Louisville Football's 2021 Final Position Group Grades
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The 2021 season is now officially in the books for the Louisville football program, so it's time to update their position group report card for the final time.
As many know, it was far from a perfect season. Louisville ended the season at 6-7, including a 31-28 loss in the First Responder Bowl to Air Force. Some position groups met or exceeded expectations, while others left some to be desired.
Louisville Report offered an analysis back during the Cardinals' bye week at the midway point of the season, and we've reassessed the team's performance and our previous grades to offer a look at what went right and what went wrong:
Quarterback
Midseason Grade: A-
Final Grade: A
Man, Malik Cunningham was *this* to making college football history. By the end of the season, he finished with 20 rushing touchdowns - which is currently good for 3rd in FBS - and 19 passing touchdowns, falling just short of cracking the exclusive 20/20 club. He was the unquestionable MVP for the Cardinals, averaging 305.5 yards of offense per game, which comes in at 15th nationally. The one thing holding him back from an A+ was his occasional propensity to overthrow wide open receivers in the worst possible moments.
Running Back
Midseason Grade: B
Final Grade: B
Now matter who was the ballcarrier, Louisville seemed to get really good production out of them. Feature back Jalen Mitchell finished the year with 722 yards and 4.7 yards per carry, true freshman Trevion Cooley and his 5.0 YPC was phenomenal as the primary backup and looks to have an incredibly bright future, and Jawhar Jordan even had his moments in the bowl. Though it is a shame that Hassan Hall couldn't use his big performance against Virginia to get back on track, eventually entering the transfer portal soon after
Wide Receiver
Midseason Grade: C+
Final Grade: C-
While some receivers took significant strides in the second half of the season, others went in the opposite direction. Speed threat Tyler Harrell and true freshman Ahmari Huggins-Bruce became much more comfortable in the system, combining for 10 touchdowns, while Jordan Watkins continued to be a great option on third down. On the other side of that coin, Justin Marshall didn't have the breakout year many were anticipating, Josh Johnson completely fell off down the stretch, and Shai Werts contributed next to nothing.
Tight End
Midseason Grade: B-
Final Grade: B
Go ahead and call this the "Marshon Ford" position. The redshirt sophomore wound up leading the Cardinals in receiving yards with 550, and became more consistent down the stretch than he had in the first few games. Outside of him, four other tight ends combined to haul in just 122 yards. But to be fair, Louisville's offensive system primarily relies on the blocking out of their tight ends and H-backs, which they did very well.
Offensive Line
Midseason Grade: B
Final Grade: A
Talk about finishing strong. The Louisville offensive line overcame a relatively slow start to become arguably the best collective position group on the roster. The Cardinals finished 26th in sacks allowed (1.54), 34th in TFL's allowed (4.77), and paved the way for a top 25 rushing offense at 209,8 yards per game. Guard Caleb Chandler received First-Team All-ACC honors, center Cole Bentley was Third-Team. Tackles Trevor Reid and Renato Brown rallied after slo starts, and backups Bryan Hudson and Michael Gonzalez also have bright futures.
Defensive Line
Midseason Grade: D+
Final Grade: D
Even after the coaching staff stopped utilizing a constant three-man rush, that didn't necessarily translate into an increase of production on the defensive line. True freshman Ashton Gillotte (8.0 TFL, 4.0 sacks) looks like a star in the making and Tabarius Peterson (5.0 TFL, 3.0 sacks) had a solid swan song, but they were really the only noteworthy players in the group. YaYa Diaby fell well short of his 10-sack goal, putting up just 3.0, while Louisville continued to get little to no disruption out of the nose tackle spot. In fact, the defensive line was responsible for only 26.0 of Louisville's 87.5 tackles for loss, and 14.5 of their 35.0 sacks.
Inside Linebacker
Midseason Grade: C
Final Grade: B-
This position rebounded nicely since the midway point of the year. C.J. Avery played much better in the second half of the year, once again leading the Cardinals in tackles for the third year in a row with a career-high 97. It took a couple games to sort things out at the other ILB spot following the injury to Monty Montgomery, but Dorian Jones made the best of a bad situation, tallying 4.8 as a redshirt freshman. Guys like Jaylin Alderman and K.J. Cloyd played sparingly in the second half of the year, and Nick Okeke's transition to MLB didn't plan out as expected.
Outside Linebacker
Midseason Grade: B-
Final Grade: A-
Another phenomenal group of players. Yasir Abdullah finished the year with 16.5 TFL's and 10.0 sacks, being named a Second-Team All-ACC selection. Converted safety Jack Fagot thrived at CARD, tying with Abdullah for fourth-most tackles at 60.0, while also tallying 6.5 TFL's and 2.0 sacks of his own. Marvin Dallas came on strong down the stretch, using his play on special teams to carve out a role on the two-deep behind Abdullah.
Secondary
Midseason Grade: D-
Final Grade: D
While, by definition, there was improvement in the secondary in the second half of the season, when you have the 94th-ranked pass defense in the nation, you're still going to get a bad grade. Of course, Kei'Trel Clark's injury did impact this a bit, and most defensive backs on the roster looked good in spurts, but the sum is greater that its parts.
(Photo of Louisville players: Matt Stone - Louisville Courier Journal via Imagn Content Services, LLC)
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