Comfortability and Camaraderie Fueling Louisville's Wide Receiver Room in Spring Ball

The position group for the Cardinals believes they're much farther along than they were this time last offseason.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - While the Louisville football program's offense in 2023 was mainly led by an efficient ground game, traditionally, head coach Jeff Brohm usually leans heavy on his team's ability to pass the ball. In his final two seasons leading Purdue, the Boilermakers had the No. 5 passing offense nationally in 2021, then the No. 17 passing offense in 2022.

It's not that Louisville had a bad passing attack in Brohm's first year at the helm, but it wasn't nearly as explosive as many expected it to be. There were four games where the Cardinals amassed over 300 passing yards, but they also had five games where they threw it for 151 yards or less. By season's end, they averaged 236.6 passing yards per game - the lowest total in Brohm's 10 years as a head coach.

Some of it has to do with quarterback Jack Plummer, and how inconsistent he was at times. Another reason was because the tight end room didn't have a truly viable option in the passing game. But another factor was that there wasn't a consistant go-to wide receiver outside of Jamari Thrash. There were instances where receivers other than Thrash stood out and had good games, but no one truly stepped up into that firm WR2 spot behind Thrash. This was evident down the stretch of the season when Thrash was limited by a wrist injury. In Louisville's final seven game, they passed for over 200 yards just three times.

Heading into the 2024 season and year two under Brohm, having the wide receiver room take a step forward is something that will be paramount to Louisville's overall success and their efforts to get back to the ACC Championship Game. During spring ball, the position group has been using their allotted practices to not only compete, but to continue to develop as players.

"We're not really trying to decide on a rotation now, we're just practicing, trying to learn, trying to develop fundamentally," wide receivers coach Garrick McGee said. "When we get to training camp, we'll start thinking about the personnel groupings, and how the rotations work. But right now, everybody's just trying to be a little bit better."

One big difference from last offseason is that, unlike this spring ball, there are players who actually know the offensive system. This time last year, whether you were staying through the coaching change or someone joining from the transfer portal or high school ranks, every receiver on the roster was starting over and learning a brand new scheme.

Comparatively speaking, according to McGee, the wide receiver position is much farther along now than it was this time last year. This is in no small part due to the fact that the returning guys in Chris Bell, Jadon Thompson, Jimmy Calloway, Cataurus Hicks and Jahlil McClain are much more comfortable in the system.

"Last year, everybody was new," Thompson said. "No one knew the offense. This time, we have me, Chris, Jimmy, we got some other guys in the room who know the offense and know exactly what's going on. It's kind of easier to play and help everybody else learn it, because last year was kind of hectic. Everybody was trying to learn to compete at the same time. I think that's a good thing about this program now. You could bring in new guys, and it's gonna be competitive, but we all want to see each other win as well."

Of course, the receiver room being farther along is also partially due to the level of talent they were able to bring in this offseason. Louisville welcomed three mid-year transfers at the position: Alabama's Ja'Corey Brooks, South Alabama's Caullin Lacy and Tuskegee's Antonio Meeks, with Brooks and Lacy are regarded as four-star transfers per On3. Joseph "JoJo" Stone also also joined this semester as a four-star prospect in the Class of 2024, with three-star in-state prospect Shaun Boykins Jr. set to join this summer.

So far up to this point in spring ball and the offseason as a whole, the returners at the position have done a good job meshing with the newcomers. In fact, the returners - regardless of the overall experience - have been using the opportunity to serve as leaders in the room and help guide the newcomers in their efforts to learn the system.

"They've done a really good job as a group of getting to know each other," McGee said. "They're embracing Ja'Corey (Brooks), Caullin (Lacy) and Antonio (Meeks). We got JoJo (Stone) here also that's new. They've done a really good job of embracing those guys, and teaching them the way, and the we go about our business in the meeting room. ... They're really on those guys about how we're going to act, and how we believe in doing things in our building.

Of course, there's been plenty of competition on a day-in and day-out basis during spring ball. But with the spring game just around the corner, McGee reiterates that their main goal at this point in time is just to continue learning the scheme and playing fast, and the real competition will come in the fall.

"We just want to get one day better," he said. "It's how our program's set up. Just want to get a little bit better today, and try to win the day. That's all we want to see. We want to see them take every practice serious, not get in a mode where we're winding down because they're going to start hearing a lot of 'in these last few days' type of questions. We don't want that. We just want you to go out every day and win the day."

Louisville's spring game is set for Friday, Apr. 19 at 7:00 p.m. EST at L&N Stadium.

(Photo of Caullin Lacy: Scott Utterback - Courier Journal / USA)

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