Five players on each side of the ball that could make a major impact for Louisville football.
Louisville football enters the 2024 season with mixed reception from national pundits.
One thing is for certain, however, in Jeff Brohm’s second season.
The talent on the UofL roster is as exciting as its ever been.
Let’s dive into some names that fans are certain to hear quite a bit this fall.
Offense:
Honorable Mention: Donald Chaney
2023 stats: 94 CAR, 478 Yds, 2 TD
Donald Chaney, the transfer running back from Miami (FL.), is a player who Cards fans can get excited about. He’s a guy who has dealt with injuries in the past but was finally able to see the field for a consistent amount of time last season.
Last season for the Hurricanes, he split carries with two other backs. He had 94 carries while the other two had 100, and 105.
Chaney is a back who has some speed in the open space, but his specialty is running through defenders and tacking on extra yards after initial contact.
I expect Chaney and Maurice Turner to split the majority of the carries in the Louisville football backfield this season and cannot wait to see him run some people over in a Cardinal uniform.
5) Maurice Turner
2023 stats: 62 CAR, 284 YDS, 1 TD
After bursting onto the scene in the backfield for Louisville football late in the 2022 season, many were surprised to see Maurice Turner take a back seat last season.
Usually, when you see a young guy get more snaps and have a stellar bowl game, you’d expect him to keep that momentum going and be a key player going into that next season.
But unfortunately, that wasn’t the case.
Turner is an explosive play waiting to happen and he was still able to showcase that in his limited action this past season. He put up 4.6 yards per carry and had a rush of 10 or more yards in 7 of the games that he made an appearance in.
His longest rush of the season came in the ACC Championship game against Florida State. The run game had been stagnant all night, and on his first of two carries in the game, he burst through the hole created by the o-line on his way to a 41-yard gain. In that moment, you couldn’t help but think about how he would’ve done if he had gotten more carries on the year. But obviously, it was hard to question anything when we had the 1-2 punch that was Jawar Jordan and Isaac Guerendo.
I, for one, am excited to see the resurgence of Maurice Turner this season. The surprising exit of Peny Boone sets Turner up to see more action in the backfield this season, and I cannot wait to see what him and Donald Chaney can do as a duo behind Tyler Shough.
4) Chris Bell
2023 stats: 29 REC, 407 YDS, 2 TD
Chris Bell comes into this season as the top returning receiver for Louisville football
He was a reliable target for quarterback Jack Plummer last season, having at least one reception in every game. He is a big guy who hardly ever goes down on the first hit, he has great yards-after-catch ability for a guy his size, he is always a threat on 50-50 passes that come his way and has proven that he can come up in big spots in the past.
An example of these qualities in action- without Chris Bell, we don’t win that 13-10 game against NC State last season. Obviously, the defense deserves all of the credit in the world for their performance in that game, but Chris Bell is the one to thank on the offensive side of the ball.
With us not being able to get the running game going, someone had to step up in the air attack, and Chris Bell did that by making two really impactful catches. The first was our one and only touchdown of the game, on a 39-yard circus catch to bring us within three. He came up big for us in the fourth quarter as well. Making a 38-yard catch with a defender in his face to put us in range for what ended up being the game winning field goal.
Bell showed off these feats in the spring game this past April as well, going for 3 receptions, 126 yards and 2 touchdowns. In the game, he showed off his yards-after-catch ability on the very first play, catching a ball on the sideline before spinning away from a defender on his way to an 80-yard touchdown.
As Bell enters his third year in the program, I am hoping to see him take a leap into a bigger role, and potentially become a WR1 for this team.
3) Tyler Shough
2023 stats: 60.4 CMP%, 746 YDS, 7 TD, 4 INT
Tyler Shough comes to Louisville as an ultra-rare seventh-year senior after stops at Oregon and Texas Tech.
