Louisville LB K.J. Cloyd Re-Enters Transfer Portal

The fourth-year linebacker originally entered the portal last December, only to pull his name out after Jeff Brohm was hired.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Louisville linebacker K.J. Cloyd has entered his name into the transfer portal as a graduate transfer, he announced Thursday on social media.

"I want to thank Coach Brohm and the entire Louisville staff for the opportunity to play at the University of Louisville," he wrote in a post on Twitter. "I will forever cherish the time spent here with my teammates and loving fans but I have decided to enter the portal as a graduate transfer. I am now open to being recruited."

Cloyd originally entered the portal back on Dec. 1, just days after the Cardinals' regular season finale at Kentucky, but did play in the Fenway Bowl. Following Louisville's hiring of Jeff Brohm to be the next head coach after Scott Satterfield left for Cincinnati, Cloyd withdrew his name from the portal on Jan. 27. He recently went through spring ball with the Cardinals, and was expected to be a regular contributor at middle linebacker next season.

"It's been great," he said back in April. "We've got a lot of new things, new coaches, new people. The biggest thing for us is, everybody's coming together to make everything work. We just all want the best for each other."

The 6-foot-2, 229-pound inside linebacker played in 12 of Louisville's 13 games this past season, but did not have a consistant role on the defense. Out of the 879 total defensive snaps by the Cardinals in the 2023 season, Cloyd played in just 140 them, with the games against USF and Wake Forest being the only times he played more than 20 snaps. He finished the year with 15 tackles (nine solo), two quarterback hurries and a fumble recovery.

Cloyd originally joined Louisville in 2020 as a JUCO transfer from Jones College in Ellisville, Miss., where he collected 46 tackles (16 solo), 3.5 tackles for loss, 2.0 sacks and a forced fumble in his lone season at the JUCO level. The Columbia, Miss. native finishes his Cardinals career with 40 tackles, 0.5 tackle for loss, two pass breakups, four quarterback hurries, and one fumble recovery in 36 games and one start against Virginia in 2021.

Inside linebacker was already viewed as a potential weak spot on Louisville's defense next season due to the relative inexperience of the returners, and Cloyd's departure only compounds that. Louisville's current crop of inside linebacker returners - consisting of Jaylin Alderman, Jackson Hamilton and T.J. Quinn - played just 67 combined defensive snaps last season.

The Cards did bring in Oregon transfer Keith Brown and four-star true freshman Stanquan Clark to bolster the position. But unless they are able to find another linebacker (or two) from the portal, it's very likely that the players manning the STAR position - such as Benjamin Perry, Gilbert Frierson and Antonio Watts - will have to slide over and play some snaps at MLB.

Cloyd is the 22nd Cardinal to enter the portal following the end of the regular season. Fortunately, Louisville has done a good job at countering their portal losses, landing 25 commitments via the portal up to this point.

The Cardinals finished their 2022 season with an overall mark of 8-5 (4-4 in ACC), including a 24-7 win in the Fenway Bowl over Cincinnati. They'll kick off their 2023 season against Georgia tech in the Chick-Fil-A Kickoff Classic at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Ga. on Friday, Sept. 1.

(Photo of K.J. Cloyd: Scott Utterback - Courier Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK)

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