LOUISVILLE, Sporting Alert – No. 11 Clemson rolls into Week 3 of the college football new season full of confident after a bright start to the new campaign.
After easily putting away Wofford and Appalachian State in the opening two weeks of action, the Tigers (2-0) have set their sights on starting the season 3-0 for the first time since the 2013 term, when they travel to take on fellow Atlantic Coast Conference rivals Louisville at Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium in Kentucky on Thursday, Sep. 17.
Thursday, September 17
MATCHUP TIME (CT)
#11 Clemson vs Louisville 6:30 PM
TV – ESPN – Joe Tessitore, David Pollack, Jesse Palmer, Kaylee Hartung
Clemson Radio – CTSN – Don Munson, Rodney Williams, Patrick Sapp
ESPN Radio – Bill Rosinski, David Norrie, Joe Schad
Live Streaming – WatchESPN
Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium, Louisville, KY
Clemson cruised past Wofford 49-10 in Week 1 and then eased to a 41-10 victory over Appalachian State last week to get its season off to a flying start.
Sophomore quarterback Deshaun Watson has also enjoyed a very productive start to the season for the Tigers – throwing five touchdown passes and tallying 442 passing yards on 37 of 48 attempts thus far.
Clemson, which improved one place in the latest AP Top 25 rankings, has so far tallied 925 total yards, including 533 against Wofford in Week 1.
The ACC outfits are also holding teams below 100 yards passing this early season as a team, while Wayne Gallman has rushed for 171 yards on the term and scored three touchdowns.
Charone Peake, Artavis Scott and Tyshon Dye have all scored two touchdowns apiece this campaign.
Louisville, in the meantime, will be trying to bounce back from successive defeats to start the season.
After losing 31-24 to then No. 6 Auburn in Week 1, the Cardinals followed that up with another setback when going down 34-31 to Houston, when they were a 13.5 point favorite to take the victory in Week 2.
It was the first time since the 1998 season, Louisville was starting the term 0-2 after the first two games. The team went on to finished the season with a 7-5 overall record.
The Cardinals also dropped its first two games of the season in 1997 as well and never recovered after finishing at 1-10.
Heading into Thursday night’s game, Clemson starts as a 6.0 point favorite against Louisville, with the total being at 51.
“This is a big game for us,” Cardinals head coach Bobby Petrino said. “Obviously, we’re playing a very good football team.
“I think the atmosphere will be great. You get excited for that. We need to stay focused.
“Hopefully, the two games we’ve played and the competition we’ve played will help us and we’ll see improvement from last Saturday to this Thursday.”
