Sophomore cornerback Jaire Alexander — The former Charlotte (N.C.) Rocky River standout is one of the top punt returners in the ACC, and he has emerged at cornerback. The 5-11, 188-pounder has 21 tackles, a team-high three interceptions, three passes broken up, one fumble recovery and one forced fumble. He ranks third in the ACC with a 13.6-yard average on 14 punt returns, and he brought one back 69 yards for a touchdown against Florida State. He also had a 90-yard punt return for a touchdown called back due to penalty in last week’s 24-14 win over Duke last week.

Junior defensive end Drew Bailey — The 6-3, 285-pound junior college transfer has 26 tackles, 4.5 tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks and one fumble recovery this season. He easily played the best game of his young Louisville career with 11 tackles and three tackles for loss against Duke last week. The former NC State recruiting target had 22 tackles and 10 sacks in his last year at Pearl River Community College in Poplarville, Miss.

Senior safety Josh Harvey-Clemons — The former Georgia transfer is a super-sized safety at 6-5 and 228 pounds, and he uses his frame to his advantage. Harvey-Clemons leads Louisville with 45 tackles, three tackles for loss and two sacks this season. He had back-to-back 11-tackle performances against Marshall and Clemson. He played his first two years at UGA before running into trouble off the field. He had 88 tackles and earned honorable mention All-ACC honors in his Louisville debut.

Sophomore quarterback Lamar Jackson — The flashy Jackson has become a front-runner for the Heisman Trophy award. The 6-3, 204-pounder leads the ACC in several categories, including total offense (2,638 yards), total touchdowns (30) and rushing yards per game (138.7), and he is second in passing yards per contest (313.9). Jackson is 114-of-196 passing for 1,806 yards with 15 touchdowns and four interceptions, and he has rushed 113 times for 832 yards and 15 scores in six games this season. Jackson passed for 103 yards with a touchdown and rushed for 121 yards, which included a 68-yard score, in the Cardinals’ 20-13 win at NC State last year.

Senior inside linebacker Keith Kelsey — The physical Kelsey is tied for 21st in the ACC with 7.0 tackles per game. The 6-1, 236-pounder has 43 tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss, one sack and one forced fumble in six games this season. The son of a former Florida standout, Keith Kelsey Sr., was named first-team All-ACC by the media last year after finishing with a team-high 107 tackles.

1. Keep Lamar Jackson between the tackles. This is easier said than done, but Jackson might be more dangerous with his legs than his strong right arm. Jackson served notice last year against NC State when he exploded for a 68-yard touchdown run in the Cardinals’ eventual 20-13 victory. His confidence grew as the season went on despite some injuries, and he finished with a bang.

Jackson passed for 227 yards with two touchdowns and rushed for 226 yards and two scores to help Louisville top Texas A&M 27-21 in the Music City Bowl. He has used that game as a springboard to become the star of college football. The rushing yards against the Aggies is his career high, but he has topped the century mark 10 times, including five out of six games this season.

There is no question Jackson has improved as a passer and is completing 58.2 percent of his throws this season (up from 54.7 percent from last year). The question is whether he can be patient enough to dink and dunk his way down the field.

2. No Fly Zone. NC State did a superb job of limiting the big passing plays against Clemson last week. The Tigers’ longest was 29 yards, and that was no easy task with all the future NFL weapons to worry about. Louisville thrives on big plays in the passing game, with Jackson averaging a staggering 15.8 yards per completion. Four different receivers have caught passes of at least 53 yards.

Senior James Quick has had trouble off the field the last few years, but there is no questioning his pure speed. He set the state record in 2012 with 20.94 seconds in the 200-meter dash while at Louisville Trinity High. Quick will easily surpass his previous seasons numbers, and he has 28 catches for 480 yards (17.1 average) and four touchdowns. Quick had a 72-yard touchdown at Syracuse and a 71-yarder for the first touchdown of the game at Marshall.

