Louisville football just strengthened its secondary with future NFL draft pick Qwynnterrio Cole. What Cole brings to the table for the Cards.
Louisville football needed depth at the safety position in a bad way.
After the departures of Russ Yeast and Isaiah Hayes and with fringe starter Jack Fagot making the move to linebacker, the Cardinals were left with a lot of question marks in the secondary.
Then, probable 2021 starter Lovie Jenkins got into some hot water in April, leaving his status as a Cardinal up in the air.
Louisville needed help and fast.
The first solution was the addition of redshirt junior Kenderick Duncan. The former Georgia Southern star is considered one of the top 30 transfers of the offseason and looks to be a day one starter for Louisville football.
Related: What Kenderick Duncan brings for Louisville football
Still, outside of Duncan, Louisville was left with a lot of youth and very little depth.
Today, the coaching staff did a little bit to alleviate some of those worries with the addition of Qwynnterrio Cole. The Alcorn State standout chose the Cards over his hometown team, Memphis, and Tennessee.
While Cole isn’t going to make shockwaves coming from a small SWAC school, he was seen as a late-round draft prospect this seaason.
Here is what Jordan Reid of The Draft Network had to say about Cole’s game:
Qwynnterrio Cole is an extremely well-put-together safety prospect that’s chiseled and one that already possesses a readymade body structure. After playing in a reserve role during his first season for the Braves, Cole has been the patrol cop on the back end of the defense since that point. A true ball-hawk type of safety, he has recorded seven interceptions since stepping into a starting role as a sophomore (2018). A prospect whose length looks exactly as his measurables indicate, the team has used him all over the field. He has highlight plays of getting off of the hash in deep zones and he is also often used as a sniffer around the line of scrimmage where he finished third on the team in tackles (86) on his way to becoming a two-time HBCU All-American and SWAC All-Conference First-Team player. He is truly a right place, right time type of safety that’s been able to cause many turnovers. Cole is a high-IQ football player that has been utilized in multiple roles. He shows lots of physicality and it’s evident when tackling. A sure wrap-up tackler, he’s often able to bring ball carriers to the ground with minimal help, all while demonstrating proper techniques for consistency when targets are within his sight. There are concerns about true top-end speed and if he’ll ever be more than a one-dimensional player as a strong safety. While showing that he’s capable of holding up in deep zones when rotating to the roof of the defense, it isn’t a role that he will find as a true landing spot for the future. Best served as a strong safety or one that can spin down to become closer to the box, he will need to show more comfort with playing in other neighborhoods in order to expand his reliability as a versatile third level piece.
With the likely loss of Jenkins, Louisville football had to go out and get a playmaker in the secondary. They did exactly that by adding Cole to the fold.
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