2023 Louisville Football Position Breakdown: Safety
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - As we inch closer to the start of the 2023 college football season, Louisville Report will break down each individual position on the Cardinals' roster. Next in our positional breakdown series, we take at look at the safeties.
Position Roster Movement:
Returning (3): M.J. Griffin, D'Angelo Hutchinson (So.), Josh Minkins
Departing (4): Jeremiah Caldwell (Transfer - Miami of Ohio), Kenderick Duncan (Graduation), Nicario Harper (Transfer - Illinois), Shavarick Williams (Transfer - TBD)
Incoming (2): Cam'Ron Kelly (Gr. - North Carolina/Virginia Transfer), Devin Neal (R-Jr. - Baylor Transfer)
Projected Depth Chart:
Free Safety
- M.J. Griffin (6-1, 210, R-Jr.)
- Devin Neal (6-0, 205, Jr.)
- D'Angelo Hutchinson (6-3, 195, So.)
Strong Safety
- Josh Minkins (6-2, 195, Jr.)
- Cam'Ron Kelly (6-2, 210, R-Sr.)
Breakdown:
Like we mentioned in the cornerback breakdown, the Louisville secondary played a bigger role in the Cardinals' defensive success than many people realize. While the front seven got all of the headlines for leading the FBS in sacks and coming in the top ten in tackles for loss, this was partially assisted by the backend.
While the secondary as a whole did struggle early in the season when it came to giving up the big play, this was eventually shored up, resulting in Louisville finishing with the No. 22 overall passing defense at 197.0 passing yards allowed per game.
As is the case with the cornerbacks, the safety room for Louisville has potential to be an upper tier unit. In fact, you can make a case that the Cardinals have one of the better two-deeps at safety in the ACC.
The headliner in this room is undoubtedly M.J. Griffin. He is not only Louisville's best safety, but is one of the Cardinals' top returning defenders, and has some of the most potential for next year's NFL Draft on the squad. The Temple transfer began the 2022 season playing almost exclusively on special teams over the first five games, but was elevated to starting free safety against Virginia when regular starter Kenderick Duncan was injured.
Griffin held this spot for the remainder of the season, and his elevation to starter played a big role in Louisville significantly cutting down the amount of big plays they were giving up. Despite seeing meaningful defensive playing time in only eight of the 13 games, Griffin finished seventh on the team in tackles with 45, while also logging a pair of interceptions and a forced fumble in the process.
While listed as a free safety, Griffin is pretty versatile. He obviously spends plenty of time in zone coverage and does a solid job of it, with his 64.8 coverage grade on Pro Football Focus leading the safety position, but also saw a lot of snaps in the box on run defense. In fact, there were a couple open practices in the spring where Griffin spent a lot of time in the box during 11-on-11's, and made a handful big time plays while blitzing. If there's anything Griffin needs to work on, it's his tackling form after having the third-most missed tackles on the team with 14 last season. Otherwise, he should be in line for an All-ACC caliber season.
On top of bringing back Griffin, Louisville also brings back Josh Minkins, who spent the entire season as the starting strong safety. We were finally able to see what Minkins can do for the defense when fully healthy, finishing with the fifth-most tackles on the team with 55, while also collecting two tackles for loss, a sack, an interceptions and three pass breakups.
Minkins is just as, if not more, position versatile than Griffin is, playing in the box, out wide, in the slot and deep in coverage. However, he will have to continue to improve in all facets of his game ahead of next season. His overall PFF defense grade of 62.0 ranked 13th out of the 20 Cardinals players with triple-digit defensive snaps logged last season. Plus, injury concerns have crept back into the picture after he was held out for all of spring ball.
Fortunately, Louisville has the luxury of having two starting-caliber safeties as backups, both of which joined the Cardinals via the transfer portal. Devin Neal joined prior to spring ball from Baylor, while Cam'Ron Kelly came over afterwards following a brief stop in the spring with Virginia.
Neal, a Lexington, Ky. native, put up 41 total tackles, 2.0 for loss, a sack, two interceptions, a forced fumble and a pass breakup last season with the Bears. He split time at both free and strong safety that year, and during the spring for Louisville, saw a fair amount of first team reps with Minkins on the sideline. Like Griffin, while he is comfortable in coverage and can hold his own there, he also excels against the run, as he had Baylor's second-best PFF run defense grade at 81.5.
Coming to Louisville with fellow former Tar Heel Storm Duck, Kelly put together a 2022 campaign where he collected 49 tackles, an interception and a pass break up. The season before, when set a career-high in tackles with 69 and snagged a team-best four interceptions, he earned Third-Team All-ACC honors. While he did take a step back last season and was a touch inconsistent at times, especially in coverage, he has proven in the past that he can make plays.
After these four are a pair of players, there's only one true safety left, and he doesn't a lot of experience. D'Angelo Hutchinson played just 21 defensive snaps in his true freshman campaign, but he did have a solid spring.
If Louisville is going to have to rely on safety help beyond the two deep, that will likely come from the players currently manning the STAR position in the new 4-2-5 scheme, which is a linebacker/safety hybrid. Both Benjamin Perry and Antonio Watts are converted safeties, so potentially having to see time on the back end shouldn't be a problem.
Overall, safety is a spot where Louisville has a good amount of relative depth. While there are some concerns with coverage and tackling consistencies, the main four-man rotation has the potential to establish themselves as a top-five safety room in the ACC.
Most importantly, when coupled with how deep the cornerback room is, Louisville shouldn't have the problem of giving up an insane amount of big time passing plays. Especially with Griffin as a day one starter.
Other Position Breakdowns:
- Quarterback
- Running Back
- Wide Receiver
- Tight End
- Offensive Line
- Defensive Line
- Linebacker
- Cornerback
- Special Teams
(Photo of M.J. Griffin: Jamie Rhodes - USA TODAY Sports)
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