Louisville Barely Cracks Top-50 of 2025 247Sports Talent Composite

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - As any well-versed college football fan will tell you, recruiting is the lifeblood of a program. Being able to recruit blue chip talent is just as important, if not more, as having the right X's and O's coach in place when it comes to your championship potential.

When it comes to analyzing who the most talented teams in college football are, the 247Sports Talent Composite - which was updated for the 2025 season on Tuesday - does a great job in this regard. It's a metric that examines and ranks every FBS team based on how their players were rated in high school.

While Louisville isn't traditionally known as a magnet for blue chip high school football talent, they have done a good job of bringing in productive players at pockets during their history. Head coach Jeff Brohm brought in a top-two transfer portal class over his first two years at the helm, and currently has the No. 33 recruiting class in the 2026 cycle.

So where do the Cardinals stand in the 247Sports Talent Composite ahead of the 2025 season? As it turns out, not very high when compared to the expectations for the team.

According to the metric, Louisville has the 50th-most talented team in college football, and the 12th-most talented team in the ACC. Alabama, Georgia, Ohio State, Texas and Oregon round out the top five nationally; while Clemson, Miami and Florida State are the top three in the ACC.

But while there are plenty of teams in front of Louisville both nationally and in the conference, that does not rule out the possibility of a special season. In fact, there in plenty of precedent suggesting the opposite.

Louisville was the fifth-most talented team in the ACC and No. 28 overall in the 2023, before going 10-4 and making an appearance in the ACC Championship Game. Last season, they were No. 36 overall and No. 6 in the ACC, and still finished the year at 9-4.

Even the Associated Press Top 25 Poll had some Talent Composite outliers. 11 teams that had a top-25 team in terms of the composite finished the year unranked in the AP Top 25, whereas six teams with a Talent Composite outside the top-50 did finish ranked - including Army, which was dead last.

It's the same story with the now 12-team College Football Playoff. Arizona State (30th), Indiana (57th) and Boise State (76th) all had teams that were not among the 25 most talented teams in college football last season, but still made the CFP.

Part of this is because the Talent Composite doesn't take into account talent development as a whole, or transfer portal ratings. Some of the top transfers in any given recruiting cycle were not heralded prospects coming out of college.

When looking at Louisville's schedule, three of their opponents rank inside the top-25: Clemson at No. 7, Miami at No. 15 and SMU at No. 25. Six are inside the top-40, and all nine of their power conference opponents are inside the top-70.

The Cardinals will kick off the 2025 season against Eastern Kentucky at L&N Stadium on Saturday, Aug. 30.

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