The No. 17 Miami Hurricanes have a chance to make a statement on a big stage tonight against the No. 18 Louisville Cardinals in what is the first match-up featuring two ranked teams in the 2020 season.
Miami (1-0) travels to Louisville (1-0) to open up ACC play in what is the featured game of the week.
The Hurricanes and Cardinals are scheduled to kickoff at 7:30 p.m. EST and the game will be televised on ABC.
UM handled its business in their season opener against UAB, winning 31-14 thanks to a strong rushing attack.
UL won its opener 35-21 over Western Kentucky, led by an explosive passing.
Miami head coach Manny Diaz is 1-1 against ranked teams. This will be the first game he has been the head coach of a ranked team.
The Hurricanes have had close to ten days to prepare for Louisville. Diaz is 0-5 when having more than seven days to prepare for a game, not including season openers.
The Hurricanes will look to snap a three-game losing streak away from Hard Rock Stadium, which dates back to the end of the 2019 season when Miami lost to FIU, Duke, and Louisiana Tech away from Hard Rock Stadium.
Miami’s game at Cardinal Stadium, its first visit to the stadium since 2014, could feature up to approximately 18,000 fans due to fan restrictions and regulations brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Miami hosted the Cardinals at Hard Rock Stadium in November 2019, emerging with a 52-27 victory to snap a three-game losing streak to Louisville.
Miami has a 9-7 record all-time in ACC openers since joining the conference in 2004, but lost last year’s opener at North Carolina, 28-25, on Sept. 7, 2019.
Louisville will be the site of College GameDay – the 22nd game involving the Hurricanes picked as the site of the show
As of Saturday morning, Louisville was a 2.5 point favorite over Miami, according to the William Hill Sportsbook.
So how do Miami and Louisville match-up going into tonight’s game? How does the staff at InsideTheU think the game will play out?
Read on and find out.
