Boston College Athletics
Photo by: John Quackenbos
Defense Awaits Last Round Against Cunningham, Cardinals
September 28, 2022 | Football, #ForBoston Files
Louisville's quarterback has 1,000 career yards against Boston College entering Saturday's matchup.
Lamar Jackson was one of the most dynamic college football players to ever step onto the gridiron. He was lightly regarded as a three-star prospect, but his combination of speed, agility, passing accuracy and overall athleticism rewrote the record books after he won the starting role for Louisville as a true freshman in 2015. As a dual-threat quarterback, he found himself molded into the right system with the Cardinals, and his eye-popping numbers earned him the Heisman Trophy as the youngest ever winner during his sophomore year.
He eviscerated opponents, and an early November matchup against Boston College stamped his Heisman candidacy during that 2016 season when he amassed 416 total yards and seven touchdowns. He passed for four scores and ran for three more, and accounting for Louisville's first 35 points in the game's first 19 minutes of clock time drew comparisons to Michael Vick's performance with Virginia Tech 15 years earlier.
Anyone who was at Alumni Stadium that day understood his impact by watching his greatness in real time, but this week, visitors to Chestnut Hill will see Malik Cunningham, a quarterback on the verge of matching or breaking many of Jackson's career numbers and a player who has broken Boston College hearts on more than one occasion.
"We have to be assignment-sound," said BC head coach Jeff Hafley. "You have to play with relentless effort against him. He makes a lot of people miss if there's just one guy, and you have to run to the ball and play with hair on fire, like you never have before. I have a ton of respect for him. I said it last year, [but] I think he's one of the most dynamic players in all of college football."
Cunningham's backstory was a lot like Jackson in the respect that he was a three-star prospect that didn't quite fit the mold of any one particular recruiting group. Jackson had been a dual-threat quarterback but was lightly regarded against players like Kyler Murray, and Cunningham was considered an athlete without a position, meaning he didn't rate against dual-threat quarterbacks like Tua Tagovailoa or Sam Ehlinger, nor did he measure up against raw athletes like AJ Dillon and Kadarius Toney.
He was a football unicorn, but Louisville had experience building schemes around unique players. They year before Cunningham's commitment saw Jackson explode onto the Heisman scene as he led the Cardinals into the top-5, and his departure after the 2017 season saw Jawon Pass emerge as the logical successor for the 2018 season, though the year ended with a 2-10 record and a changeover at the head coaching role.
Pass was much bigger than Jackson and therefore a very different quarterback for the Louisville system, which struggled with various inconsistencies during that season. Cunningham was still too raw to really develop into an effective passer, but by the end of the year, he supplanted Pass as the team's future and earned the starting role into the 2019 season under new head coach Scott Satterfield, who had experience developing dual-threat quarterbacks at Appalachian State.
All of that led to the development of a player who is now a four-year starter capable of posting the same popping number as Jackson. In 2019, Cunningham passed for 2,065 yards and 22 touchdowns, numbers he replicated during 2020's COVID-impacted season when he became the first Louisville quarterback since Jackson to post consecutive 300-yard games, and he finished 2021 as the second quarterback in program history to rush for 1,000-yards while finishing 14th in the nation in total offense.
"Let's not get this 'this guy's not a quarterback' [message]," Hafley said. "He is. He's trying to stay in the pocket and make plays in the pocket. He's throwing the ball better, and I thought he threw it well last year. Forget about being one of the most dynamic players in all of college football. I think he's one of the best quarterbacks in the ACC. He's elusive, fast, and accelerates. If you can find one player who doing [what he does] for their team, I have a ton of respect for that guy, and I'll put him right up there with some of the best players in all of college football."
Cunningham enters Saturday as the eighth quarterback in NCAA history to pass for more than 8,000 yards while rushing for 3,000 yards in his career, but his career numbers are increasingly closing on legendary names in the Louisville record books. He has just as many 300-yard games as Brian Brohm and is three games away from joining Jackson and Chris Redman as the only quarterbacks with 20-such performances, and his 3,014 career rushing yards are bearing down on both Jackson and Walter Peacock. His 44 career rushing scores are six behind Jackson, but he's likely to pass his predecessor and Teddy Bridgewater for career passing attempt numbers while passing Dave Ragone, Brohm and Bridgewater among career completions.
He's also been particularly thorny in games against Boston College. In 2019, he posted a then-career best 288 yards passing with a touchdown against the Eagles and later nearly doubled that total with 433 total yards in the two teams' matchup one year later. He has twice rushed for 133 yards against the BC defense, and his 1,000 yards in his previous meetings against the Eagles with eight touchdowns and three interceptions is an indication that the defense, in particular, needs to focus on its fundamentals as game day draws closer.
"We're trying to get multiple people to the ball," Hafley said. "We're talking about holding the whistle a little bit longer so more people can get there. We tackled really high [against Florida State], and when you tackle really high, you miss. I constantly talk about the approach and putting yourself in position to make the play, but we need to obviously coach it better. We have to execute better. [Defensive coordinator Tem Lukabu] did a great job talking to the defense today, and we showed them clips of what it really should look like. Are we a bad tackling team? No we're not. Did we have a bad tackling game? Yes, we did. That was the message we gave [to our team]."
