Notes and Observations from Louisville's Fifth Open Fall Camp Practice

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Fall camp for the Louisville football program is rapidly progressing. The Cardinals have recently kicked off the second week of their first preseason under head coach Jeff Brohm, with five practice sessions already in the books.

Their fifth practice, which took place on Monday, was once again open to both the fans and media. Like we were for the first four open practices, Louisville Report was there for it all to watch the fifth open practice of fall ball.

Previous Open Practice Notebooks: Practice One, Practice Two, Practice Three, Practice Four

Below is our notebook of the more notable happenings that transpired during the morning:

With practice shifting back to L&N Stadium, I spent the individual drill periods watching exclusively the defensive positions, and mainly the linebackers and safeties.
The linebackers spent a lot time working on their burst and ability to reach and react to plays around the line of scrimmage. As you can imagine, the two projected starters at inside linebacker in T.J. Quinn and Keith Brown stood out the most, but true Stanquan Clark did as well.
As for the safeties, they ran drills that tested their ability to recognize and react to plays while back pedaling in zone coverage. M.J. Griffin, Benjamin Perry and Cam'Ron Kelly all seemed like they were gliding through the zone thanks to their athleticism and instincts.
I did happen to catch some of the defensive line drills, too. Someone who is starting to impress me both in drills and in 11-on-11's is Ramon Puryear. Now a defensive tackle instead of a true edge rusher, both his first strike and burst are much better than this time last year. He could push either Dezmond Tell or Jared Dawson for significant time in the middle of the line.
Before the first 11-on-11 period, Louisville split the practice into two segments: DBs vs. WRs and RBs, plus QBs and OL vs. DL and LBs. I watched the latter segment. While guys like Keith Brown and Gilbert Frierson did have moments where they were able to shoot the gap, the offensive line was largely the successful unit in this drill. It wasn't for a lack of trying by the defensive guys, as the competition was HIGH during this drill. In fact, Frierson and Madden Sanker briefly threw some shoves and slaps before being separated. Now it's officially fall camp.
Onto the first 11-on-11 segment. Here, the offense looked to be clicking early. Jawhar Jordan continues to look comfortable in his transition to a scheme where he will be running mainly in between the tackles, but of note, Louisville cycled in the running backs regularly for the whole practice. Also, there seemed to be a big emphasis on QB power plays throughout the practice.
The Jack Plummer-to-Jamari Thrash connection continues to get better with each passing day, as the duo connected on a beautiful deep inside post early in the segment.
After a while, the defense started gaining some momentum. The line started collapsing the pocket with more frequency, Trey Franklin had a great pass breakup in tight coverage against Thrash, and had this been a live game, Storm Duck would have put on a Reggie Bush/Sheldon Brown type of hit on this running back (couldn't tell who) catching a pass in the flats.
After the first 11-on-11 period, they shifted to a split 11-on-11 that was set up on each end of the field, appearing to focus on work in the red zone or around that area. For the one I was watching, there was a lot of work inside zone runs, but they did throw it a lot as well, although Pierce Clarkson and Harrison Bailey were a bit offline at times. The two plays I did catch on the other side was this deep catch up the seam from Jordan, and a tunnel screen to Thrash.
Shifting to a 7-on-7 period, this emphasis on working in the red zone continued. Franklin had another PBU, Marquis Groves-Killebrew had one as well after a bit of a slow start to camp, and M.J Griffin secured an interception. That being said, the offense won a fair amount of reps as well. Thrash and walk-on wide receiver Jatavian Churchill both had touchdowns, Thrash nearly had another score on a post route that ended at the one-yard line, and Ahmari Huggins-Bruce found the hole in the zone for a nice grab over the middle.
I only have a few notes for the final 11-on-11 period of the practice. Both Jimmy Calloway and Cataurus Hicks made some good plays during this segment. Calloway put on a Dante Hall-esque juke on an out route, then later caught a ball in the corner of the endzone over Quincy Riley. Hicks made an impressive leaping snag from Bailey that he was able to high point.

(Photo of Jack Plummer via University of Louisville Athletics)

You can follow Louisville Report for future coverage by liking us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram:

Facebook - @LouisvilleReport
Twitter - @UofLReport
Instagram - @louisville_report

You can also follow Deputy Editor Matthew McGavic at @Matt_McGavic on Twitter