Bryan Brown Confident in Louisville's Defense Heading Into New Season
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - It's no secret that ever since Scott Satterfield took over as the head coach, the Louisville football program has been an offensive-minded team. In all three years under his watch, the Cardinals have posted an offense that ranks in the top-25 in terms of yardage, and have the pieces to be able to do so for a fourth-straight year.
But on the other side of the line of scrimmage, Louisville has been slowly taking the necessary steps to become a potentially elite defense. Heading into year four of the Satterfield era, and year four under defensive coordinator Bryan Brown, the Cardinals feel good about the product they can put together on defense.
"This is the most confident I've been, and I think it's the most confident this group has been defensively, that they can go out and execute and compete at a high level," defensive coordinator Bryan Brown said. "They feel like, 'hey, we deserve to be on the same playing field as everybody else.' This is the most exciting, as well as confident that we've felt since we've been here."
It hasn't been an easy road to get where they are now. Satterfield and Brown inherited a defense that was one of the worst in college football, giving up 44.1 points and 483.5 yards per game in 2018. But two years later, the defense looked markedly different, only allowing 26.6 points and 369.1 yards per game in 2020, both of which ranked in the top 50 that year.
"Coming here, we knew was gonna be a challenge defensively to to build this defense into what we wanted it to look like," Brown said. "We knew it wasn't going to be an overnight success. We knew that we had to take our bumps and bruises down the road, but we knew at the end that we were going to have what we need defensively.
However, that side of the ball did experience some regression in 2021. Louisville allowed 27.3 points and 402.3 yards per game last season, which was good for 77th and 84th in FBS. They were particularly poor in crucial situations, giving up the 16th-most first downs in FBS at 292, and posting 21st-worst red zone defensive percentage at 89.8 percent. It also didn't help that two of their top defensive players, cornerback Kei'Trel Clark and linebacker Monty Montgomery, both suffered season-ending injuries during the year.
"I think last year when you look at the overall, you're missing some key pieces," Brown said. "You're missing Kei'Trel Clark who was a Second-Team All-ACC player, you're missing one of the best playmakers in Monty Montgomery. Losing those two guys who are two leaders of the group, it hurts. It hurt us tremendously."
Over the offseason, Louisville made numerous strides to get better on defense. They hit the transfer portal hard, and landed high-impact playmakers at positions of need. Nose tackle Jermayne Lole, middle linebacker MoMo Sanogo, cornerback Jarvis Brownlee Jr. and Quincy Riley, and safeties M.J. Griffin and Nicario Harper are all transfer who cracked Louisville's two-deep against Syracuse.
It also helps to get several veterans back. On top of Clark and Montgomery, outside linebacker Yasir Abdullah is back, who had a tremendous year as pass rusher last season. Other guys like defensive ends YaYa Diaby and Ashton Gillotte, as well as safeties Josh Minkins and Kenderick Duncan are back, and will help contribute to the cause in one way or another.
Plus, a pair of support staff hires also greatly bolstered Louisville's defensive capabilities. The biggest one was when Satterfield opted to bring on former Florida secondaries coach Wesley McGriff as their co-defensive coordinator. His addition was intended to help Louisville become better in crucial game scenarios, which Brown says has been eye-opening.
"I think situational wise, he's seen a lot, and he's done a lot," Brown said at Louisville's Media Day last month. "He's already helped me from a play-calling standpoint of, 'hey, think about this in this situation,' or 'hey, think about that,' or 'I think you got to continue to do this in this situation, so keep doing what you're doing here.' He's done a tremendous job in helping me, and the staff and also the players. We're lucky to have 'ole Crime Dog with us."
Related: Bryan Brown, Wesley McGriff Collaborating to Advance Louisville's Defensive Scheme
An underrated addition to the staff that has helped both sides of the ball, and not just on defense, was the hiring of Ben Sowders as the new strength coach. Since he arrived on campus this past winter, Sowders has drawn rave reviews from both coaches and players alike, with many players seeing massive increases in both weight and strength.
Considering how close that, Brown says, Louisville's defense was to making many more big time plays, it will help them be much more aggressive. The advancements in both the pass rush and on the back end compliment each other, and theoretically, should result in much more production from the defense in 2022.
"The pass rush is indicative of coverage, and the coverage is indicative pass rush," he said. "I think with the guys we have within our building right now, you see some tighter coverage and tighter windows, even within our zone concepts. Now the quarterback has hold on to the football a little bit longer, and now your pass rush can get there.
"So many times last year that we may have been right there. I mean, it'd be a split second and it's a sack, or a sack-caused fumble. But now, the coverage can be a little bit tighter, and I think that's going to help us with our pass rush."
Louisville gets their upcoming season underway this weekend when they hit the road to face Syracuse. Brown is excited to show what his guys can do when it comes time for the ball to be kicked off at 8:00 p.m. EST on Saturday, Sept. 3.
"I think as an overall group, our guys want to come out and have fun, and be a great disciplined defense," he said. "They want to come out and show that we can be one of the best defenses in the country when we do things the right way. We've seen that so far so fall camp, and so we're ready to showcase for the world."
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