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

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Fall camp for the Louisville football program is quickly approaching the halfway point. The Cardinals are now a week deep into their first preseason under head coach Jeff Brohm, with four practice sessions already in the books.

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

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

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

Just like in the second practice, there was extensive work on special teams blocking alignments and assignment before both 11-on-11 periods. Coaches didn't spend at much time yelling at the players during this period as they did the first time, so it seems progress is being made here.
There was also a fair amount of kicking today prior to the start of individual drill periods. Brock Travelstead likely has the field goal kicker spot on lock, as he was the most accurate during the practice.
I went back to watching the quarterbacks and wide receivers during the individual position drills for this practice. The quarterbacks ran a couple mobility and read based drills, and the two that stood out the most in both drills were Jack Plummer and Pierce Clarkson, especially the latter (obviously). The receivers spent time fine tuning their route running, with Jamari Thrash and Kevin Coleman Jr., unsurprisingly, looking the most crisp. In a bit of a surprise, Chris Bell did very well here for his size, and even looked better than a few of the smaller and shiftier wideouts.
The first seven-on-seven period provided a glimpse of what to come for the rest of the practice. Clarkson looked very decisive and accurate with his throws, while Brady Allen didn't seem comfortable at all for this segment.
Outside of the backup quarterback play standing out during this period, several tight ends made some plays with Plummer and backup Brock Domann throwing to them. Jamari Johnson and Nate Kurisky had some early sideline catches.
A quick note for the brief one-on one segment. There was great competition across the board here. Guys like Bell, Johnson, Jamari Thrash and Duane Martin had impressive and difficult catches, while Derrick Edwards III, Trey Franklin and Storm Duck all had interceptions. Iron sharpens iron.
Now onto the 11-on-11 periods. This was the first practice of fall camp where Plummer looked "mortal," so to speak. He wasn't bad per see, but there were more throws that were a tad offline than we had seen in previous practices. It also didn't help that there were a handful of drops across the board sprinkled throughout camp. This even came during a practice where the offensive line seemed to be doing a good job in pass protection all afternoon.
Clarkson received a fair amount of reps with the twos and threes today, and it was his best practice to date. He was snappy with both he decision making and release, while consistently putting the ball where it needed to be. His best play actually came from using his legs, where he danced with Ashton Gillotte in the backfield before scrambling and finding Bell in the flats. He also doesn't have a problem going to his running back as a safety valve, which included a dart to Jawhar Jordan on a route across the midle.
Conversely, Allen continued to struggle. While he did start to find a bit of a rhythm towards the end of the second 11-on-11, a lot of his throws were either offline or into the arms of an opposing defender. This hasn't been something I've seen only in this practice, either. Something to keep track off heading into week two of practice.
Brock Domann didn't have that great of a practice to start out, either, but he settled in towards the end and delivered a couple beautiful deep balls. Of note, walk-on Harrison Bailey looked solid too, with Thrash and Cataurus Hicks being the recipient of some long sideline throws from him.
As you can imagine, there were a lot of defensive plays made during the afternoon. Defensive end Ashton Gillotte, no matter who you put in front of him, continues to look damn near unblockable. Defensive end Adonijah Green did a great job shooting the gap at times, getting a couple sacks in the process. Linebacker T.J. Quinn is continuing his hot start to camp, getting a PBU then a pick on back-to-back plays. Fellow starting linebacker Keith Brown is also starting to leave his mark on the front seven as well.
Last note: something I've seen in a couple periods now is that if an offensive lineman commits a false start, they are immediately cycled out for the person behind them on the depth chart. Good way to instill discipline.

(Photo via University of Louisville Athletics)

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