Clev Lubin Ready to 'Play at a High Level' for Louisville

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - During his first two years as the head coach of the Louisville football program, Jeff Brohm has done a good job at navigating the transfer portal. Per On3's transfer portal class rankings, the Cardinals had the No. 2 class in the 2023 cycle, then had the top class in last year's cycle.

While UofL didn't land a top-2 portal class in the cycle leading up to the 2025 season, they still managed to snag a handful of impact guys - one of which was Clev Lubin. An edge rusher from Coastal Carolina, he was the Cardinals' top portal addition, ranked as the No. 28 transfer in all of college football, per On3's in-house rankings.

There's a reason he was so highly regarded and sought-after when he hit the portal. Not only was he the Chanticleers' top pass rusher, he was one of the top defenders in the Sun Belt. Lubin's 12.0 tackles for loss and 9.5 sacks not only led the team, but were fourth and third, respectively, in the conference. He also collected 44 total tackles (24 solo), three pass breakups, three forced fumbles and a fumble recovery for a touchdown.

Lubin could have gone anywhere in college football. But he chose Louisville in part because of what defensive line coach Mark Hagen has been able to do during his time with Brohm.

"The past few years, Coach Hagan, what he's been able to do with this group up front, constantly up there in the country with pressures," Lubin said during Louisville's annual Media Day. "I know losing Ashton Gillotte brings a lot of pressure on us to compete, but you gotta love those type of things. You gotta love be able to step up in big roles and play at a high level and compete, and show the world where you're capable of at all times."

It's a defensive front that, like Lubin said, does have a lot of new faces because of natural roster attrition. Gillotte was drafted in the third round of the 2025 NFL Draft by the Kansas city Chiefs, while others such as Ramon Puryear, Mason Reiger and Dezmond Tell either hit the portal or ran out of eligibility. While guys like Rene Konga, Jordan Guerad and A.J. Green are running back, Lubin was one of several defensive line that the Cardinals picked in the portal.

Of course, when making the jump from a Group of Five school to one in a power conference, naturally there comes a learning curve with the uptick in talent and competition. Instead of running from that, Lubin sought out the challenge of going toe-to-toe against and with better players.

"That's the reason I came here," he said. "I felt Louisville gave me a great opportunity to come compete at a high level, play against other great teams, and I know that's what we plan to do. With the guys we have, when you have success with D-line, when you have guys that are hungry and want a lot, you work better as a group. There's more success when you work better."

So far through spring ball and the first week of fall camp, he has not looked like someone who previously came from a G5 school, and has undoubtedly been making an impact.

"He's a nonstop guy," Hagen said. "He's like the Energizer Bunny out there, he's just full go all the time. When guys get lazy in parts of the game when the game drags, that's when he's going to beat his opponent and come up with big place for you. That's what I love about him."

It's not only been on the practice fields where Lubin has been making his mark. Between the influx of fresh faces on the defensive line and the returners who are stepping into a larger role from last season, therein lied the opportunity for someone to take a step forward as a leader. Lubin had taken up that responsibility, and is routinely holding guys up to a high standard of expectations.

"He's a very vocal guy in our room," Hagen said. "He will tell guys when they're not meeting the standard, and that's what I personally need. That's what we need, that's what Coach Brohm needs from a leadership standpoint, because coaches are always around, and I'm not going to be on the field with him. He does a really good job. Those other guys do a good job, but they all kind of accept those leadership roles in their own way. Clev is, again, nonstop all the time, and he does a good job communicating with the guys."

The heightened standard by Lubin, both on the field and off of it, comes despite the fact that there could be a chance that he doesn't even start game one. Throughout most of spring ball, it was actually Green who got the overwhelming majority of the first team reps at LEO - which is Lubin's natural position. He's gotten a lot more first team reps in fall camp, but Green is right there battling neck-and-neck with him.

For a player of Lubin's talent, just the possibility of not being a starter could potentially begin to plant seeds of doubt, or even give the impression that giving it your all in practice is not worth the work. However, he's had the exact opposite mindset. Instead, Lubin wants to lift up both himself and the players he's competing against for first team reps, in hope of making the overall defensive line better.

"The competition is really good," Green said of his back-and-forth competition with Lubin. "Just two good players making each other better. We have a different style of rush, different kind of game, so being able to try and figure out how can we help one another be our best, really. Giving pointers and things he sees that I could get better on, things I see that he can get better on. It's just being able to accept the criticism, and use it to get better. We're just competing and trying to raise each other's level of play."

Part of this mindset comes from the fact that, for the first time in his collegiate career, Lubin has the chance to play for a team that has lofty preseason expectations. The Suffern, N.Y. native actually started his career at Army, redshirting his true freshman campaign in 2022 before transferring to Iowa Western for the 2023 season. While he did help Iowa Western win the NJCAA D1 National Championship that season, the weight of expectations is a lot different at the power conference level than it is for a JUCO school.

For Lubin, those expectations of competing for an ACC Championship (and potentially beyond) elicit feeling of excitement instead of anxiety.

"For me, I've been in a lot of different places, so this feels a little different," he said. "Definitely a little bit more excitement when it comes to this year, looking at what we have as a group, and the success this program has had in the past few years. We got a lot of weight on our shoulders, and a lot of people expecting us to do big things. At the end of the day, like we're proud of this group, we're a close-knit group. We enjoy each other's company, and I feel like that goes a long way when it comes to playing college football."

Sure, Louisville might not be the preseason pick to win the conference, and they are merely viewed as a dark horse to make the College Football Playoff instead of someone who is expected to make it. But Lubin loves what he is seeing out of the Cardinals on both sides of the ball, and not only has lofty expectations for himself, but for the team as well.

"I'm excited," he said. "I think we have a lot of great pieces on both sides of the ball. I think we're really gelling together as a D-line. I could vouch for that unit. I feel like the pieces that we have, always come in ready to compete, ready to help each other get better, I feel like we're ready to play at a high level this year."

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