Louisville Cardinals to be heavy betting favorites throughout 2013 season

Senorise Perry named Louisville Starting RB, Michael Dyer Back Up

The Louisville Cardinals are known nationally for their prolific passing attack led by Heisman candidate QB Teddy Bridgewater. What is often left out of the discussion is Louisville’s 105th ranked rushing offense last season which averaged just 123 rushing yards per game (ypg) and 3.5 yards per rush (ypr). Those rushing numbers were nearly identical to the previous season in 2011 (122 ypg/3.5ypr)

Head Coach Charlie Strong took a huge step in changing that by naming senior running back Sernoise Perry the starter for the opener against Ohio. Perry was the team’s second leading rusher last year before tearing his ACL in a November game against Syracuse. Perry also scored a team-leading 11 touchdowns last season and led the team with 5.2 ypr.

Perry’s knowledge of the offense will pay dividends for the Cardinals offense, but Louisville fans should be excited for the addition of former Auburn RB Michael Dyer. Dwyer has made it through fall camp healthy and it’s been said that he is looking more comfortable in the offense every day. Dyer rushed for over a 1,000 yards both his freshman and sophomore seasons at Auburn. Dyer had 1,242 yds and 10 TDs his final year. Compared to Louisville’s total of 1,500 rushing yards last year, Dyer’s average numbers would be superb.

Louisville’s schedule and added offensive fire power has them atop many peoples short list of BCS title hopefuls. Following an 11-2 season (just 6-7 ATS), Louisville will once again play a soft schedule with no top-25 teams on the opening schedule. The Cardinals open up the season against the Ohio Bobcats on Sunday, September 1 and Louisville is a 20-point home favorite at Papa John’s stadium. They open conference play in the new American Athletic Conference at Temple on October 5th.

Click here for a American Athletic Conference preview and team-by-team breakdown.

–FairwayJay