As Jedd Fisch and his Washington Huskies are aiming to end their first season together on a high note in the Sun Bowl, they’ll be considered underdogs against Jeff Brohm and the Louisville Cardinals. At least that’s the case when you start looking at the numbers put out by ESPN’s FPI and their Matchup Analytics Predictor tool.
As the Huskies get set to take on the 8-win Cardinals from the ACC in the Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl on Tuesday, December 31, Washington is currently being given just a 25.5 percent chance of being able to beat Louisville.
If you’re doing the math, that means that Louisville has a really solid 74.5 percent chance of being able to beat the Huskies in El Paso. That’s not exactly all that great for Washington. To be completely honest, that’s a little worrisome.
That said, there are likely a few factors about this game that the computers won’t be able to fully account for.
Washington Huskies considered underdogs in 2024 Sun Bowl according to ESPN Analytics Matchup Predictor
The first is Demond Williams Jr. now being the starting quarterback for the Huskies. We don’t know exactly what Washington’s offense will look like and it doesn’t seem all that likely that ESPN’s computers and algorithms will fully be able to account for that.
The second thing is players opting out of the bowl game or hitting the transfer portal to play elsewhere. For the Louisville Cardinals, both their starting quarterback and their leading receiver will be out of this game as they get set for the upcoming NFL Draft.
That seems pretty significant. And that’s kind of why it’s hard to know exactly what we’re going to get out of this bowl game. That’s also part of why it’ll be intriguing to see how the 2024 Sun Bowl plays out. We’ll see if Washington’s young quarterback is able to elevate the Huskies past a Louisville offense that is piecing together a starting lineup.