Louisville Football's Biggest Remaining Transfer Portal Needs

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Like every other college football program, Louisville was certainly been impacted by the transfer portal this offseason. During the two-week transfer window, which officially closed on Friday, the Cardinals had 24 scholarship players enter the portal, ranging from potential starters to strictly role players.

On the other side of that coin, head coach Jeff Brohm and his coaching staff has done an amazing job at bringing in talent via the portal. So far, 28 transfers have committed to Louisville, and many of them have the potential to be high-impact playmakers from day one.

With the portal window closed, and the deadline to declare for the 2026 NFL Draft being this past Wednesday, Louisville is starting to have some finality as to who they will actually have for the 2026 season. As of Jan. 17, the Cardinals are currently at a 79-man scholarship roster - six below the traditional 85-man limit. Although, as part of the House vs. NCAA settlement, the scholarship limit in football has been lifted to 105.

While the spring transfer portal window was eliminated, roster construction for next season is not quite over yet. Louisville still has several open spots on their roster, and the roster itself does have a few remaining needs that need to be addressed.

What type of players should Louisville look for in the portal? Here are their three biggest current roster needs:

Safety

For as well as Louisville has recruited the transfer portal up to this point, both in terms of addressing needs and securing impact players, this is the one area where the Cardinals still have some work to do.

Louisville is losing their starting safety duo in D'Angelo Hutchinson and JoJo Evans Jr. to graduation, and their third safety in the 2025 rotation, Corey Gordon Jr., has opted to transfer to Kansas. Plus depth piece Daeh McCullough is pout the door as well.

The Cardinals did land a massive piece on the back end in Iowa's Koen Entringer, and he figures to be a play maker from his strong safety spot. But the rest of the position still has questions. Ole Miss transfer Travaris Banks has upside but was hit-or-miss last season. Murray State transfer Dylan Rowsey was a prolific tackler with the Racers, but he is jumping up a level. Blake Ruffin is returning, but he hasn't seen a ton of run at this level, either. Not to mention that Micah Rice and Jordan Vann are true freshmen.

In order to compliment Entringer on the back end, Louisville is going to likely need one more safety out of the portal. You'd like them to have power conference production, as well.

Center

First of all, I want to give Louisville some credit - they've recruited portal offensive linemen extraordinarily well.

Boston College's Eryx Daugherty was one of the top interior linemen in the portal. Cason Henry was a starting tackle at South Carolina. Johnnie Brown III and Anwar O'Neal were upper tier Group of Five portal tackles from Georgia Southern and Delaware, respectively. Add in the fact that Lance Robinson is running it back, as is Naeer Jackson and breakout candidate Cameron Gorin, and the O-line is in a very strong spot.

There's just one problem - all of the aforementioned players have a combined zero snaps playing center at the college level. The only one who does is Sam Secrest, but he's played just 63 total snaps over three years in college. Asking him to make the jump to starter would be a lot.

Robinson did crosstrain some at center during spring ball and fall camp, but this is a difficult position to adjust to if you've never played it in-game. As well as the Cardinals look on the offensive line right now, they need at least one starting-caliber center to put a bow on it.

Cornerback

From a numbers perspective, Louisville is actually not in a bad spot at cornerback. The only issue is that there isn't a ton of consistent experience in this room, and that's with CB1 in Tayon Holloway returning.

Justin Agu looked just okay after transferring up from Louisiana last offseason. D.J. Waller has some upper tier potential, but the transfer from Kentucky has an injury history. Texas transfer Santana Wilson has high upside as a former blue chip recruit, but has minimal in-game reps through two seasons in college. Antonio Harris is coming off of a redshirt year. Jaydin Broadnax has extraordinary potential, but will be a true freshman.

Holloway has been a proven commodity for the last two seasons at Louisville, so you feel good about him being you go-to lockdown guy. But if the Cardinals are to feel good about their cornerback room as a whole, bringing in one bona fide starter opposite of Holloway would certainly bode them well.

Safety

Center

Cornerback

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