They certainly aren’t helping Tony Elliott get any sleep this week, but Louisville’s statistical rankings probably won’t fire up second-year defensive coordinator Todd Grantham.

Louisville enters Thursday night’s game at Papa John’s stadium ranked 52nd in the country in pass defense (186.5 yards/game), 98th in points allowed (32.5) and 104th in run defense (208 yards/game).

Short weeks aren’t conducive to restful nights for coaches, regardless of how good or bad the opponent is. Plus, the Cardinals aren’t a bad team, despite their 0-2 record — Auburn and Houston aren’t anything to sneeze at, when it comes to non-conference opponents.

Preseason All-ACC defensive end Sheldon Rankins anchors the Louisville defensive line. Fellow All-ACC pick James Burgess heads up the linebacking group, which includes a pair of decorated players in TCU transfer Devonte’ Fields and Keith Brown.

At TCU, Fields was voted AP Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year and Defensive Newcomer of the Year in 2012. Brown, like Fields, was a Freshman All-American that season.

In the secondary are two Georgia transfers: safety Josh Harvey-Clemson and cornerback Shaq Wiggins, both of whom signed to play under Grantham in Athens.

“(Rankins) is a professional player. He was there last year, so he’s got a lot of experience,” Elliott said.”(Pio Vatuvei) is a really good player. The end they picked up from TCU, he’s very athletic, reminds me a lot of (Lorenzo Mauldin) that graduated last year.

“And they picked up Harvey-Clemons from Georgia, a long, athletic safety, a guy that can play back on the hash, and a guy that can play nickel/SAM.”

Compared to last season, there aren’t a lot of differences, despite the departures in personnel.

“You don’t see a whole lot different numbers, but they body-types are very similar,” Elliott said. “They’re aggressive. They’re fast. They’re physical, so it’s going to be a good challenge for our guys.”

Rankins could be among the players that Grantham will line up across from Mitch Hyatt, who’s making his first-career start on the road.

“If you look at (Rankins), in the first game, they played him out on the edge, so he’s athletic enough,” Elliott said. “It looks like he’s running better this year. He’s very physical at the point of attack, really quick feet, good leverage, plays well with his hands, so he’s got the ability to play inside, but also get out on a tackle, use his weight and his quickness to change it up on the tackles. He’s got a lot of speed.”

But Elliott thinks Hyatt is “battle-tested” from his camp battles with Clemson’s defensive ends.

“I think his biggest test was fall camp with Kevin Dodd and Shaq Lawson,” Elliott said. “I think these guys are going to challenge. Very good players, but I don’t know if he’ll see anything he hasn’t seen on the practice field.

“Now, he’ll have to be locked in and ready to play, because those guys are going to challenge him because he’s a young guy.”

Starting a freshman left tackle in his first ACC game on a Thursday night — perhaps that’s a contributing factor to the lack of rest Elliott will get over these next few days.