Five Takeaways: What we learned from Louisville's open fall camp and first scrimmage

In just 19 days, Louisville will take the field at L&N stadium against Eastern Kentucky in what might be one of the most anticipated Cardinal football seasons in the last decade.

It’s year three of Jeff Brohm taking over his alma mater and with that comes plenty of storylines entering the season.

We highlighted a few coming into the open practices Louisville held and its most recent scrimmage from over the weekend, but now it’s time to look at what stood out over the past two weeks and what it means going forward into this fall. 

Louisville’s secondary is more experienced and mature than last year 

There’s no shortage of chatter regarding Louisville’s secondary and how it struggled to prevent the big or back breaking play last season. At times, this wasn’t a skill or talent issue, but rather one of a lack of discipline, experience and maturity. 

So far this preseason, transfer cornerback Rodney Johnson has been viewed as the surefire CB1 and has dominated the perimeter. The 6-foot-2, 200 pound defensive back is big, strong, and physical.

“Really excited about him. You see him, you think he’s about 26 years old with the big beard. But really, he’s a really good dude, serious about football and really mature — that’s one good thing about him…Just excited to have him a part of this unit,” defensive backs coach Steve Ellis said. 

Opposite of him, there seems to be some competition between the recently reinstated Tayon Holloway and transfer Jabari Mack for the second starting spot. Both have been getting first-team reps in practice. But it seems Mack’s playmaking ability has stood out. 

At safety, D’Angelo Hutchinson is ready to step into a starting role and was productive in his snaps last season. Besides him there could be a pair of transfers in Baylor’s Corey Gordon and JoJo Evans. Not to mention, Daeh McCullough picked off a pass in Saturday’s scrimmage and should see a healthy number of snaps. 

Linebackers still best defensive unit 

Sticking with the defense, Louisville’s linebackers might be among some of the most talented in the ACC. 

Junior Stanquan Clark has picked up several preseason accolades and is ready to be an absolute star. However, he did miss the entirety of spring practices with an undisclosed injury and is just now getting back to first-team reps. Still, he’s seen most of his fall camp snaps on the second team as he works his way back. 

The STAR/Hybrid linebacker, Antonio Watts, has been another decent surprise this preseason as a playmaker. Watts started to come alive at the end of last season and had the game-winning deflection in the endzone against Washington in the Sun Bowl, preventing a two-point try. His physical growth has been quite impressive, and he starred in Saturday’s recent scrimmage. 

And you can’t forget about TJ Quinn, who is as solid as ever and brings experience and leadership as the Cards’ mike and middle linebacker. 

This group will be flying all over the field this fall. 

Wide receivers Chris Bell and Caullin Lacy are as advertised, but who is WR No. 3? 

Bell is ready to step into the wide receiver one role. His raw combination of size and speed has been on display all offseason, making impressive catches downfield and acrobatic grabs with one hand. 

Many scouts who saw Bell at Louisville’s spring Pro Day asked the staff who number zero was. He’s primed for a 1,000+ yard season. His running mate, Lacy, has proven to be dynamic in fall camp and the scrimmage, and transfer quarterback Miller Moss has begun to develop a nice rapport with him in short-yardage situations. Expect to see a lot of gadget formations with the slot WR this fall.

This does beg the question of who will step up besides those two on the perimeter. Brohm said following the scrimmage that there hasn’t been much separation between transfer wideouts Dacari Collins, TJ McWilliams, and Antonio Meeks. Each brings something different to the table. 

Louisville’s second-team offense and playmakers struggled to move the ball on Saturday against the second-team defense — someone must make a difference here. 

Jaleel Skinner emerging as a pass-catching tight end 

Skinner was a breakout candidate in this offseason, and it appears like he’s ready to do just that. The 6-foot-5 tight end was a top-120 recruit out of high school and has added 20 pounds since transferring from Miami (FL) to the Ville. 

He’s become more consistent in the little things, but it’s safe to say that Skinner still has room to improve in the simplicity of the tight end position — blocking, shedding defensive edges, etc. 

Skinner had a limited number of snaps last fall, catching just one pass and seeing 11 offensive snaps. He even entered the transfer portal last December. 

Now, reports from camp and Louisville’s scrimmage are that he’s ready to explode as a pass-catching threat over the middle of the field. He had a sweet one-handed snag through traffic on Saturday. 

Offensive line depth is a worry 

Louisville’s offensive line was depleted last season with injuries and transfers. There are some returners this year, like Rasheed Miller and Pete Nygra, and transfers on the tackles like Mak Pounders and Mahamane Moussa, but the second team offensive line was crushed in the scrimmage. 

The group struggled to prevent Louisville’s pass rush and didn’t do much better in the ground game. Some of these struggles could be attributed to the 90-degree heat they scrimmaged in (which kept several players sidelined), but it still wasn’t a good showing. 

There are some injuries with guys who will play like IOL Victor Cutler, but there hasn’t seemed to be that gel and ability to move as many guys around the front five and to multiple positions as there was last year. 

There is room to improve for the offensive line, particularly in terms of current productive depth on the front. 

That being said, the starting line is in much better shape.

Starting offensive line at the end of camp

LT — Mak Pounders 

LG — Lance Robinson/Victor Cutler 

C — Pete Nygra 

RG — Rasheed Miller 

RT — Mahamane Moussa