LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Spring ball for the Louisville football program is now in the rear view mirror.
On Friday night, the Cardinals conducted their annual spring game at L&N Stadium – the fourth under current head coach Jeff Brohm. The offense went against the defense for two halves like a normal games, with the exception of a running clock used in the second half. The offense took down the defense, 43-24.
Considering a handful players were out due to injuries, and a lot of the first team or other impact players were held out during the second half, there is bound to be an overreaction or two. But that being said, below is our notebook of the more notable happenings that transpired during the evening at L&N Stadium:
- Injury update: On top of Brohm previously announcing that wide receivers Kris Hughes and Montavin Quisenberry, offensive tackle Anwar O’Neal and defensive tackle Tommy Ziesmer had suffered long term injuries heading into the spring game, there were a couple extras that were not dressed. This included running back Keyjuan Brown, plus defensive tackles Daylen Russell and Sam Dawson – though none of them had any visible braces/wraps. Fortunately, no one seemed to get significantly banged up during the game itself, so that’s always a great sign.
- When it comes to who was running with the first team, while injuries did impact this a bit, it was largely what we had seen throughout the open practices. Unsurprisingly, Lincoln Kienholz was the starting quarterback, with Davin Wydner was the backup. While Ryan Zimmerman had been the third string in the open sessions with Briggs Cherry being the fourth option, in the spring game, it was the opposite. With O’Neal out, Lance Robinson slid over to starting left tackle, with Evan Wibberley taking over at center. Eryx Daugherty stayed at left guard, as did Johnnie Brown III at right guard. Cason Henry is still slightly on the mend, so Cameron Gorin served as right tackle. Clev Lubin was one of the starting edges as expected, but instead of AJ Green being opposite of him, it was Jerod Smith II. Demeco Kennedy and Joshua Donald manned the two defensive tackle spots, with the latter stepping in for Russell, who was earning most of the first team reps before getting banged up. At linebacker, Stanquan Clark and T.J. Capers held down the middle while Blake Ruffin was at STAR in place of the injured Antonio Watts. Then in the secondary, Tayon Holloway and D.J. Waller got the starts at corner, while Koen Entringer and Kaleb Beasley were at safety.
- When you look at the final score, you would think that it was the offense who looked the best. However, in my opinion, I think the defense had a leg up for most of the evening. Sure, the bookends of the game were dominated by the offense, with three of the first five drives and the final two drives resulting in touchdowns. But sandwiched in between, the defense got stops on nine of the 12 drives. Of the 19 full drives, the offense only scored on eight of them – although five were touchdowns.
- I’ll start with the offensive side of the ball, and dive into the quarterback play – which was… a little unexpected for a good reason. In the open sessions, Kienholz very much looked the part in terms of making plays with his arm and legs, and I expected that to be the case in the spring game. However, Kienholz wasn’t given a lot to work with in terms of downfield plays, which is something Brohm said in the postgame that he wishes he could have done more of. Add in the fact that he was also going up against the first team defense, and that resulted in Kienholz “just” going 10-of-16 for 91 yards. As for Davin Wydner, he looked much better than I expected. He had two beautiful deep balls to Gavin Waddell and Lawayne McCoy, and displayed a ton of confidence in his arm ability. Again, It bares repeating that Wydner was going up against the second team defense, but there’s no doubt he had the best game out of the quarterback room (10-of-12 for 194 yards and two scores). Cherry got most of his work in the second half, and you can tell he has made a lot of progress since spring began. Sure, he still had some moments where it was obvious he is still a true freshman (nearly threw a pick on his first rep), but he was able to that he is at an advanced stage in his development in terms of navigating the pocket and finding his target in stride, finishing going 16-of-23 for 142 yards.
- Now for the wide receivers. When the Ole Miss game gets here, Tre Richardson will absolutely be WR1. But since both were on ice for the spring, that allowed others in the room to take advantage of extra practice reps, and they put that on display in the spring game. McCoy came on strong in the second half of spring ball, and he was able to have a few nice catches on top of his breadbasket touchdown catch – and should have had more had ther not been a couple over throws. TreyShun Hurry had a quiet night, but it’s nothing to be concerned with considering the progress he has made throughout spring. Jackson Voth has been consistent all spring in the slot regardless of quarterback, and that showed tonight – he could be in line for a meaningful role. It’s also important to not that Kienholz seems to have developed some chemistry/trust with T.J. McWilliams. With the true freshman wide receivers, while Gavin Waddell was mostly quiet in the open sessions, he had a fantastic spring game (five catches, 118 yards, one touchdown). Plus, there always seems to be at least one walk-on receiver that breaks out for a good spring game, and this time, it was DeVaun Jones.
- At tight end, Jaleel Skinner was a touch disappointing considering he had a couple drops. Not to mention Justyn Reid didn’t make any plays after excelling in a couple open sessions. However, once again, true freshman Julius Miles continued to make a handful of plays – something he did in every single previous open session. Brody Foley is the unquestioned TE1 (which is shame since he was on ice for spring), but it wouldn’t be shocking if Miles earned a meaningful role as a true freshman.
- When it came to running the ball, there wasn’t much to display here. Isaac Brown didn’t play at all (not that he needs to), and Keyjuan Brown was banged up. Braxton Jennings and Lekhy Thompkins had a couple good runs between the two, but this was a quit night for the run game.
- Part of the aforementioned issue running the ball was because, on the defensive side, the interior of the D-line did a much better job at containing the run than I expected them to do. Kennedy, Donald and Bailey Abercrombie were able to get consistent push at the point of attack against an offensive line that I thought was holding their own for the most part given the injury luck.
- On the edges of the defensive line, Louisville’s embarrassment of riches was on full display. Clev Lubin is one of the best defensive ends in college football, but Jerod Smith II was the one who was consistently winning his one-on-ones. Green and Tyler Thompson got some good push as well, and Micah Carter and Eric Hazzard seem to have made strides as well.
- Behind the line, the linebacker corps played a role in helping to bottle the run. Clark and Capers has good outings as to be expected, but so did Trent Carter and Jacob Smith – who recently made the switch from defensive line. Pass coverage was a little iffy at times, but nothing (yet) to suggest it’s a major concern.
- In the secondary, this unit continues to show that – even with a lot of roster changeover – they can still be an elite unit. Holloway and Entringer of course did their thing, but I came away most impressed by cornerback Antonio Harris – who seemed to consistantly not allow his man to get any separation. At safety, true freshman Jordan Vann also made a pair of big time hits. Elite freshman Jaydin Broadnax struggled early on, but rounded back into his expected form towards the end of the spring game.
- I’ll wrap this up with a special teams update. Kicking was… very up and down. On field goals,
Nick Keller went just 1-of-3 while Carson Hilbert was 2-of-3, but none of the misses were super egregious at least. Jacob Baker had a few really booming punts, but to be honest, he was the only one that did.
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(Photo of Gavin Waddell: Scott Utterback – Courier Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)…