Louisville Excelling at Special Teams to Start 2025 Season

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - When discussing the Louisville football program's efforts up to this point of the season, usually that discussion will go one of two ways. Either it revolves around how their offense has not yet looked as prolific as it was expected, or it involves how the defense is off to an incredibly hot start.

But as any diehard fan of the sport will tell you, football is a three-phase game. It might sound like coach speak, but special teams plays just as important of a role as offense and defense does when it comes to determining who will win.

Fortunately for Louisville, their collective special teams unit - led by special teams coordinator Karl Maslowski - has gotten off to a very good start to the 2025 season.

“I think Coach Maslowski's done a good job," head coach Jeff Brohm said. We study the trends, what’s worked and what’s not. I think our kicking game has been consistent. Our kickers have kicked well. The adjustments we made to improve that has been beneficial, in protection-wise and getting the ball down, and being accurate. We put pressure on our kickers in practice everyday with pressure kicks, not just kicking it without pressure, but we’ll bring the whole team up and gassers or up-downs will be riding on their kicks. That’s important to do that, so we’ve been consistent there. Our kickers have worked hard. We’re able to kick the ball to the end zone, which is very effective.

As you can gather from Brohm's comments, Louisville has done very well when it comes to kicking the ball, whether that be for field goals or on punts.

With placekicking, the Cardinals have not one, but two viable options in Cooper Ranvier and Nick Keller, and are utilizing them in a platoon system based on the length of the kick.

So far, Ranvier has been their go-to kicker for point-after tries and field goal attempts that are from a reasonable distance. The 6-foot-2, 200-pound redshirt freshman is perfect so far this season, going 9-for-9 on PATs and 6-for-6 on field goals, including drilling three in the the game against Bowling Green. In fact, he's the first player in program history to connect on the first six field goal attempts of his career.

But Keller has a role on this team as well. He's only attempted one field goal so far this season, also coming in the BGSU game, but he made it count. The 6-foot-1, 200-pound redshirt junior connected from 57 yards out, setting the program record for longest made field goal. Keller and Ranvier became the first pair of UofL kickers to make field goals in the same game since Ron Bell and Klaus Wilmsmeyer did it against Syracuse back on Dec. 2, 1989.

While roles seem to already be set in stone, Maslowski says that's far from the truth, and the two continue to duke it out for reps in the week of practice. Some might see it as an issue that you don't have one do-it-all kicker, but Maslowski likes that he has options.

"We have the competition during the week," he said. "Cooper's been super consistent. I think he's got the best start in school history, right? He's been super consistent, and I think one of the things we tried to do early on is keep them shorter, so he can get confidence. Then you got Nick for the longer field goals. I don't know how much longer that can hold out, but it's not a problem for me."

As far as punting goes, it's a smaller sample size, but there is promise there with Carter Schwartz. He got just one punt off against Eastern Kentucky, going for 43 yards, then David Chapeau got the opportunity at punter against James Madison.

But after Chapeau's five punts averaged just 27.6 yards, Schwartz got the nod against Bowling Green. He punted twice, with one going for just 40 yards, but the other good for 61 yards. Sporting an average of 48.0 yards per punt, this would be good for seventh in the nation if it qualified nationally.

Of course, special teams isn't just kicking and punting. The hidden yardage that can be picked up on kick and punt returns can either be a massive advantage or a huge detriment, depending on how the returner is defended.

As far as defending opposing returners, Louisville does have some work to do. Their 18.14 yards per kickoff return allowed ranks 54th in the FBS, while their 9.00 yards per punt return allowed is just 87th nationally.

However, Louisville makes up for that by being excellent when it comes to returning their own kicks and punts. The Cardinals are third nationally in yards per punt return, as well as seventh in yards per kickoff return at 35.60.

Louisville has excelled in the return department almost solely thanks to the efforts of Caullin Lacy. Already a prolific slot receiver with 14 receptions for 171 yards so far this season, the 5-foot-10, 190-pound pass catcher's explosiveness and vision has boded extremely well as a returner.

On kickoffs, Lacy has taken four kicks out for 113 yards, earning a 28.3 yard average - which ranks 20th in the FBS. Punt returning is where Lacy really shines, amassing 231 yards - which is third nationally - and reaching the end zone twice on just seven returns.

Put it all together, and Lacy has 512 all-purpose yards through just three games. His 170.7 all-purpose yards per game is third in the nation, behind only UTSA's Robert Henry Jr. (180.0) and Washington's Jonah Coleman (174.3).

"He sees it different," Maslowski said of Lacy. "When we go in practice, defense is in red and offense is white, and when we go special teams, it's a mix (of jerseys). Somehow, when we do the drill work, he is able to differentiate who's on the return team and who's on the cover team, and find his way through. His vision, I've never seen anything like it. He's really, really talented, and it's been awesome.

"He's got a great attitude about it. The game was starting to get out of hand, and he goes, 'I just want one more,' and I'm like, 'No, you're done.' It's been awesome. The kids love blocking for him, too. ... He's dangerous back there."

Whether it's actual act of kicking the ball, returning a kicked or punted ball, or defending a returner, Louisville has demonstrated that they can operate at a high level.

"We’ve got, to this point, a very accurate extra point and field goal kicker (Cooper Ranvier), and then we have Nick [Keller] who can kick a long way," Brohm said. "It’s just a little bit flatter, but he can kick a long way which he showed in the game. Then I think with Caullin [Lacy] in the return game, we have a dangerous weapon, and we blocked well. So those have been plusses. Just like with our defense and overall, we’re going to face some teams just like this that have talent, and are well coached. and we’ll see how good we can continue to be. But I think we’re off to a good start.”

Louisville will be back in action this weekend, traveling to the Steel City to face Pitt in their ACC opener. Kickoff between the Cardinals and Panthers is set for Saturday, Sept. 27 at 12:00 p.m. EST.

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