Louisville football has finally shifted its focus in practice to opener against Notre Dame

The Louisville football fall training camp this year has been oriented on installing its new defense and offense and on players improving their skills. With their season opener against Notre Dame around the corner, the Cardinals have shifted their focus to preparing for Sept. 2.

Junior strong safety Russ Yeast said after practice on Thursday that players are happy to get a break from hitting one another and start thinking about playing against their opponent.

"Fall camp was really good for all of us," said Yeast. "I think it builds a lot of confidence; we've got the defense fully installed, (but) it feels really good to be focusing on someone other than ourselves now."

The Fighting Irish are ranked ninth in the nation, and were a semifinalist in last year's College Football Playoff. The Cardinals opened as a 19.5-point underdog in what will be head coach Scott Satterfield's U of L debut, and it isn't lost on them that they're facing a college football powerhouse.

"Notre Dame, they're a solid team," Yeast acknowledged. "They're good everywhere, they've been good for years. They're going to be solid in all phases of the ball."

More Cards:In the season opener, Notre Dame is expecting the unexpected

Notre Dame began preparing Wednesday for its trip to Cardinal Stadium, according to head coach Brian Kelly, and the Fighting Irish are well aware that running the ball will be Louisville's focus.

“We’re going to have to the run the ball well and stop the run,” Kelly said. “We’re going to have to play with a physicality. You really can’t see that right now. We’re going to have to play that way against Louisville.”

Although focus has been shifted to Notre Dame, the Cardinals know they can't afford to lose sight of improving on the basics. A major issue for the Cardinals last year was open-field tackling, something that can't be a problem if they are to upset Notre Dame. 

However, Yeast is confident his team has the problem under control and is ready to game plan for Sept. 2.

"We've definitely gotten better at tackling as a team," Yeast said. "We put a lot of emphasis on that after the first scrimmage. Last year that was the main thing we struggled with as a team is tackling in space. In order for us to be a good defense we have to tackle.

"We've been focusing on ourselves since spring ball. (Facing Notre Dame) is what we've been working for."

Check out:Inside Satterfield's plan to rebuild Louisville football from the ground up

Reach Robert Rimpson at rrimpson@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @RRimpsanity. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: courier-journal.com/subscribe.