The 2023 ACC Championship Game between the Louisville Cardinals and Florida State Seminoles has a ton at stake, including major College Football Playoff implications. FSU is currently in the playoffs, and the Cardinals could have possibly played their way into the tournament if they had beaten their rival Kentucky Wildcats last week, but that's the nature of rivalry games. Now the Cards will try to play spoiler, and here are two bold Louisville predictions as to how they'll do it.
Even though Florida State is down its star quarterback, Jordan Travis, they likely will be in the College Football Playoff with a win in the ACC Championship. The Seminoles were ranked fourth in the committee's latest College Football Playoff rankings, meaning all they realistically have to do to make the Playoff is win barring chaos rearing its head, which can never be discounted as a possibility.
But those are the stakes. If Florida State wins with their backup quarterback, they are likely in the College Football Playoff. If Louisville wins, they will be ACC Champions in their first season with Jeff Brohm at the helm as head coach of his alma mater. There is plenty on the line for both teams. So much so that it warrants some bold Louisville football ACC Championship Game predictions.
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Jamari Thrash gains at least 100 receiving yards
Jamari Thrash is one of the better, more unheralded wide receivers in the country. Thrash has more than double the number of receptions (56) and receiving yards (801) than anybody else on the Cardinals' roster. Thrash has done this despite playing in only 11 of the 12 games Louisville has played in this season. The 14.3 yards per reception Thrash is averaging this season is roughly on par with the average Luther Burden III posted for the Missouri Tigers this season. Thrash is legit.
Thrash is the Cardinals' number-one receiver and Louisville will need a big game from him in order to pull off the upset.
Luckily for him and the Louisville football team, Florida State has been prone to big games from wide receivers this season. Miami's Jacolby George caught five balls for 153 yards and two touchdowns against the Seminoles three games ago. Pitt had a pair of receivers (Konata Mumpfield and Bub Means) go for 98 and 99 yards against Florida State. And Brian Thomas of LSU went for 142 yards and a touchdown on seven receptions against the Noles back in Week 1.
Florida State's pass defense in general has been fairly stout. They rank tenth in the country in passing yards allowed per game at 175.3. Thrash has exceeded 100 yards in a game only twice this season. The odds of that happening this week don't seem great. But it is possible and might be necessary for Louisville to win this game. Thes are bold Louisville ACC Championship predictions, after all.
Louisville wins, knocks FSU out of College Football Playoffs
The Vegas line for this game opened with Florida State as 4.5-point favorites. However, the line has dropped since then. The Seminoles are still favorites, but only by 2.5 points. The public seems to be on Louisville despite the Cardinals dropping their game a week ago to Kentucky. There is enough to see why that would be the case.
Most of that optimism for the Louisville football team revolves around Florida State being on their backup quarterback. They haven't looked super inspiring with Tate Rodemaker under center. Rodemaker went 12-25 for only 134 yards in Florida State's 24-15 win over their rival Florida Gators last week. For the season, Rodemaker is completing only 57.1% of his passes and is averaging 9.1 yards per attempt. That's good, but that's also buoyed by the 73 yards and three touchdowns he threw against Southern Miss back in Week 2. The Gators scored the first 12 points of that game before Florida State outscored them 24-3 afterward.
This will be Florida State's biggest test since losing Jordan Travis. Florida State is good enough to win this game without Travis, but Rodemaker's play makes it hard to believe that will be the case against a very good Louisville football team.
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