Shough has been limited in his career due to injuries but has done well in the games that he has played in. He comes to Louisville football with a career completion percentage of 63.2%, has thrown for 4,625 yards, has a TD/INT ratio of 36/17, and has a record of 13-7 in his twenty career starts. He also has proven that he can run the ball when needed, even with his 6’5- and 230-pound frame. He currently has a career 714 rushing yards and 10 touchdowns on the ground in his 204 attempts.
Shough is a player that fans should be excited for because he is a proven passer, and he displayed this in Louisville’s spring game this past April. In the game he showed off the accuracy and strength of his arm. On the first play from scrimmage, he threw a beautiful back shoulder ball to Chris Bell, who turned it into an 80-yard touchdown. He later found Bell again on a 45-yard deep ball that was placed right in the breadbasket. Shough later threaded the needle between two defenders and found Cataurus Hicks on another well-placed back shoulder ball on the sideline. He finished the spring game 8-12 passing, while throwing for 177 yards and 2 touchdowns.
If Tyler Shough can stay healthy, I think he puts this team in a great position for success.
2) Ja’Corey Brooks
2023 stats: 3 REC, 30 YDS, 0 TD.
I think Ja’Corey Brooks will be a game-changer for the Cardinals’ offense this season.
In 2022, Brooks was arguably the best receiver on an eleven-win, Sugar Bowl champion, Alabama team. He proved to be a reliable target as he brought in 39 receptions, 674 yards, and had a team-leading 8 touchdown receptions that year.
Brooks took a bit of a backseat in 2023 due to a nagging shoulder injury and spent most of his playing time with the special teams unit.
He looks to bounce back in the receiving game this year under coach Brohm.
Brooks has proven to be a threat against SEC opponents and has spent the last three years being coached by Nick Saban, who is widely regarded as the greatest college football coach of all time. I fully expect Brooks to get into Brohm’s offense and dominate ACC defenses.
1) Caullin Lacy
2023 stats: 91 REC, 1,316 YDS, 7 TD
Phil Steele Preseason First Team All-ACC; Preseason Fourth Team Offensive All-American
To say that Caullin Lacy is a massive pickup for the Cardinals is an understatement.
Lacy is a smaller receiver, standing at 5’10 and 190 pounds, but the mixture of his elite catching ability and game-changing speed will make him a force in this Louisville football offense.
Lacy is coming off of a historic season at South Alabama where he tallied 100 or more yards in eight of the Jaguars twelve games. Lacy also broke multiple South Alabama school records. He set the single season and career reception records with 91 and 208 and slid into the number two spot in both single season and career receiving yards with 1,316 and 2,518, both behind Jalen Tolbert.
Coming from a school like South Alabama, there is always the question of whether or not a player from a smaller school and conference can stack up against Power Five (now Power Four) conferences. If this worries you, just look back to South Alabama’s blowout upset win over Oklahoma State, who ended up being a ten-win team, last season. South Alabama walked into their place and beat them down 33-7, and Caullin Lacy was a big part of that. In that game he tallied 5 receptions, 104 yards and had two touchdown catches of 39 and 57 yards.
Lacy will look to keep this momentum going this upcoming fall, as he is expected to be Louisville’s main playmaker on the offensive side of the ball.
Defense:
Honorable Mention: Thor Griffith
2023 stats: 55 total, 25 solo, 30 AST, 3.5 sacks, 1 FF
Griffith was Harvard’s top guy on the defensive side of the ball last season. Coming in with a 6’3, 305-pound frame, he is an absolute force in the run game.
The All-Ivy league first team and twentieth-ranked portal DL had offers from FBS schools such as Appalachian State and UCLA, but ultimately picked coach Brohm and the Cards.
Griffith, who is the top-rated returning defensive tackle according to PFF rankings, will be added to a Louisville football defense that is already returning a lot of production from last season and I think he and Ashton Gillotte are going to wreak havoc on opposing offenses.
5) TJ Quinn
2023 stats: 91 total, 33 solo, 58 AST, 0.5 sack, 1 FR, 1 INT
Phil Steele Preseason Third Team All-ACC
TJ Quinn is coming off a season where he was Louisville’s leading tackler.
