The DirectTV Holiday Bowl features a matchup between the #15 Louisville Cardinals (10-3, 6-7 ATS) and the USC Trojans (7-5, 3-9 ATS) on Wednesday night. Each team has multiple players opting out either preparing for the NFL Draft or entering the transfer portal. Louisville lost their last game in the ACC Championship to Florida State, going down 16-6 as 1.5-point favorites. USC lost in their season finale to UCLA 38-20, losing outright as 5-point favorites. These teams did not meet last season. Louisville is currently listed as a 7-point favorite. Kickoff is scheduled for 8:00 EST from Petco Park in San Diego, and can be found on FOX.
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Louisville ended their season on a sour note, dropping their last two games of the season. Louisville lost their season finale at home to Kentucky. The Cardinals led by ten in the third quarter, but gave up 17 in the fourth and lost the game. They still qualified for the ACC Championship, where they lost to an FSU team without their starting quarterback. To make matters worse, RB Jawhar Jordan (1,128 yards) and WR Jamari Thrash (858 yards) opted out to prepare for the NFL Draft.
Jack Plummer started at quarterback this season, and will play in the bowl game as well. He averaged 235.6 yards per game with 21 touchdowns and 12 interceptions on the year. Plummer played poorly in the ACC Championship only completing 14 of his 36 attempts for 111 yards and an interception. Without Jordan in the lineup, Issac Guerendo becomes the lead back, he ran for 649 yards this season and eight touchdowns. They will b e without their top wideout in Thrash, but still have three receivers who each had over 300 yards this season. Their top option will be 6'2 Chris Bell who had 386 yards on the season with two touchdowns. Ahmari Huggins-Bruce added another 305 yards and four touchdowns.
The Cardinals finished the season averaging 30.9 points per game, and their defense allowed 19.7 per game. Their defense was not hit hard by the transfer portal, safety Josh Minkins had 21 tackles, and defensive end Kameron Wilson had two sacks, both will miss this game as they opt-out. Linebacker TJ Quinn led the team with 86 tackles, and defensive end Ashton Gillotte lead the team with 11 sacks. Devin Neal led the team with four interceptions out of the secondary. The defense forced 19 turnovers over 13 games this season.
Players missing the game:
Opt-outs: RB Jawhar Jordan, WR Jamari Thrash, DE Kameron Wilson, S Josh Minkins