Louisville Football's Biggest Post-Spring Transfer Portal Needs

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - As quickly as it began, spring practice for the Louisville football program is now in the rear view mirror. The Cardinals capped off their set of 15 spring practices with their annual spring game this past Friday, the first under new head coach Jeff Brohm.

The program has a few weeks off before reconvening for summer conditioning, but in the interim, Brohm and the rest of his coaching staff has a more immediate task on their hands: filling out the remaining roster spots through the transfer portal.

Louisville has done a good job at replacing departing talent via both the portal and high school ranks, but there is still work to be done. As of this writing, the Cardinals sport a roster with 79 scholarship players, which is six spots short of the 85-man scholarship limit.

There's also a chance that more players could enter the portal. The current spring transfer portal window, which opened back on Apr. 15, doesn't close until Apr. 30. Heading into this week, Brohm and his staff will have individual player meetings, and the prospect of entering the portal could come up.

"That'll be on the deck at the beginning of the week, for sure, before a lot of our (coaches) hit the road recruiting," Brohm said. "Football is competitive, and you got to tell them where they stand. Sometimes that's good news and they feel pretty good about moving forward. Other times, maybe it's some things they don't want to hear. But you have to be honest and assess your football team, and try to find ways to improve and help guys get on the field. Whether it be here or even somewhere else."

So what type of players should Louisville look for in the portal? Here are their three biggest team needs following spring ball and heading into the summer months:

Offensive Line

As far as losing talent goes, no position on Louisville's roster was impacted quite like the offensive line. Starters Caleb Chandler, Trevor Reid and Adonis Boone all graduated and are now preparing for careers in the NFL, while another projected starter in Luke Kandra transferred to Cincinnati.

The offensive line isn't completely devoid of talent. In fact, the first team offensive line is pretty good. Three of Louisville's four-highest graded linemen (according to Pro Football Focus), in Bryan Hudson, Renato Brown and Michael Gonzalez are back. Virginia transfer John Paul Flores and Duquesne transfer Vincent Lumia should help bolster this unit as well.

But the problem with the offensive line is that, behind the first team, there is not a ton of depth. The second and third team consists almost exclusively of true freshmen like Madden Sanker, Luke Burgess and Joe Crocker; or those with very little in-game experience such as Joshua Black, Austin Collins or Izaiah Reed.

Whether it was the open practices or the spring game, you could tell whenever the first team offensive line wasn't in the game. Even Jeff Brohm said in the press conference after the spring game that Louisville simply needs to boost their numbers on the line.

"We're concerned about the depth in our offensive line," he said. "We need, actually, more bodies first at that position. Then we just got some young, green guys that haven't played a whole lot. So they've got to get better fast. We've got to utilize these next three months to them ready for fall camp. At the same time, if there's someone out there with experience, that's played a lot of football, we have to entertain that aspect."

Inside Linebacker

Much like the offensive line, the inside linebacker spot for the Cardinals saw a large influx of talent and production depart the program. MoMo Sanogo graduated and is off the NFL, Monty Montgomery surprisingly transferred to Ole Miss, and projected starter Dorian Jones followed Satterfield to Cincinnati.

The STAR position in the new 4-2-5 defensive system seems to be in a good spot with starter Benjamin Perry coming back, and both Miami transfer Gilbert Frierson and converted safety Antonio Watts making great strides in the spring.

That's not to say that the four returning true inside linebackers - K.J. Cloyd, T.J. Quinn, Jaylin Alderman and Jackson Hamilton - haven't made great strides in the spring. Quinn was the spring game defensive MVP, Cloyd has looked solid and Hamilton took reps with the ones at times.

However, there just isn't a lot of returning production here, with this quartet combining for just 37 tackles and half of a tackle for loss last season. True freshman and high four-star prospect Stanquan Clark could very well see the field sooner rather than later, but this position needs at least one starter-caliber insider backer.

Tight End

Over the last few years, tight end has been an underrated aspect of Louisville's offense. With the glaring exception of Marshon Ford, the position had been mainly used as blockers in Satterfield's run-heavy scheme, which contributed to the Cardinals being one of the top rushing programs under his tenure.

But now, Louisville is shifting to a pass-heavy attack where the tight end is expected to play a large role. The only problem here is that Ford, who had been the regular receiving tight end in the previous system for several years, is now off to the NFL.

Louisville does bring back some familiar names at tight end, such as Francis Sherman, Duane Martin, Dez Melton and Nate Kurisky; plus walk-ons Josh Lifson and Gage Reale. However, this group just doesn't have the pass catching experience. Last season, they collectively caught just six passes for 63 yards and two scores.

They have made strides when it comes to actually catching the ball in the spring, particularly Lifson and Sherman, and true freshman Jamari Johnson could very well contend for the starting role by season's end. However, with how important the tight end is in this scheme (see: Payne Durham), Louisville needs a tight end with extensive experience in a pass-heavy offense.

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

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