Louisville already had plenty to play for this Saturday against North Carolina. There’s the dream of the College Football Playoff, the hope for an ACC championship, the hype for next Saturday’s game against Clemson, and so forth and so on.
If the team was looking for any sort of added incentive to get hyped up for the trip to Chapel Hill, however, Tar Heel linebacker Andre Smith provided that after the team’s practice on Wednesday.
“We definitely don't want it to be the Lamar Jackson show,” Smith said according to the Raleigh News & Observer. “So if he's able to beat us with his arm, then – well, he's not going to beat us at all. I take that back. He's not going to beat us. We're just going to stop anything that he tries to do.
“He's not going to be able to run on us, we have everything solidified with that, and we'll cover downfield and if the receiver's going to make a good play, like they did on Saturday here, Cal, then, I mean, it is what it is. We've got to come back next play and do the same thing.”
Well then. There’s that.
Honestly, Lamar and all of us are just lucky that no team before UNC has been smart enough to come up with this game plan.
Scene shifts to UNC film room
Coach 1: “Man oh man. How on earth are we going to slow down No. 8?”
Coach 2: “Million dollar question right there.”
Coach 3: “Do we sit back in zone and force him to throw? Do we bring heavy heat and hope his split-second decision is the wrong one?”
Coach 4 (wearing sunglasses): “Both solid ideas, Carl. But have we thought about just ... I don’t know .... stopping anything he tries to do? Does that work for everyone?”
Coaches nod in agreement, shake hands and get ready to spread the word to their players.
Scene
If you’re still looking for something more, apparently this isn’t the first time Smith has taken something of a shot at the reigning Heisman Trophy winner.
Earlier during his session with reporters, Smith said he'd faced “a lot of great players” during his years at UNC, including the likes of Dalvin Cook and others. And “now we get, what's his name?” Smith asked. “Lamar Jackson?”
Smith quickly said, “I'm kidding, I'm kidding, I'm kidding. I was joking.” He offered no such qualifier to the part about how Jackson is “not going to beat us at all,” or to the statement that UNC will “stop anything” Jackson attempts.
You don’t hear a lot of this stuff from guys who have already faced Jackson. I don’t think that’s a coincidence.
North Carolina’s defense, it should be noted, allowed California’s Ross Bowers to toss for 363 yards and four touchdowns in last Saturday’s 35-30 home loss to the Bears. Smith, a junior, ranked second on his team and seventh in the ACC in tackles a season ago.
I admire the brass, Andre. You’ll have a chance to back it up in a couple days.