Notes and Observations from Louisville's First Fall Camp Practice

Fall camp is back. Here is our notebook of everything that transpired during Louisville football's first day of fall ball.

Louisville defensive lineman practice during the first day of fall camp. / Matthew McGavic - Louisville Report

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Fall camp is officially here.

On Wednesday, the Louisville football program gathered at the practice fields outside the Trager Center, and conducted their first practice of the fall in preparation for the upcoming 2024 season. It kicks off the second fall camp under head coach Jeff Brohm.

The session was open to fans and the media, and Louisville Report was there for it all to watch the first day of the Cardinals' three week-long period of fall ball.

Considering it was the very first day of practice, there is bound to be an overreaction or two, especially since players were just in soft shell helmets and shoulder pads.

That being said, below is our notebook of the more notable happenings that transpired during the first day of camp: 

• While the majority of the team was stretching prior to the start of practice, the first thing I got to see were the punters in action. It took a few kicks to knock off the rust, but once they got going, both Brady Hodges and Carter Schwartz got some good hang time on their respective kicks.
• Once the team broke into positional drills, I wanted to spend the majority of this time watching the defensive line, considering this position group had the most newcomers between spring portal additions non-early enrollee freshmen. Thor Griffith is a certainly as big as advertised, especially in his arms. He did seem a little rigid during the various D-line drills, such as the sled and circle drill, but I'll chalk this up to being rusty until this becomes a trend. A newcomer who certainly stood out here was Rene Konga. He moves incredibly for his size, has fast feet, and certainly has some pop to him. More on him later. Both Myles Jernigan and Richard Kinley II looked good here as well. Of note, someone I didn't see - in person or on my paper roster - is Tramel Logan. Something to monitor here.
• As for the rest of the D-line goes, of course, Ashton Gillotte looked the best during various drill work. No disrespect to everyone else, but he's quite clearly a cut above in terms of his athleticism and strength. During the sled drills, guys like Dez Tell, Ramon Puryear, Adonijah "Sticks" Green, Jared Dawson and Kinley stood out the most in terms of their get off and initial strikes. During the drills that tested their timing off the snap, the unit as a whole was a tad behind at first, but slowly got better. Again, a prevailing theme with the first practice of fall (and spring) is knocking off the rust.
• The cornerbacks were practicing right next to the defensive line, so I couldn't help but glance over their way a couple times. Just briefly watching them, the entire position just seems to move so fluidly. While some do it better than others, they all possess incredibly fast footwork, and do a great job at flipping their hips.
• Onto the first 7-on-7 period. Quincy Riley - someone else who very clearly is playing a much different game than everyone else - had an impressive pass breakup on a deep route against JoJo Stone, and Antonio Watts made a couple solid hits that resulted in incompletions.
• During this period was when I got to see M.J. Griffin suited up for the first time since the start of last fall camp. While he's got a compression sleeve on his left leg, but other than that, you wouldn't think that he was recovering from a season-ender.
• As far as the offensive players go during the first 7-on-7, Caullin Lacy had a play where he put on display his run after the catch ability, weaved through three defenders after a five-yard throw. Dylan Mesman also made a nice downfield play over the middle, which is great to see from a true freshman in his first practice.
• After this was the first 1-on-1 segment, and this is when I started to notice something that wound up happening quite frequently throughout the day. Regardless of who the quarterback was on the rep, the majority of downfield deep shots were overthrown. Sometimes by a little, sometimes a lot. At least they weren't under thrown, and you can't fault them for trying to get the vertical game going.
• Before the first 11-on-11 got going, they spent about 10-15 minutes working on nothing but blocking schemes with the front seven and the offensive line/running backs. Between every rep, the coaches and assistants would bring in the playbook to help the offensive adjust and master their blocking assignments. Was great to see and entire segment dedicated to this, and it should help knock off the rust going forward.
