CHARLOTTE, N.C. (TheACC.com) – The University of Louisville football team will be represented by three student-athletes and head coach Jeff Brohm when the Atlantic Coast Conference hosts the 2024 ACC Football Kickoff event, July 22-25, at the Hilton Charlotte Uptown in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Cardinals will be in attendance on Wednesday, July 24. Defensive lineman Ashton Gillotte, cornerback Quincy Riley and quarterback Tyler Shough will be three of the 59 student-athletes, representing the 17 league football programs.
Gillotte is one of the top returning defensive players in the nation after recording 11.0 sacks and 14.5 tackles for loss a s junior in 2023, while earning numerous second team All-American accolades. Riley was second on the team in 2023 with three interceptions, while recording 49 tackles. The senior has recorded six picks in 27 career games with the Cardinals. Shough, who begins his seventh season, has thrown for 4,625 yards and 36 touchdowns during his career, which featured stops at Oregon and Texas Tech. The graduate student threw for 746 yards and seven touchdowns ion just four games last season. ACC Network will broadcast live from the ACC Football Kickoff. The four days of expansive coverage will begin at 9 a.m. ET each day and will provide the event’s most robust television coverage to date. In addition to ACCN’s coverage, there will be a special edition of ACC Huddle on Monday, July 22, at 8 p.m. ET that will air on ESPN2. Among the offensive players in attendance will be 19 quarterbacks, six running backs, five offensive linemen, three wide receivers and two tight ends. Defensively, 12 defensive linemen are scheduled to attend, joining seven defensive backs and five linebackers.
The ACC is the Conference of Quarterbacks, with the return of full-time starters Thomas Castellanos at Boston College, Cade Klubnik at Clemson, Haynes King at Georgia Tech, Preston Stone at SMU, and Kyron Drones at Virginia Tech, and transfers Maalik Murphy at Duke, DJ Uiagalelei at Florida State, Tyler Shough at Louisville, Cam Ward at Miami, Grayson McCall at NC State, and Kyle McCord at Syracuse among others. The ACC has the top-ranked group of quarterback transfers in 2024 by CBS Sports. 13 QBs in the league enter the 2024 season with over 20 career touchdown passes and 3,500 career passing yards. Eight quarterbacks from ACC schools are projected to start Week 1 in the 2024 NFL season — 25 percent of NFL teams. Since 2018, the ACC has had at least one quarterback drafted in the first round in five different drafts — the only conference to do so. The ACC’s non-conference schedule continues to be the most challenging in the country. 27 games against Power 4 opponents, including Notre Dame, the most of any conference. Nine non-conference games against teams ranked in the final 2023 Associated Press Top 25 Poll, the most of any conference. 10 non-conference games against teams in ESPN’s 2024 Way-Too-Early Top 25, the most of any conference. ACC Features Elite Coaching Leadership Six ACC head coaches were named to the 2024 Dodd Trophy Preseason Watch List, as announced by the Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year Foundation and the Peach Bowl, the most of any conference. Two of the three active coaches to win a national title reside in the ACC - Dabo Swinney led Clemson to national titles in 2016 and 2018. North Carolina’s Mack Brown won a national title at Texas in 2005.
The student-athletes that will be in attendance for the ACC Kickoff hail from 15 different states. Texas boasts the most with 11 student-athletes, followed by nine from Georgia, seven from Florida and six from North Carolina. Virginia and New Jersey will both have four student-athletes, while California will bring three. South Carolina, Alabama, Pennsylvania and Washington D.C. will bring two players apiece. Five states are each represented by one player, in addition to American Samoa and Canada (Miami linebacker Francisco Mauigoa and Stanford wide receiver Elic Ayomanor). The ACC celebrates its 72nd season of football, as the conference continues to build off its storied tradition. The ACC has had a team in either the College Football Playoff or the BCS National Championship Game in eight of the last 11 years, including two teams in 2020. The ACC has the second most football national titles over the last 11 years and is one of only two conferences with a .500 or better record in the first 10 years of the CFP. In 2023, the ACC had 11 teams make a bowl, the most among all conferences.
