Notes and Observations from Louisville's Fourth Open Fall Camp Practice

Here is our notebook from the fourth of six open practices for Louisville football's fall camp.

Louisville players practice during fall camp / Matt McGavic - Louisville Report

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Fall camp for the Louisville football program is operating at a fast and furious pace. While the Cardinals are still under a week into their preseason, four practice sessions are already in the books.

Their fourth practice, which took place on Monday, was once again open to both the fans and media. Like we were for the first three practices, Louisville Report was there for it all to watch the fourth open practice of fall ball.

Previous Open Practice Notebooks: Practice One, Practice Two, Practice Three

Below is our notebook of the more notable happenings that transpired during the morning:

• Injury update: Thor Griffith and Jimmy Calloway were still relegated to working to the side with trainers, with Keyjuan Brown joining them as well.
• Prior to the official start of practice, Louisville got some special teams field goal work in. Brock Travelstead looks like he should be in for a bounce back, as he was consistently booting strong and accurate kicks, hitting from as far as the 45 yard line. Nick Keller's kicks were a tad flat at first, but they did travel far, and he was able to get some more air under them as the drill went on.
• For this practice, I spent most of my time during the positional drill segments watching the offensive line. They O-line started the morning working with the two-man sled drill, and then also worked on double team drills and 2-on-2 drills. While still not participating in 11-on-11s, both Renato Brown and Jonathan Mendoza looked to be moving well and striking with force, so they could be just being held out as a precaution. Guys like Michael Gonzalez, Monroe Mills and Victor Cutler had great driving power in this drill, while some of the really young linemen - specifically Ransom McDermott and Fred Johnson - did struggle some here.
• There was also a drill where some of the quarterbacks and front seven joined with the offensive line to work on blocking on QB sweeps. Austin Collins displayed some great directional force here, and guys like Jurriente Davis and Jared Dawson were able to shed blocks in this drill fairly quickly.
• Prior to transitioning to the first 11-on-11 period, the O-line worked on a drill where the guards and tackles tested their ability to react and properly defend against stunts by the defensive line. The current set of starters so far in fall camp - Mills and Rasheed Miller at tackle plus Gonzalez and Collins at guard - did extremely well here, whereas the linemen behind them were so-so.
• While walking over to where they were going to hold the 11-on-11s, I did happen to catch a couple of the last reps during 1-on-1s. Jahlil McClain had a catch where he had great concentration over the shoulder, while Caullin Lacy had one where he had a nasty inside cut to get separation for a catch.
• The first 11-on-11 segment, which lasted maybe five minutes, was essentially designed to be a scramble drill for quarterbacks. It helped them work on both mobility inside the pocket to try and keep the play alive, while also trying to gain yards on the ground when there are no options. Tyler Shough was able to draw a lineman offsides and continues to show that he can be a viable option with his legs, Pierce Clarkson had a fantastic bootleg rollout throw to an open Jamari Johnson, while Deuce Adams did a great job at avoiding pressure and keeping his eyes downfield.
• The practice transitioned into a brief 1-on-1 segment, and the offensive players - at least from my vantage point - won this segment. Jadon Thompson had a great toe tip sideline catch, then another on a well run comeback route. Lacy put on display his great short route running off the line for another snag, McClain got himself some great separation on his routes, Ja'Corey Brooks did phenomenal against pressing DBs, while Harrison Bailey showed off his own arm strength on a couple reps.
• Louisville then went back to another 11-on-11, but I noticed that during this specific segment that the defensive players were easing up here. My guess is it was to limit the amount of hitting going on while still somewhat early in fall camp. I didn't take as many notes here since it wasn't truly a live period, but Shough had a beautiful strike to Brooks against zone coverage, Clarkson used a pump fake to draw the defenders away from McClain and get him wide open, Lacy and Maurice Turner got wide open on what appeared to be wheel routes, Bailey was able to draw an offsides call as well, and of note, Jaleel Skinner was running with the threes.
• After that, there was more special teams work with kickoffs, kickoff returning and blocking schemes for runners. Travelstead had some booming kicks, while Keller's were still a tad flat but still got some good distance on them. The one who were regularly fielding the kicks were Lacy, Thompson, Quincy Riley and Cataurus Hicks.
• Following the kickoffs drills was a 7-on-7 that served as the lead-in to a very long 11-on-11 period. Lacy had a great over the shoulder catch from Shough that dropped right into his arms. Brooks had a nice catch up the sideline. Thompson continued to have arguably his best practice of fall up to this points, getting wide open on an in route then leaping high into the air for a catch that was a bit high. Brady Allen hit Hicks on the money on a deep post route, while Pierce Clarkson threw decisive strikes in all of his reps. JoJo Stone, despite being sick and throwing up earlier in the practice, was still able to make a couple plays. The one defensive play that stood out here was when Tayon Holloway absolutely laid the wood on a receiver (couldn't see who) for a drop.
• After this was the 11-on-11 period that served as the final segment of practice. It started as a normal midfield 11-on-11, then ended with red zone work. Here, Nate Kurisky got plenty of run with the ones, although Mark Redman was eventually shuffled in, Allen got reps with the twos, and we saw the same O-line that has been the starters since camp started. Of note, there was also a scrum between Micah Carter and Jonathan Mendoze
• Keeping with the theme of the day, the offense seemed to have a leg up on the defense yet again. Shough only got better as the day went on, making a tough throw on the run (couldn't see the receiver), then later finding a wide open Jamari Johnson clear across the field for a big gain. The running backs all had great vision during this period, especially Turner and Donald Chaney Jr., the latter of which delivered a Derrick Henry-esque stiff arm on a poor defender. We even saw the flea flicker to tight end screen play again from the previous practice.
• Of course, the defense still got plenty of plays in as well. Holloway played great coverage on Chris Bell during a couple reps, both Devin Neal and William Spencer had big hits on Turner, Corey Thornton had an athletic PBU during the red zone portion, and the pass rush overall did a solid job of putting pressure on the QBs to make snappy decisions.

(Photo via Matt McGavic - Louisville Report)

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