Louisville's Transfer Cornerbacks Continuing to Impress in Fall Camp

The Cardinals added three corners through the transfer portal, and they have impressed the coaching staff since day one.

Louisville football Tayon Holloway (20) runs drills during spring practice on Saturday, March 23, 2024 at the Trager practice facility in Louisville, Ky. / Clare Grant/Courier Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - There's little doubt that Quincy Riley is the headliner of the Louisville football program's cornerback room. He's one of the best defenders in the ACC, and could very well finish the upcoming 2024 season as an All-American.

Even with how dominant Riley is, cornerback is not a position for the Cardinals that lives and dies by the play of one person. In fact, after their 10-4 season last year, Louisville bolstered the room by adding three upper tier transfers in the winter portal window: UCF's Corey Thornton Illinois' Tahveon Nicholson and UNC's Tayon Holloway.

It didn't take long for this trio of newcomers to start turning heads. Just a week into spring ball, they already had co-defensive coordinator Ron English singing their praises.

"I like all three (transfer) corners," English at the time. "Those dudes are real dudes. ... Those guys can play now. They're dudes."

Fast forward to the present day, and Louisville is currently in the midst of their preseason fall camp, having kicked it off just last week. Just like in spring ball, Thornton, Nicholson and Holloway are continuing to impress their coaches during the early goings of fall camp.

"All those guys have been really fun to work with," cornerbacks coach Steve Ellis said Thursday. "The one thing about those guys, is they like football. It's easily to come to practice now. They text you, they call you, they're really football lovers. So once you have that, man, it's easy to come to practice."

Thornton is the one who, at this point, is most likely to start opposite of Riley when Louisville kicks off the 2024 season on Aug. 31 vs. Austin Peay. In what was UCF's first season in the Big 12, he is coming off of his best coverage season at the college level. The 6-foot-1, 190-pound cornerback hauled in three interceptions and logged nine pass breakups, while also finishing with 27 total tackles in 12 games.

"Corey has been unbelievable," Ellis said. "Just the work ethic. He's from a really good high school and from a legendary coach in coach (Tim) Harris at Booker T. (Washington). He does an unbelievable job of getting those guys ready for college."

But don't count out Nicholson, who was a regular at Illinois and is also coming off of his most productive year in college. Playing in all 12 regular season games in last year while starting 11, the 5-foot-11, 180-pound corner logged 36 tackles, two for loss, six pass breakups, two forced fumbles and one fumble recovery.

"Taz Nicholson (is an) unbelievable player," Ellis said. "Quick twitch, reminds you a little of Jarvis (Brownlee), got the competitive edge. good spirit. He's never had a bad day in his life."

As for Holloway, he is only continuing to trend upwards. He saw his role on the UNC defense increase last year after redshirting his true freshman campaign in 2022, Playing in 10 total games along with six starts. The 6-foot-1, 185-pound corner logged 19 total tackles, 1.5 for loss and one pass breakup that year.

"Tay Holloway is a guy that's athletic, a real sponge," Ellis said. "He really does good job of absorbing knowledge. He's really a true football lover."

Even with how impressive the trio of transfer corners looked in spring ball, through the first week of fall camp, these players have really started to further elevate their game. With an entire set of spring practices and an offseason of conditioning under their collective belts, they have come a lot way in terms of their comfort within the defensive schemes.

"I'm a lot more comfortable," Holloway said. "I trust the defense, I'm learning the defense a lot more, I'm learning position more, and you can see I'm making more plays and stuff like that."

(Photo of Tayon Holloway: Clare Grant - Courier Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK)

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