-back games indicate a major flaw in the Cards' defense or are the results in the second half of the UCF game more indicative of what they are capable of on defense.

While they do rank 116th against the run, they are 41st in the country in passing yards allowed (186) and rank 58th in completion percentage defense with Syracuse and UCF completing just over 58 percent of their passes. Their pass defense has also been bolstered by their pass rush. Louisville has six sacks in two games. Only 18 teams have recorded more than that this season and three of those teams have played three games already this season.

The leaders up front for the Cards are defensive ends Yaya Diaby and Ashton Gillotte. Diaby, a 6-4 and 270-pound senior, has seven tackles this season and is tied with Gillotte for the team lead in sacks (1.5) and tackles for a loss (1.5). Gillotte, a 6-2 and 272-pound sophomore, has three tackles on the year.

They do have a very active linebacker corps led by senior Monty Montgomery, Momo Sanogo and Ben Perry. All three players have 12 tackles to their credit, which ties them for second-best on the team. Montgomery, a 5-11 and 222-pound senior, also has 1.5 TFLs and half a sack in two games.

Free safety Kendrick Duncan leads the team in tackles with 17 stops. Duncan, a 6-3 and 219-pound senior, has proven himself to be a very sure tackler with 14 of his tackles being of the solo variety.

Former FSU and current Cards cornerback Jarvis Brownlee is tied for third on the team with 10 stops. The 5-11 and 179-pound sophomore also has Louisville's only interception this season. Sophomore strong safety Josh Minkins, 6-2 and 219 pounds, has also been very active with ten tackles. Minkins also leads the team with two passes broken up.

Junior James Turner will be the placekicker again this season, where he has made 2 of 3 attempts with a long of 35 yards. For his career he has made 29 of 40 attempts with a long of 50 yards.

Sophomore Brock Travelstead will handle the kickoff duties. Five of his seven kickoffs this season have resulted in touchbacks.

Sophomore Mark Vissett will handle the punting duties and he is having an outstanding start to his season. Vissett ranks 13th in the country with an average of 47.1 yards per punt on seven attempts.

Louisville has been aggressive with its kickoff return unit. Kick returner Jawhar Jordan has attempted returns on 6 of 10 chances but is averaging just 21 yards per return.

Punt returner Braden Smith has returns on 4 of 11 chances and is averaging four yards per punt return.

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