How Ahmari Huggins-Bruce's Expected Return Impacts Louisville's Offense

The former wide receiver for the Cardinals re-enrolled at Louisville after originally transferring to South Carolina.

Louisville's Ahmari Huggins-Bruce (9) broke free for a long run during second half action as the Louisville Cardinals defeated the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, 33-20 on Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023 / Jeff Faughender/Courier Journal and USA Today Network / USA TODAY NETWORK

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Ahmari Huggins-Bruce is back like he never left.

On Thursday, the former Louisville wide receiver officially re-enrolled with the University of Louisville on Thursday after transferring to South Carolina not long after the end of last season.

While Huggins-Bruce has not yet officially re-joined the Cardinals, and his eligibility and exact roster status for the 2024 season is still up in the air, signs point to the speedster making his return official sometime in the immediate future.

During Huggins-Bruce's first three years as a Cardinal, he was a regular fixture of Louisville's passing attack, if not a touch under-utilized. Across 39 career games and 12 starts, the 5-foot-11, 170-pound speedster hauled in 80 receptions for 1,121 yards and 10 touchdowns, along with 11 rushes for 67 yards and a score.

The Dillon, SC. native burst onto the scene as a true freshman, catching 29 passes for 44 yards and four touchdowns. However, his overall usage and production would decrease over the next two seasons, and he never took on a large role in the passing attack. He caught 31 passes for 365 yards and two touchdowns in 2022, then just 20 passes for 312 yards and four scores in his first season under Jeff Brohm.

But outside of his stat line, how does Huggins-Bruce's return impact Louisville's wide receiver room and offense overall?

First and foremost, this news could not have come at a better time for the Cardinals. This past weekend, it was announced that wide receiver Caullin Lacy, one of Louisville's top incoming transfers and their expected WR1, would miss an "extended period of time" after suffering a broken collarbone on the final day of fall camp.

Related: How Caullin Lacy's Injury Impacts Louisville's Offense

While Lacy is undoubtedly a more prolific receiver, considering he had more receptions and receiving yards last season at South Alabama than Huggins-Bruce has in his collegiate career, getting Huggins-Bruce specifically back is a huge for one major reason: both are slot receivers.

With Lacy out, Louisville was likely going to have players such as Cataurus Hicks, Jahlil McClain and even JoJo Stone take on extended roles in the slot until Lacy made his return. While the aforementioned trio had taken steps forward and made progress in fall camp, head coach Jeff Brohm did voice some frustrations with a lack of playmakers stepping forward beyond the first stringers in the fall camp scrimmages.

Now, Louisville has a much more reliable option in the slot. Sure, there will likely be an acclimation period to the team, and Huggins-Bruce probably won't get much run the Cardinals' first two games of the year vs. Austin Peay and Jacksonville State. But, Huggins-Bruce does have a year under Brohm's system, so said acclimation wouldn't be as long as it would if someone off the street joined the program. Plus, AHB has been actively going through strength and conditioning while at USC, so he's still in football shape.

But how much of an impact can Huggins-Bruce be for this team? Well, it fully depending on which version of himself shows up.

Over his three years in college, the receiver has been very boom-or-bust. He'd be a large factor in the end game's result one week, then be almost a non-factor the next. Of his 38 games played, he has just nine games with 50 or more receiving yards. In fact, 669 of his 1,121 career receiving yards - or 59.7 percent - have come in these nine games.

But there is another factor at play here, and one that could potentially lead to AHB having his best and/or most consistent season in college: he finally has a quarterback that can properly utilize his strengths as a receiver.

Huggins-Bruce's quarterback for his first two years in college was Malik Cunningham, and his inconsistencies as a passer despite being the program's leader in touchdowns responsible for are well documented. Last season, it was Jack Plummer, and arm strength was not his strong suit - as evidenced by his game-tying throw vs. Virginia where Huggins-Bruce had to come to nearly a full stop to catch the ball.

While Tyler Shough isn't perfect - considering he has a lengthy injury and his gunslinger tendencies have tendency to come back to bite him - he is the kind of quarterback that is a perfect compliment to Huggins-Bruce and his game.

AHB, who has typically been among the fastest player on any team he has been on, has typically made his hay on two kinds of plays: make defenders miss after a short catch, or take the top off the defense for the long ball. Cunningham had a deep ball but was incredibly inconsistent with it, and Plummer doesn't have the kind of arm strength to properly utilize deep ball threats.

Shough on the other hand, both during his time at both Texas Tech and Oregon as well as in spring ball and fall camp for the Cards, has shown that he has both the arm strength and the deep ball accuracy that can unlock the potential of a receiver like Huggins-Bruce. Not to mention that if there's even a remote chance that AHB can make a play, Shough will let that ball fly.

Is Huggins-Bruce going to be a 1,000 yard receiver in 2024? Probably not. There's not even a speculative timeline for his official return to the program. Not to mention that there's always the chance that he might not be able to play this season at all due to NCAA eligibility and transfer rules. Though this is likely not the case if Huggins-Bruce has gone as far to re-enroll at Louisville and withdraw from USC.

But, Huggins-Bruce provides Louisville with a solid mix of experience, production and potential at a starting receiver spot that had some questions after Caullin Lacy went down. He'll need time to get acclimated with the team both on and off the field, but it's not outside of the realm of possibility that Huggins-Bruce plays a sizable role on this team both before and after Lacy makes his return to action.

(Photo of Ahmari Huggins-Bruce: Jeff Faughender - Courier Journal and USA Today Network / USA TODAY NETWORK)

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