9/12/2022 football Edit

Shutting down Louisville QB Malik Cunningham no easy task for FSU defense

Curt Weiler • TheOsceola

Senior Writer

The Florida State football team has seen first-hand on a few occasions exactly how dangerous Louisville quarterback Malik Cunningham can be.

The sixth-year senior will face the Seminoles for the fourth time in his tenure Friday at 7:30 p.m. on ESPN. In his first three games, the Montgomery, Ala., native has terrorized FSU’s defense, amassing 929 total yards of offense, nine total touchdowns and only one interception.

If the Seminoles are going to improve to 3-0 for the first time since 2015 and win at Louisville for just the second time in the last four trips, limiting Cunningham’s production is a near-requirement.

“I think he’s got everybody’s respect around the country,” FSU defensive coordinator Adam Fuller said of Cunningham. “He plays every week, he’s the leading rusher, he is a dynamic playmaker. He’s beat people over the top with the football, he’s beat people running the football, he’s beat people making good decisions. He’s one of the better players in the country. It’s important for us to play as a team against him.”

Early in his tenure at FSU, Fuller has had trouble getting his defense ready to go against the Cardinals. In his first season in 2020, U of L put up a season-high 569 yards and averaged over nine yards per play in a game that wasn’t as close as the 48-16 final score indicates. Last season in Tallahassee, the Cardinals led 31-7 late in the half and again were having their way with the Seminoles’ defense.

As it turns out now in retrospect, that 2021 Louisville game was the turning point for FSU’s defense. The Seminoles allowed no more points over the final 31:48 of that game, nearly paving the way for an FSU comeback.

If Fuller is at FSU long-term, it will likely be because of the turnaround that began last Sept. 25. But the Seminoles understand it won’t be easy to carry over its success from the second half of that game into this year’s game, even if Cunningham hasn’t gotten fully going yet this season with no passing touchdowns and only one rushing touchdown through two games.

Not when going against a quarterback who is coming off a 2021 season where he rushed for more than 1,000 yards and 20 touchdowns. And not when FSU allowed LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels to rush for 114 yards two weeks ago.

“He’s such an electric player. He has a great arm, he can push the ball down the field. Very accurate in the vertical passing game,” FSU head coach Mike Norvell said. “What he does with his feet, there’s few people out there that can do that. He’s played so much. He’s tough. You see times where he takes a lot of contact and there’s times that you just see him just pop up right up. And that speaks to who he is, the competitor that he is. He’s just a very dynamic football player with his arm and obviously with his legs.”

Although FSU linebacker Tatum Bethune is in his first season with the Seminoles, he also walks into Friday’s game at Louisville with some previous experience against Cunningham.

Last season when Bethune was at UCF, they played at Louisville the week before the Cardinals played FSU. That night, Cunningham threw for 265 yards and a touchdown, ran for 99 yards and two touchdowns and led the Cardinals to a 42-35 win over the Knights.

In the return trip of the series last week in Orlando, Cunningham struggled as a passer, completing 14 of 29 pass attempts (48.3%), but ran for 121 yards and a touchdown in a 20-14 Louisville upset.

“Malik is a good quarterback,” Bethune said. “He knows how to extend plays, he’s very athletic. We’ve just got to get him on the ground. If you get him on the ground, he’s not going to be able to do anything…

“My biggest deal is getting him on the ground. Being calm when he comes at you, he knows how to make guys miss a lot. He’s a very athletic dude so I know he’s going to pull the ball a lot, tuck it and run. That’s going to be the biggest thing, getting him on the ground, especially on third down.”