What to Watch For During Louisville's Spring Game

The Cardinals will conclude their first spring practice under head coach Jeff Brohm with the annual spring game.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Louisville football is back. Well, sort of.

The first spring practice for the Cardinals under new head Jeff Brohm is nearly in the books, and it will conclude with its annual Spring Football Game at the L&N Stadium. Kickoff is set for Friday, Apr. 21 at 7:00 p.m. EST, with admission and parking free of charge.

"Well, I think everything's gone well," Brohm said during his radio show earlier this week previewing the spring game. "Our guys are really good kids. They work hard. They want to succeed and do well, and we want to help them achieve their goals. So at this point, they put in a lot of work. I think we've made a lot of progress. There's still plenty, plenty of work to do. But without question, certain guys have emerged as playmakers and guys you can really count on. Then there's other positions that just need to continue to develop and improve and get better, so we'll work hard at it."

Ahead of the spring game, here are some things to watch out for as Louisville wraps up spring ball:

A first look at the new offensive and defensive systems

With a brand new coaching staff comes a brand new scheme on both sides of the ball, and it will look markedly different.

On offense, they're transitioning from Scott Satterfield's run-heavy and pistol formation based scheme, to Brohm's pass-heavy and pro style system that borders on an air raid. Over on defense, out is Bryan Brown's 3-4 base scheme and in is Ron English and Mark Hagen's 4-2-5 defense.

Of course, with a transition of this magnitude, there's bound to be some occasional bumps in the road come Friday, even after a couple months of meetings and walk throughs to learn them and a month-plus of practices to execute them. Not to mention that Brohm has intentionally thrown as much of the playbook as he can at his players since he arrived.

"We're actually throwing a lot out on both sides, and just seeing what they can handle," Brohm said midway through spring ball. "That part has probably been dialed up quite a bit, and we haven't held back a whole lot. We want to do that we want to do that. We want to see what can these guys comprehend, what can they learn."

It's important to keep in mind that this is a spring game, and things probably won't be executed to perfection for the entirely of the evening. Still, it should give fans some semblance of what to expect during the 2023 season.

The chemistry between Jack Plummer and an overhauled wide receiver room

As if transition from a run-heavy offense to a pass-heavy one wasn't drastic enough, there's almost a completely new cast of characters that Louisville will rely on for the passing game. Malik Cunningham is no longer the starting signal caller after running out of eligibility, and the receiver room has seven scholarship newcomers.

Fortunately, the Cardinals' new starting quarterback is very familiar with Brohm's scheme. After spending the first four years of his career at Purdue working under the Brohms, Jack Plummer spent a year out west with Cal, and is now spending his final year in Louisville.

Last season, Plummer completed 62.5 percent of his passes for 3,095 yards, 21 touchdown passes and nine interceptions. Here with the Cardinals, he has played a key role in helping the offense learn the new scheme, and has made sure his receivers are paying attention to detail.

"We're putting a lot of stuff in, and just getting the fine details down," he said. "If a guy's gonna run at five steps, I'm expecting it to be at five steps. So if he's not there, then it's like, 'Ah!' That's some of those things we got to kind of work through at this point. Kind of know what what guys do and how they break. Do they get out quick? Do they do this or that? I think that's kind of what we're doing right now in the spring is getting used to each other."

It also helps that the wide receiver position is loaded with speed and overall talent, with the headliner of the room being former Georgia State wideout and 1,000-yard receiver Jamari Thrash. Add in transfers Jadon Thompson, Jimmy Calloway and Kevin Coleman Jr. plus returner Ahmari Huggins-Bruce, and it gives Plummer plenty of options.

"Jack is a gunslinger," Thrash said. "We're still working on out chemistry a little bit. It's slowly coming, but we still got a lot of work to do heading into the fall and summer. Really, my main thing is just getting timing down and getting chemistry set, even with the second string quarterbacks."

With so many newcomers involved in the passing game, it will be interesting to see how much chemistry they have built in the months since Brohm arrived.

How the running backs will be utilized in the new offense

With the transition to a pass-heavy offense, that comes with the obvious statement that there's going to be a lot less running plays than Louisville fans have come to expect over the past few years. For example, last season Brohm and the Boilermakers averaged only 33.29 rushes and 121.0 yards per game, which was good for 97th and 102nd in the FBS.

