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

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Fall camp is in full swing for the Louisville football program. The Cardinals are roughly a week into their preseason, with three practice sessions already in the books.

Their third practice, which took place on Friday, was the also open to both the fans and media. Like we were for open practice No. 1 and 2, Louisville Report was there for it all to watch the third open practice of fall ball.

Also: Notes and Observations from Louisville's Second Fall Camp Practice

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

With this practice session moving from the practice fields to L&N Stadium, it allowed me a better chance to get to watch the drills for the defensive position groups. So, I spent almost all of these periods watching the defense.
Specifically, I spent a lot of time watching the defensive line during their drill work. Whether they were working against the sled, on their timing off the line or on their footwork, Stephen Herron looked the best amongst this group overall with a good balance of strength and explosive. Some of the other usual suspects, such as Ashton Gillotte, Dezmond Tell and Jared Dawson, all stood out the most during this time.
During an offensive line vs. defensive line segment that took place before the first 11-on-11 period, Herron also looked great, and seemed to just bounce right off of offensive tackles and into the backfield. There was also a 1-on-1 OL/DL segment, and it was mainly dominated by the offensive guys. Lance Robinson, Trevonte Sylvester and John Paul Flores in particular stood out.
Before the full-blown 11-on-11 period, there was a brief segment that put the OL and running backs against the DL and linebackers that seemed to work on short yardage situations. Both sides saw success during this time. Isaac Guerendo has a nice play where he weaved right through the line while not sacrificing speed, and both Gillotte and Micah Carter had solid hits in the backfield.
Now onto the 11-on-11 periods. Overall for the day, while the offense won the first practice and the defense won the second, it seemed to be relatively even today.
Unlike the previous practice, the passing game seemed to be operating at a much high caliber, with multiple quarterbacks making plays to several different pass catchers. Within the first couple plays of both periods, walk-on tight end Josh Lifson had a big play through the air to really get things going.
After having to miss all of the spring and summer due to injury, today was the first practice in which Chris Bell really stood out. He was able to shed a tackle on a drag route early in the period, then made arguably the best play of fall camp so far when he channeled his inner Randy Moss and caught a long ball for a touchdown over Quincy Riley.
Other guys in the passing game made standout plays as well. Jimmy Calloway made an impressive grab on a comeback route, walk-on Elijah Downing put on the afterburners for a catch-and-run over the middle, while true freshmen Cataurus Hicks and William Fowles both hauled in long balls.
Of course, the defense still made plenty of plays during the afternoon. The front seven was swarming all afternoon, and limited what the running backs were able to do for most of the day. Guys like Gilotte, safeties Josh Minkins and D'Angelo Hutchinson and linebacker Jaylin Alderman made some of the more noteworthy stops in this area of the field.
The secondary had another productive day. Riley had a pair of pass breakups, one of which should have been an interceptions, while cornerback Jarvis Brownlee Jr., STAR Antonio Watts and safety Devin Neal did have picks.
An early depth chart note at QB: Obviously, Jack Plummer and Brock Domann are your starter and backup for the 2023 season. But something of note during day three of camp was that Pierce Clarkson took the majority of snaps with the third team.
Brady Hodges took the first-team reps at punter, and after booming several kicks, I'd be shocked if he wasn't the starter.

(Photo via University of Louisville Athletics)

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