Quinn was all over the field for Louisville this past season, finishing the year with 91 total tackles, 33 of them being solo.
The linebacker room was an area of concern for Louisville going into last season after losing Momo Sanogo and Yasir Abdullah. In their absence, TJ Quinn stepped into the role and did his job really well. He wasn’t too flashy when he was on the field, but he proved to be an impact player, recording more than 10 total tackles in four of the thirteen games that he appeared in.
Quinn will look to be a leader again on defense this year for the Cards.
4) Stanquan Clark
2023 stats: 15 total, 8 solo, 7 AST, 1 FF
Stanquan Clark came into Louisville as a 4-star prospect and was able to see the field for 12 games and 244 snaps in 2023. In those 12 games, he was able to show some promise to get the fans excited for his second year in the ‘Ville.
One of those promising moments was early in his freshmen campaign when he made the goal line tackle that helped secure a scary 21-14 win over Indiana in Indianapolis.
When he first got to Louisville, coach Brohm raved about how much of a difference-maker he would be at the linebacker position.
I’m excited to see him in a bigger role this year with the departure of Jaylin Alderman, who was the second-leading tackler for Louisville football last season. He transferred to Miami (FL.), which gives Clark an opportunity to step up and be the difference maker we all expect him to be.
3) Quincy Riley
2023 stats: 49 total, 29 solo, 20 AST, 3 INT, 10 pass deflections
Phil Steele Preseason Second Team All-ACC
Quincy Riley is Louisville’s top returning defensive back.
He joined the team in 2022 after transferring from Middle Tennessee State. He put up some good numbers in his lone year of the Scott Satterfield era, but he started turning heads nationally last season in year one of coach Brohm.
Riley is a proven threat in man coverage, only allowing 23 completions on 63 times targeted for a 36.5% completion percentage against, which was ranked sixth in all of FBS last season. According to PFF, Riley is the second highest graded returning cornerback in the entire country.
Riley also has an incredible ability to read the eyes of the opposing quarterback. We were reminded of this in the spring game back in April when the defense was in man coverage, and he left his man to jump a different route and intercept the throw by Shough.
Riley is set to have another big year, as he once again will lead an already experienced Louisville football secondary.
2) Ashton Gillotte
2023 stats: 45 total tackles, 23 solo, 22 AST, 11 sacks, 3 FF, 1 FR
Phil Steele Preseason First Team All-ACC; Preseason First Team Defensive All-American
I know I am not the only one who was amped to see Ashton Gillotte announce his return on social media back in December.
To say that Gillotte coming back is a huge deal is an understatement. He is widely regarded as one of the best all-around defensive ends in the entire country and he has been a huge contributor for Louisville football on defense ever since he got here in 2021.
This past season, Gillotte had 11 sacks, which ranked 8th in the country. And even when he wasn’t recording sacks, he still gave opposing QB’s a hard time as he recorded 58 QB pressures, which ranked tenth in all of FBS for edge rushers.
Gillotte is also no joke in the run game as well. The senior finished with an 84.8 run defense grade (via PFF), which ranked eighth in all of FBS for edge rushers.
I think Gillotte is going to continue to take his game to new heights this season and continue to show why he is regarded as one of the best defensive linemen in the country.
1) M.J. Griffin
No 2023 stats due to injury.
MJ Griffin missed all of last season due to an ACL tear and is primed to make a big comeback in 2024.
Griffin was a big part of the defensive turnaround that we saw in the middle of the 2022 season. He started off that season not getting as much playing time, but when the Virginia game rolled around, he finally got his shot in a bigger role and from that point on you could feel his presence on the field each and every Saturday.
He finished the 2022 season with 45 total tackles, 23 of them being solo, 2 interceptions, and 1 forced fumble.
He was a player that was expected to flourish in year one under coach Brohm, but his season ended before it even began when he tore his ACL just a few weeks before the season opener.
Louisville had the third-ranked total defense in the ACC last season, and adding MJ Griffin back into the picture will take this defense even further this upcoming year.
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