Two more days, and Louisville football finally gets its first real test of the season.
Jeff Brohm’s team opens 2026 against No. 9 Ole Miss in a Week 1 matchup that carries plenty of attention, especially with the Cardinals trying to snap an 0-7 record against ranked opponents in season openers. Brohm is also chasing his third win over a top-10 team since arriving at UofL.
That backdrop is exactly why one final preseason College Football Playoff prediction has Cardinals fans buzzing. FanSided’s Josh Yourish dropped his top 12, and he went all the way in on Louisville.
Yourish slotted the Cardinals as the No. 11 seed, projecting them to reach the College Football Playoff for the first time.
“Louisville is built in a bit of a non-traditional way when you weigh positional value. The Cardinals are stacked at running back and linebacker, and while it's fair to question if those are the most important places to allocate resources, it makes them reliable on both sides of the ball. Isaac Brown and Keyjuan Brown make up one of the most dynamic backfield duos, and now with Lincoln Kienholz coming from Ohio State, this run game should be devastating.
Miller Moss notwithstanding, I trust Jeff Brohm to develop the quarterback position, and with a deep backfield and an edge rusher like Clev Lubin, who can close games out, this team will be hard to beat when it dictates the terms of engagement. Can it do that to Trinidad Chambliss and Ole Miss in Week 1?
That has me holding my breath with this pick, but I’m willing to go out on a limb and hope it doesn’t break. "
Josh Yourish
It’s a bold call, but it’s not hard to see why Yourish went there. Louisville brought in a top-five portal class, returned key pieces like Clev Lubin and Isaac Brown, and has rattled off nine wins in three straight seasons.
The biggest swing factor is quarterback Lincoln Kienholz, and that’s where the real debate lives. Louisville has heard all offseason that it could be a dark-horse CFP team, but until Yourish, not many were actually putting the Cardinals in the field.
Yourish also pointed to the kind of roster balance that makes the prediction at least feel grounded. Louisville is loaded at running back with Isaac Brown and Keyjuan Brown, has depth up front with Lubin, AJ Green, and Tyler Thompson, brings back an experienced linebacker group in Stanquan Clark, TJ Capers, and Antonio Watts, and added Iowa safety Koen Entringer to a secondary that also returned Tayon Holloway.
Brohm’s reputation as a quarterback developer is doing a lot of work here, and Yourish clearly trusts him to get the most out of Kienholz, a 4-star transfer and former 4-star recruit. With his mobility and the talent around him, the offense has the pieces to be dangerous.
Now it comes down to the opener. If Louisville can knock off Ole Miss, this playoff prediction will suddenly look a lot less like a stretch and a lot more like a live possibility.
In Other News...
Louisville Faces Another Brutal Nonconference Test With March Stakes Already Rising
Louisvilles 2026-27 nonconference slate is already shaping up like a March rsum builder, with BartTorvik.coms early projections putting at least six opponents inside the top 50. Texas Tech, Texas, Michigan, Kentucky and Baylor are all on the list, along with a matchup against either St. Johns or Oregon, giving the Cardinals a run of high-end games that should answer plenty of questions before ACC play even begins.
For Louisville, the bigger point is not just the quality of the names, but how much room there is for the schedule to get even heavier depending on tournament results. A glance around the league shows Duke projected with a slightly tougher nonconference setup, but the Cardinals are still facing a gauntlet that should say a lot about where they stand when the bracket chatter starts to matter. [Read more 🡒]
Louisville Has A Real Shot To Make A Week 1 Statement
Week 1 brings Louisville right into the kind of spotlight game that can shape how the rest of the season is viewed, with No. 24 Louisville set to meet No. 9 Ole Miss in a matchup that carries plenty more weight than a typical opener. The Cardinals enter with some real confidence points of their own, especially after last seasons defensive profile and the kind of roster continuity and coaching stability that can matter early in September when teams are still finding their footing.
Ole Miss will not be short on answers of its own, though, and the Rebels have a quarterback situation that now includes Trinidad Chambliss back in the mix after his eligibility appeal was approved. That makes this even more intriguing from Louisvilles side, because the Cardinals are being sized up as a team with enough returning pieces and defensive reliability to make a strong early statement if they can handle the road challenge and keep the game on their terms. [Read more 🡒]
Jeff Brohm Has Louisville In Position To Shake Up Week 1
Jeff Brohm has Louisville in a familiar spot heading into Week 1, with a chance to make an early national statement against a ranked opponent. The opener against No. 9 Ole Miss carries real weight for the Cardinals, not just because it is a top-25 showdown, but because it gives Brohm another opportunity to lean into the kind of upset-minded football that has followed him throughout his career.
Ole Miss enters with playoff expectations and a new-look offense that has drawn plenty of attention around quarterback Trinidad Chambliss, running back Kewan Lacy and changes on the staff at offensive coordinator. Louisville knows a win here would ripple far beyond one September night, while a loss would put the Rebels immediately on the defensive in the race for the College Football Playoff. Even analysts who like Ole Miss have pointed to how fragile these games can be when the quarterback situation is unsettled and turnovers start to matter. [Read more 🡒]