Boston College and Louisville will kick off on Saturday at noon from Alumni Stadium in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. The game can be seen on national television via ACC Network with streaming available through ESPN's online platform for television subscribers with access to the channel. Radio broadcast is also available via the BC Learfield IMG Sports Network and can be heard locally in Boston on WEEI 850 AM/93.7 FM.
He eviscerated opponents, and an early November matchup against Boston College stamped his Heisman candidacy during that 2016 season when he amassed 416 total yards and seven touchdowns. He passed for four scores and ran for three more, and accounting for Louisville's first 35 points in the game's first 19 minutes of clock time drew comparisons to Michael Vick's performance with Virginia Tech 15 years earlier.
Anyone who was at Alumni Stadium that day understood his impact by watching his greatness in real time, but this week, visitors to Chestnut Hill will see Malik Cunningham, a quarterback on the verge of matching or breaking many of Jackson's career numbers and a player who has broken Boston College hearts on more than one occasion.
"We have to be assignment-sound," said BC head coach Jeff Hafley. "You have to play with relentless effort against him. He makes a lot of people miss if there's just one guy, and you have to run to the ball and play with hair on fire, like you never have before. I have a ton of respect for him. I said it last year, [but] I think he's one of the most dynamic players in all of college football."
Cunningham's backstory was a lot like Jackson in the respect that he was a three-star prospect that didn't quite fit the mold of any one particular recruiting group. Jackson had been a dual-threat quarterback but was lightly regarded against players like Kyler Murray, and Cunningham was considered an athlete without a position, meaning he didn't rate against dual-threat quarterbacks like Tua Tagovailoa or Sam Ehlinger, nor did he measure up against raw athletes like AJ Dillon and Kadarius Toney.
He was a football unicorn, but Louisville had experience building schemes around unique players. They year before Cunningham's commitment saw Jackson explode onto the Heisman scene as he led the Cardinals into the top-5, and his departure after the 2017 season saw Jawon Pass emerge as the logical successor for the 2018 season, though the year ended with a 2-10 record and a changeover at the head coaching role.
Pass was much bigger than Jackson and therefore a very different quarterback for the Louisville system, which struggled with various inconsistencies during that season. Cunningham was still too raw to really develop into an effective passer, but by the end of the year, he supplanted Pass as the team's future and earned the starting role into the 2019 season under new head coach Scott Satterfield, who had experience developing dual-threat quarterbacks at Appalachian State.
All of that led to the development of a player who is now a four-year starter capable of posting the same popping number as Jackson. In 2019, Cunningham passed for 2,065 yards and 22 touchdowns, numbers he replicated during 2020's COVID-impacted season when he became the first Louisville quarterback since Jackson to post consecutive 300-yard games, and he finished 2021 as the second quarterback in program history to rush for 1,000-yards while finishing 14th in the nation in total offense.
"Let's not get this 'this guy's not a quarterback' [message]," Hafley said. "He is. He's trying to stay in the pocket and make plays in the pocket. He's throwing the ball better, and I thought he threw it well last year. Forget about being one of the most dynamic players in all of college football. I think he's one of the best quarterbacks in the ACC. He's elusive, fast, and accelerates. If you can find one player who doing [what he does] for their team, I have a ton of respect for that guy, and I'll put him right up there with some of the best players in all of college football."
Cunningham enters Saturday as the eighth quarterback in NCAA history to pass for more than 8,000 yards while rushing for 3,000 yards in his career, but his career numbers are increasingly closing on legendary names in the Louisville record books. He has just as many 300-yard games as Brian Brohm and is three games away from joining Jackson and Chris Redman as the only quarterbacks with 20-such performances, and his 3,014 career rushing yards are bearing down on both Jackson and Walter Peacock. His 44 career rushing scores are six behind Jackson, but he's likely to pass his predecessor and Teddy Bridgewater for career passing attempt numbers while passing Dave Ragone, Brohm and Bridgewater among career completions.
He's also been particularly thorny in games against Boston College. In 2019, he posted a then-career best 288 yards passing with a touchdown against the Eagles and later nearly doubled that total with 433 total yards in the two teams' matchup one year later. He has twice rushed for 133 yards against the BC defense, and his 1,000 yards in his previous meetings against the Eagles with eight touchdowns and three interceptions is an indication that the defense, in particular, needs to focus on its fundamentals as game day draws closer.
"We're trying to get multiple people to the ball," Hafley said. "We're talking about holding the whistle a little bit longer so more people can get there. We tackled really high [against Florida State], and when you tackle really high, you miss. I constantly talk about the approach and putting yourself in position to make the play, but we need to obviously coach it better. We have to execute better. [Defensive coordinator Tem Lukabu] did a great job talking to the defense today, and we showed them clips of what it really should look like. Are we a bad tackling team? No we're not. Did we have a bad tackling game? Yes, we did. That was the message we gave [to our team]."
Boston College and Louisville will kick off on Saturday at noon from Alumni Stadium in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. The game can be seen on national television via ACC Network with streaming available through ESPN's online platform for television subscribers with access to the channel. Radio broadcast is also available via the BC Learfield IMG Sports Network and can be heard locally in Boston on WEEI 850 AM/93.7 FM.
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