Senior wide receiver Jamari Staples has been a welcomed addition from UAB after the Blazers temporarily shut down their program. The 6-4, 195-pounder is averaging 19.5 yards per catch and has 21 receptions for 410 yards.

3. Cause disruption against Louisville’s offensive line. One of the takeaways from last year’s Louisville at NC State game was the Cardinals had a tough time on the offensive line.

Louisville gave up four sacks, and three of them came by players who are still with the Wolfpack defense — defensive end Bradley Chubb, defensive tackle B.J. Hill and nickel Dravious Wright. The Wolfpack finished with 10 tackles for loss, involving nine different players.

Sophomore left tackle Geron Christian and sophomore right tackle Lukayus McNeil, a former NC State recruiting target, are the lone returning starters from that game. All three players on the interior are seniors, two of which played off as reserves against the Wolfpack.

NC State will need to walk the tight rope of putting pressure on Jackson, but then not allow him clear running lanes where he can take off and create his magic.

Do you expect another close game with NC State based on past battles?

“They’re a very, very good football team. We know them well because the majority of the players are the same guys we’ve been playing against for the last two years. They’re very well coached. They’re a physical team. We’ve always had really good battles with them and found a way to win in the fourth quarter.

“They run the ball real well. They have a quarterback [Ryan Finley] that was throwing for over 70 percent completions. Defensively, they lineup in a four man front and pressure a little bit, but not as much as a lot of guys do. They play very sound. They make you earn it is what they do is really what they do. They tackle well and they run full speed to the ball, so they're very impressive.”

How has defensive end Drew Bailey improved?

“Yeah, Drew’s a good football player. You know, we knew last year that we had a really good pass rusher and a guy that could anticipate the cadence and the count and come off the ball and be physical, I thought our defense did a really nice job with him last year, not asking him to do too many things, but then in the offseason it was, ‘OK, let’s learn the game of football, learn how to play the run and use your hands, get better.’

“He’s certainly done that. He was a tremendous pass rusher for us a year ago, made a lot of big plays just because of his penetration, but now he understands the game better.”

How has quarterback Lamar Jackson handled the fame this season?

“Lamar is great. He’s the same person he’s always been, comes to work, works extremely hard, has a big smile on his face. Yesterday in practice, he’s trying to lead and make sure everyone is doing their part and threw the ball really well, when he did take off and run, he ran as hard as he could and as fast as he could.

“He’s a great young man with a tremendous attitude. He’s been able to handle all this great and I’m just really proud of him.”

What can stop Louisville star quarterback Lamar Jackson?

“Maybe some rotten chicken at the meal Friday night would be good — salmonella. He made some crazy plays on Duke. There were plays when he went this way, then this way, then this way, then spun back out, and he’s going to do that — it’s what he does.”

On Louisville’s defense:

“They’re quick-twitch up front. James Hearns is one of the better defensive linemen in the ACC — really active, tough, plays hard. And his counterpart, Fields, is a quick-twitch rush end that is also disruptive. Their defensive tackle, Drew Bailey, we recruited here and I really liked him out of junior college. He’s playing well as a quick-twitch inside guy.

“In secondary, I think their corner, North Carolina native Jaire Alexander, is really playing good ball for them back there making plays, good return-man for them. And then they have a physical linebacker that has made plays for years, Keith Kelsey. Then the Georgia transfer at safety, Josh Harvey-Clemons, [a] 6-5 safety they use in the box that is their leading tackler.”

Does playing at No. 7-ranked Louisville help keep things focused after a heartbreaking loss at Clemson?

“They were angry, disappointed, mad — all the things you’d expect them to be. They were really good about wanting to move forward. I think they wish we were playing the next game that day. They wanted to go play again.

“They knew that there were plays that we could’ve made, and I thought they all did a good job of talking about things they could’ve done, and wanting to move forward to our next game on the schedule, which is Louisville. I’m really proud of their ability to move forward there.”