However, that doesn't mean that the running backs are not going to be used in the offense. In fact, they play a big role in the passing game for this system, regularly catching passes out of the backfield as well as getting involved in the screen game.

Then you add in the heavy emphasis on the passing attack, it in turn leaves the box a lot less crowded with defenders than it would under a scheme like Satterfield's. It gives running backs a lot more open space to pick up yardage, and Louisville's backs have already taken note.

"We were watching some film yesterday as a matter of fact, looking at some concepts we're putting in," running backs coach Chris Barclay said during spring ball. "(Jawhar Jordan), he stopped me and said, 'Coach, do you usually see five man boxes like that?' I was like, 'Yeah, pretty frequently.' He's like, 'Wow, like that's a dream come true,' and I said, 'Yes, it is.' Because with your speed, that's deadly."

Last season at Purdue, starting running back Devin Mockobee was able to rush for 968 yards and nine rushing touchdowns, as well as catch 32 passes for 274 yards. His 1,242 yards from scrimmage was second only to All-American wide receiver Charlie Jones.

It also bears mentioning that Mockobee was a walk-on. With Louisville brining back leading rusher Jawhar Jordan and Maurice Turner - who combined to rush for 1,165 yards last season - as well as adding Wisconsin transfer Isaac Guerendo, the Cardinals could have a sneaky good ground game.

The depth in the defensive line and secondary

Just like on offense, the defensive side of the ball is losing some key playmakers from last season. Guys like Yasir Abdullah, YaYa Diaby and Kei'Trel Clark, who were huge factors in the Cardinals' defensive success last season, are now moving on to careers in the NFL.

That being said, two areas of the defense - the defensive line and secondary - not only have plenty of starting talent, they have a plethora a quality depth.

The defensive line is the deeper of the two, and has a legitimate case for best unit on the entire team. Impact players like Ashton Gillotte, Dezmond Tell and Jared Dawson are back, guys like Popeye Williams and Jermayne Lole could take massive steps forward, and Stanford transfer Stephen Herron could be an X-factor.

"I like our group, I really do," defensive line coach Mark Hagen said. "It's a group with a lot of talent. It's just sorting out where guys are (position-wise) at totally 100 percent. There's some guys that, once these freshmen come in in June, we may move a couple guys a little bit. But for depth personal purposes right now, I think we're pretty balanced."

The secondary isn't as deep as the line is, but it boasts a fair amount of talent. Starting safeties M.J. Griffin and Josh Minkins are back, as are starting corners Jarvis Brownlee Jr. and Quincy Riley. Guys like Benjamin Perry and Miami transfer Gilbert Frierson at STAR give the secondary some versatility, while players like Trey Franklin and Baylor transfer Devin Neal add quality depth.

With Minkins and Riley having to miss all of spring due to injuries, that has allowed more opportunities for others to get reps and improve.

"I think the biggest thing is just the opportunity," cornerbacks coach Steve Ellis said. "Anytime a competitor has the opportunity to compete, it should stoke fire in his belly, because now he got a chance to compete. The difference between an all-conference guy and a backup guy is opportunity. That's the only difference. The great thing about this, now those guys are getting reps. They get an opportunity to to learn, get an opportunity to play."

Of course, tackling won't be as prevalent in the spring game as it normally would during an actual game. But seeing how the various playmakers at both the defensive line and secondary perform and rotate on Friday will be intriguing.

Which linebackers will step up in new roles?

While the defensive line and secondary should be strengths of the defense, the linebacking corps - specifically at the two inside linebacker spots - is a massive question mark. MoMo Sanogo is off to the NFL, Monty Montgomery transferred to Ole Miss and Dorian Jones followed Satterfield to Cincinnati.

Louisville will almost certainly address this position with the second portal window opening up. But in the meantime, guys like K.J. Cloyd, T.J. Quinn, Jaylin Alderman, Jackson Hamilton and Antonio Watts are going to have to collectively step forward.

Mark Ivey, who is making the switch from coaching the defensive line to the linebackers, has been rotating the linebackers constantly over the course of spring ball to see who answers the call. Expect the same to occur during the spring game.

"It's a really good group of guys out there," Ivey said. "It's a lot of fun to watch and see them compete. That's why we keep changing it up to see who's gonna give us what we need tomorrow. Then in reality, we got to keep doing that until we figure out who the mainstay will be when we go down there at Georgia Tech in the fall."

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

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