• Now onto the first 11-on-11, and what everyone here wants to know: who started? Tyler Shough was in at quarterback, obviously, with Maurice Turner getting the first snaps at running back. Lacy, Ja'Corey Brooks and Chris Bell were the first receivers in. On the offensive line, it was (from left to right) Monroe Mills, Michael Gonzalez, Pete Nygra, Austin Collins and Rasheed Miller. Of note, projected starting right guard Renato Brown - while dressed to practice - didn't seem to be a completely full go. Also, projected starting right tackle Jonathan Mendoza spent the majority of practice on the side with a trainer. He was still fully dressed, so hopefully that's not a serious injury.
• Over on the defensive side of the ball, Gillotte and Jernigan were the starters on the edges, while Tell and Konga started in the middle of the line. T.J. Quinn and Stanquan Clark were the starters at inside linebacker, Riley and Corey Thornton were the starting corners, and Griffin and Devin Neal started on the back end. Antonio Watts started at STAR, mainly because Benjamin Perry appears to be wearing a hard cast. Perry got in some drill work, but that was it.
• Also, an important note: with the offensive skill position players, Louisville rotated a LOT. It seemed that after every two or so snaps, new guys were cycled in.
• The first 11-on-11 is where the offense had their most success on the day. Shough and Brooks are seemingly developing a close bond, as the latter had a couple good plays during this period, and it appears Brooks is emerging as Shough's go-to target.
• Here is also when I noticed that Pierce Clarkson's pocket escapability is much improved. He first step out of the pocket is very quick, he can dodge blitzers, and he always keeps his eyes downfield until he absolutely has to keep it and run.
• With the running backs, Turner, Donald Chaney Jr. and Isaac Brown got the bulk of the work in this period. Unless I completely missed him, I didn't see Keyjuan Brown get much action at all.
• There were a handful of good plays from the defense during the first 11-on-11. Clark had a great blitz where he hit a narrow gap between blockers for a tackle close to the line, and Jurriente Davis established his physical nature in this period with some good pursuit angles and subsequent hard tackles.
• Following a period where they worked on blocking on kickoffs, they transitioned to another 7-on-7 period. This is where the defense started to catch up. Tayon Holloway played aggressive covergae in the intermediate part of the field, Dan Foster Jr. had a nice stop against a tight end (couldn't see who) that just made a short catch, Thornton and Neal had an impressive gang tackle in the flats where they swarmed immediately to the ballcarrier, and J. Davis had another PBU that came from a hard hit. True freshman QB Deuce Adams even had a "welcome to the league" moment where he was picked off by Riley on an easy play by the latter.
• Ironically enough, the best offensive play of the day came during this period. Harrison Bailey uncorked a long pass that sailed at least 40 yards, and hit Cataurus "Blue" Hicks right in stride. Between this and spring, Hicks is starting to come along.
• In what was another 11-on-11 period - which proved to be the final segment of the day - both the offense and the defense made a handful of plays. Turner had a play where he was incredibly shifty after a screen, and had another where he got skinny up the middle and saw nothing but the high safety. Shough delivered an absolute strike to Brooks on a deep post, and was able to make another throw to Lacy with two defenders in his face. Clarkson continued to excel when it came to navigating and eventually escaping the pocket, although was hit-or-miss with some throws. Mark Redman, in his first practice at Louisville had a couple plays where he found the hole in the zone. Jahlil McClain was able to display his natural speed and agility on a handful of reps. Defensively, Clark was able to shoot the gap for another quick tackle, and continues to make progress as a full time starter. Holloway had two pass breakups in the span of about five reps. The best play of the day came from Konga, who intercepted Shough with one hand while being actively being blocked just 5-10 feet in front of him.
• I hate to bring this up, because it seems that almost any time I mention him, it's never about anything good. Every quarterback today played with heightened level of confidence, and the game seems to be slowing down for everyone - except Brady Allen. He held onto the ball way too long a couple times because he didn't make the right reads, and while no one had super great accuracy today (again, rust), his seemed to be the shakiest. For his sake, I hope a switch flips eventually.

(Photo of Louisville players: Matthew McGavic - Louisville Report)

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