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GameDay keeps following red-hot Louisville into Death Valley

Louisville is so hot at the moment that ESPN’s College GameDay simply can’t stay away.

For the second time in three weeks, ESPN’s signature college football pregame show will be in attendance for a Cardinals game when Lamar Jackson & Co. travel to Clemson for a battle of teams ranked in the top five Saturday in Death Valley.

Clemson opened the season as the odds-on favorite to win the ACC, but the Tigers' offense hasn’t exactly been explosive so far.

Louisville was floating beneath the radar early in the year, but no more. The Cardinals have scored at least 59 points in all four games they’ve played, and Jackson has emerged as the front-runner for the Heisman Trophy. He'll go head-to-head with Clemson QB Deshaun Watson, who was the favorite to win the award last season, in one of the best quarterback matchups of the year.

Clemson beat Louisville in each of its two showdowns since the Cardinals joined the ACC, but both games were close, with the Tigers’ defense stepping up to squash a potential game-winning drive late in the fourth quarter of each.

Both of those games featured a far less dynamic Louisville offense, however, and it will be up to defensive coordinator Brent Venables to find a way to slow Jackson this week. No one has been able to do it so far. In his first four games of the season, Jackson is responsible for a whopping 25 touchdowns.

“[Jackson’s numbers] are just raising the hype for the game, and we love those big games,” Clemson defensive end Clelin Ferrell said. “That’s what we’re here for.”