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Notes and Observations from Louisville’s Fifth Open Fall Camp Practice

Here is our notebook from the fifth of six open practices for Louisville football’s fall camp.

Louisville opens up a practice session during their preseason fall camp.

Louisville opens up a practice session during their preseason fall camp. / Matt McGavic – Louisville Report

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Louisville Cardinals

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Fall camp is quickly progressing for the Louisville football program. The Cardinals are just over a week into their preseason, with five practice sessions now in the rear view mirror.

Their fifth practice, which was their first one of the fall that was fully padded, was once again open to both the fans and media. Like we were for the first four practices, Louisville Report was there for it all to watch the fifth open practice of fall ball.

Previous Open Practice Notebooks: Practice One, Practice Two, Practice Three, Practice Four

Below is our notebook of the more notable happenings that transpired during the morning:

Injury update: Nothing new on this front. Thor Griffith, Jimmy Calloway and Keyjuan Brown are still working to the side with trainers. Jonathan Mendoza and Renato Brown are still actively participating in positional drills, but aren’t get much run in the full blown 11-on-11 periods. Benjamin Perry is still wearing what appears to be a hand cast on his right wrist and not participating much in scrimmage periods.

Like with the other practices, Louisville got a solid amount of special teams field goal work in before the start of positional drills. Brock Travelstead and Nick Keller are both still No. 1 and No. 2 here, but both had some slight issues pulling the ball to the left both in individual unit reps and full team reps. Travelstead was the more consistent of the two, and even practiced a well-executed fake FG rushing rep.

During this practice, I wanted to take a look at the quarterbacks during the positional drills. There was one drill where four footballs were lined up around 10 feet apart in a diamond on the turf with the QB inside the diamond, and they had to pick the ball up and get the throw off as fast as they could. Unsurprisingly, Tyler Shough looked the best here, as he has the quickest and snappiest release of the QB room, and is the most accurate. Deuce Adams and his lively arm action shined here as well.

There was also a roughly five-minute stretch where the quarterbacks practiced play action rollout passing on air. Considering he is the most mobile quarterback on Louisville’s roster, Pierce Clarkson’s throws during this drill were routinely on the money. The QBs also worked with the running backs on various handoffs and the wide receivers through the short area route tree to fine tune the timing between the position groups.

The extended positional period was then followed by a relatively long 1-on-1 period. This segment here set the tone for big plays being made on both side of the ball. Ja’Corey Brooks and Jadon Thompson both made several impressive grabs here, with Brooks and Quincy Riley battling tooth-and-nail and Thompson fighting through great coverage against Tahveon Nicholson. Caullin Lacy crossed up Benjamin Perry on a short in route, Jahlil McClain fought through tough press coverage to make a play, Antonio Meeks is starting to show off his route running, and JoJo Stone had a couple reps where he was starting to become a more viable downfield threat. Of course, the defense made plenty of plays too. M.J. Griffin had a pick agains Meeks, Corey Thornton had an interception, while Tayon Holloway stretched out and dove for one as well.

Onto the first 11-on-11 period. Like the practice earlier in the week, the first few minutes of the segment mixed in players from all over the depth chart, transitioned to 1’s vs. 1’s, 2’s vs. 2’s, etc. While the defensive front largely had success against the run in this segment, the running backs still had some great plays. Donald Chaney Jr. displayed some good vision and a solid stiff arm, Maurice Turner’s change of direction looked the best it has all camp, while Isaac Brown showcased his great short area explosiveness yet again. There was even a point where Jeff Brohm clearly and loudly cussed out a couple linebackers for being out of position vs. the run.

I noticed that there was a lot of quarterback scramble work during this particular 11-on-11, so of course, Clarkson shined. He was able to outrun and avoid a sack from Ashton Gillotte, and looked good on a couple runs right up the middle.

Some other notable reps in this period: Meeks was able to haul in a pass after it was tipped by a nearby corner (couldn’t see who), T.J. Quinn blew up Turner in pass protection on one of the first reps, Jaleel Skinner is starting to make plays after a slow start to camp, and Holloway showed good closing speed on a rollout from Adams.

After this period, there was a very brief team field goal kicking segment where Travelstead and Keller made both their kicks. Then it transitioned to a drill where the offense was with select member of the front seven, working on blocking schemes and play action reps on air (in essence).

During a special teams punt period, Cataurus Hicks, Riley and Thompson got the bulk of the reps as the punt returners. Brady Hodges also did a good job with coffin corner punts.

Then practice moved back into a 7-on-7 setting, and the offensive side of the ball dominated here. Chris Bell showed great concentration on an over-the-shoulder catch. Brooks is starting to show that he can make plays through contact and had a tough, physical catch, as well as a crisp comeback route from Clarkson. McClain got open deep and hauled in a beautiful pass from Harrison Bailey. Thompson got wide open in the middle of zone coverage for a catch, Lacy made a sliding snag breaking towards the ball, and Adams started to show a lot more consistency with his throws in terms of command.

Practice ended with a fairly long 11-on-11 period that was only briefly interrupted by a three-minute positional drill blitz. Outside of Adonijah Green and Izayah Cummings getting reps with the ones plus Tamarion McDonald and D’Angelo Hutchinson starting at safety, the depth chart was about par-for-the-course so far through camp.

Hicks made several plays here, showing a great stutter step move to get open on one rep, snagging a slant on an RPO for another, while benefitting on a great cross-body throw from Shough. Shough also shined here, delivering an absolute strike to Brooks early in the segment, and had an extremely impressive throw to Bell in double coverage while off his back foot. Chaney showed some good outside burst on a couple reps, Nicholson made a great read on an RPO rollout, Antonio Watts made a hard tackle on Nate Kurisky, Clarkson was able to outrun Gillotte again for a quick strike downfield, Adams found a wide open Isaac Brown up the seam, Xavier Porter started to get in on the action late, and Riley ended practice with a tip-drill pick.