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

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

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

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Fall camp is in full swing for the Louisville football program. While the Cardinals are still under a week into their preseason, three practice sessions are already in the books.

Their third practice, which took place on Saturday, was the also open to both the fans and media. Like we were for open practice No. 1 and 2, Louisville Report was there for it all to watch the third open practice of fall ball.

Related: Notes and Observations from Louisville's First Fall Camp Practice

Also: Notes and Observations from Louisville's Second Open Fall Camp Practice

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

Sticking with the theme of having an enhanced emphasis on special teams so far this fall, the very first segment after warmups was working on punt returns. Quincy Riley, Jadon Thompson, Cataurus Hicks, Isaac Brown and Mo Turner were the main one getting return reps here.

• Injury update: Jonathan Mendoza is now taking part in position drills, but still being held out in 11-on-11s. Jimmy Calloway is still working to the side with a trainer, and so is Thor Griffifth now. Didn't see Daeh McCullough with the trainers like he was on Friday, so that's good news. Madden Sanker went down during practice and had to be carted off, but it seemed to be heat exhaustion related. It was a super hot day and a lot of people went down with cramps.
• For this practice, I spent most of my time during the positional drill segments watching the running backs. RB coach Chris Barclay placed an emphasis on working on keeping their legs high, so that when they run through traffic there's less of a chance of them getting tripped up. Maurice Turner and Isaac Brown looked to be the shiftiest with their jump cuts in drill work, and Donald Chaney Jr. did well when it came to the pass protection foot work drill.
• There was another drill where they slapped a resistance band on the football to work on ball security, and as expected, Turner and Chaney faired the best in this regard. Something that was nice to see here was Chaney was helping coach up true freshman Duke Watson in addition to Barclay.
• The running backs had a brief segment with the quarterbacks where they went through the motions of various handoffs. Inside zone, up the gut from under center, and even some swing passes were practiced, mainly as mental reps.
• The position also put a focus on the timing of their strikes in pass protection, then also paired with the linebackers to work on this very thing. To my surprise, the running backs actually held their own here. Turner did very, very well in pass pro, I. Brown was good and Chaney was solid. That being said, Stanquan Clark had a pair reps where he had near-instant wins vs. the running back thanks to insane rip moves.
• After that, the practice shifted into 7-on-7 and front seven vs. the offensive line and running backs, and I checked out the latter. The defense seemed to be the "winners" here with how overwhelming they were, although Turner and I. Brown had some solid runs, and Pierce Clarkson was able to draw an offsides on one rep. Walk-on lineman Ellis McAdoo has been getting a decent amount of reps at center for a walk on, but he struggled in this segment, as he had several very low or high snaps.
• There was also a segment where the entire offense got together for mental reps, much like when the QBs and RBs got together. They practiced swing passes, play action wide receiver screens, RPOs, and even a what I can only describe as a flea flicker tight end screen. Of note, it seems like Louisville has placed a large emphasis on RPOs in fall camp that didn't seem to be there in the spring.
• This practice had the longest 11-on-11 segments, with roughly half of the afternoon being this. As far as the very first reps go, Austin Collins and Rasheed Miller are still manning the right side of the line with Renato Brown still working his way back and Mendoza still banged up. Johnson and Mark Redman got about an equal share of the ones at tight end. Over on defense, Adonijah Green and Rene Kona are still running with the ones on the line.
• Tyler Shough only seems to be getting better with each practice that goes by. He connect with Caullin Lacy on a crossing route with two pass rushers in his face, hit a wide open Jamari Johnson on a pair of play action throws, and had a couple reps where he was practicing the speed option. I still don't think Louisville will utilize him as a runner often, but it's nice to see they're willing to use that option.
• As far as other offensive players go during the first 11-on-11 period, Clarkson continues to show how mobile he can be, an even had a beautiful deep ball to Chris Bell - but was dropped. Turner had a run where he looked strong up the middle, and I. Brown turned on the jets on an outside zone run. There were a handful of noteworthy defensive plays during the first 11-on-11, as T.J. Quinn hit Chaney hard for a stop and a blitz from Antonio Watts forced an incompletion by the QB (couldn't see who).
• In between their two long 11-on-11 periods of the day, it was back to special teams work, this time practicing both punts and punt blocking. Of note, A.J. Vinatieri does look a lot better than he did in the spring, so he could be an option at some point.
• After that, Louisvilel broke into the final 11-on-11 period, which was a lot longer than the first one. Both side made plenty of plays, but it seemed like the defense made more of them in this segment. Konga completely blew up the middle on a bullrush. Corey Thornton had an impressive PBU while covering Bell. T.J. Capers was in the right place at the right time for a zone coverage PBU on Harrison Bailey. Ashton Gillotte smashed through to blow up a screen, and was damn near unblockable all afternoon. William "Woo" Spencer had two bullrushes for losses in the span of about four reps. Watts had a hit stick caliber tackle. Jurriente Davis had a tip at the line of scrimmage, and Aaron Williams had pass breakup as well. Dez Tell, a defensive tackle, nearly had a pick when he dropped back into zone coverage.
• Of course, the offense had plenty of wins themselves during this time. Redman was utilized on screens a few times. Lacy had an impressive catch and run on a crosser. Hicks picked up some serious YAC on a play action pass outside the numbers. Bell caught a difficult sideline catch on a pretty ball from Shough, found Bell another time while throwing on the run against his body, while Jadon Thompson also caught a ball from Tyler up the seam, and was off to the races after one cut. Bailey also put a ball right into Hicks' arms on a wide open corner route to the end zone, while Deuce Adams - while still a true freshman - is starting to find his groove. In fact, the deep ball efforts did take a collective step forward, and the offensive line had their best pass protection practice of the fall so far.

(Photo via Matt McGavic - Louisville Report)

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