Louisville's Defense Preaching Aggression, Capitalizing on Depth

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - If you were to ask fans of the Louisville football program as to what they think the identity of the Cardinals will be for the upcoming 2023 season, most of them would likely have the same answer. Given the offensive capabilities of previous teams under now-head coach Jeff Brohm at previous stops, they would probably say Louisville will be an elite passing team that will light up the scoreboard and beat them with their offensive prowess.

Given Brohm's status as an offensive genius, it's fair to make this assessment. But of course, this only addresses one side of the ball. But what about the defense? What will their calling card be?

Over the course of fall camp, Brohm and his defensive staff have reiterated on several occasions that they want to play an aggressive style of defense that relies heavily on rotating players with frequency.

"I do want to be aggressive in how we play defense," Brohm said last week. "Challenge routes, get after the quarterback, makes sure he knows we're going to hit him and go from there, while trying to eliminate all the big plays. I think keeping some certain guys healthy on that side of the ball will be important."

Hanging your hat on being aggressive doesn't come as much of a surprise. The new 4-2-5 defensive system - which is co-operated by secondary coach Ron English and defensive line coach Mark Hagen - relies a lot on players winning one-on-one battles. More often than not, straight up strength and physicality will be the driving factor fueling these battles.

This aggressive mindset and play style starts with the guys in the front seven, and specifically with the defensive line. All throughout the offseason, the Hagen has preached this to his players, and not only is his seeing his guys operate with a streak of aggressiveness, he has had them maintain this standard all throughout camp - or else it'll be exposed in the film room.

"These guys will attest that that's what we preach," Hagen said. "When you talk about what you want to be, like for us up front, we want to be very aggressive. So we talked about attacking. I think to be a good, to above average, to great D-line, you got to be physical. Then we want to be relentless in how we play.

"We talk about those things, but it's got to show up on tape, right? Not just at the start of camp when everybody's raring to go. It's got to show up in the middle of camp and the late part of camp when things start to grind. We talked about just putting that on video and stacking days."

Of course, it will be hard to completely replicate the disruptiveness in the front seven that Louisville accomplished on defense last season. The Cardinals led the nation in sacks while coming in at seventh in tackles for loss, while Purdue was close to the end of the spectrum at 80th and 118th in these categories, respectively.

But, Louisville does have a perceived upgrade at defensive line when it comes to both starting caliber talent and overall depth than what Purdue had. It's unit that is headlined by players like Ashton Gillotte, Stephen Herron and Dezmond Tell; but guys like Ramon Puryear, Jeffery Clark, Popeye Williams and several others have shown this offseason that they can give the Cardinals minimal talent and production drop off when subbed in.

This depth is not only playing a perfect compliment to Louisville's heavy emphasis on rotation, it's in turn sparked a high amount of competition across the line.

"What's great with that competition that we have, if a guy doesn't want to do it, these guys will tell you that we'll put the next guy in," Hagen said. "As a coach, you love that competition. I think these guys are feeding off of each other, I think they all get along well, they play well together. We just got to stay on a path."

Over in the secondary, it's the same story. In fact, this area of the field is already experiencing first hand the importance of frequent rotation with starting safety M.J. Griffin now "probably" out for the entire upcoming season. Now, the players behind him will have to step up.

Fortunately, this approach in the secondary has already long been in play by English, who learned a long time ago the importance of keeping the starters fresh.

"I learned this from the SEC: The champions have players and they rotate. They play players," he said. "That allows you to play your best players on special teams, that allows you to be fresh in the fourth quarter, and it allows other guys to continue to try to get better. Plus, now in November and December, you still have guys who can perform without being fatigued."

The safety room for Louisville still has very capable players in Josh Minkins, Benjamin Perry, Cam'Ron Kelly and Devin Neal; while the cornerback position - despite losing Kei'Trel Clark - expects to get heavy contributions from Jarvis Brownlee, Quincy Riley, Storm Duck and others.

It's one thing to have depth, but the new system is also very friendly to defensive backs. In English's first season with Brohm in 2021, Purdue's passing defense ranked No. 33 in the FBS at 208.7 passing yards allowed per game. Last season through the Big Ten Championship game, the Boilermakers were 48th in passing defense at 213.8 passing yards allowed per game, but made up for it with 15 interceptions - the 14th-best mark in college football.

Maybe the best part about Louisville's desire to be aggressive is that it is not coming from forcing players to do something they are uncomfortable doing. English references last season when he was adamant on playing a lot of man defense due to him believing that would be their strength, then after Purdue's stunning loss to Iowa towards the end of the season, he threw that game plan out the window and began catering more so to the strengths of the players at their disposal.

"I'm gonna do whatever they do best, that's what we're going to do," he said. "You can be aggressive with a four-man rush to be honest with you. You don't have to five or six to be aggressive. You have to be aggressive in how you do things. But we're gonna do what's best for our personnel. That's what we're gonna do."

(Photo via Jared Anderson - Louisville Report)

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