U of L-FIU: 5 things to watch

Between Bobby Petrino and Louisville's assistant coaches, the chatter this week circled around practice. This, they said, was the most important week of practice their team has had since the new staff arrived in January.

After losing in rather deflating fashion to Virginia last Saturday, Louisville's had to regroup this week and get several things in order before a trip to Miami.

The Cardinals play FIU at 3:30 p.m. Saturday. The game's on Fox Sports 1.

Here are five things to watch when the teams kick off:

1. Is Louisville's offensive line better? As Petrino put it Monday, the natural inclination is to blame the quarterback when things go awry on offense, especially in the passing game. But life ain't so simple. While Will Gardner needs to stand taller in the pocket, read his progressions and look off defenders, the offensive line has to give him more time and better passing windows. My hunch is that while you may not see a different starting lineup, you may see a lot more of Kelby Johnson at right tackle. What I'm really interested in seeing is if Jake Smith moves to center and Skylar Lacy jumps into the first-team line at right guard.

2. It's Gardner's show. There's no threat of Gardner losing his job this week. Freshman backup Reggie Bonnafon won't play Saturday. That means Gardner can probably afford to struggle a little bit and stay in the game. FIU's better than it was last year, but I don't think we should expect anything other than Brett Nelson and (maybe?) Kyle Bolin at quarterback in the second half. Gardner really needs some low-hanging fruit confidence-builders, so something like 15 of 20 for 200 yards and two touchdowns would probably help.

3. So someone has to ask: Michael Dyer? I think this has been an item in "5 things to watch" every single week of the season so far, so what's one more? Will the running back play this week? He had some late-week soreness because of atrophy in his healing thigh, so he missed the Virginia game. The next two weeks are good chances for him to get lower-key reps in winnable games.

4. Fast start. Well, Pittsburgh didn't exactly get off to a roaring start at FIU last week. The (Pitt) Panthers fell behind 16-0 to the (FIU) Panthers in the first quarter, but slowly but surely dominated FIU the rest of the way, outscoring them 42-9 over the next three quarters. Louisville's opening drives have been back and forth, with two three-and-outs and one sustained scoring drive. Pull that out to include the entire first quarter, and the Cards have outscored opponents 35-14 in first quarters.

5. FIU's pass rush. The Panthers haven't exactly played the toughest schedule. Pitt is the only FBS team they've seen, and FIU did lose to Bethune-Cookman. But the stats from those three games are still stats, and they're pretty impressive for a pass rush. The third-down defense has been particularly good. Again, odds are that Saturday won't be all that close because of the talent disparity, but at least a decent pass rush will test Louisville's progress in pass protection since last Saturday.