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

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The 2025 season for the Louisville football program is getting ever so closer to kicking off. The Cardinals are now over a week into their preseason, with six fall camp practice sessions now in the books.

Their sixth practice, which took place on Thursday, was once again open to both the fans and media. Like we were for the first five practices, Louisville Cardinals On SI 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, Practice Five

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

As per the usual, the special teamers got in some work prior to team-wide warmups. Cooper Ranvier displayed a very good mix of power and accuracy from around the 40-yard line, but Nick Keller was right behind them here as well.
I wanted to watch the defensive backs at some point during the open practices, but with the way that the individual positions are arranged on the practice fields, it's close to impossible. So for this practice, during individual periods, I chose to watch the wide receivers again. Mainly, I wanted to see how Chris Bell looked after getting in a car accident earlier in the week. Fortunately, he was 100 percent fine, and looked as good as ever throughout this practice. Additionally, Antonio Meeks continues to make significant progress as a route runner, Brock Coffman looked smooth in various drills, and TreyShun Hurry's foot speed on a stutter and go really stood out to me. Dacari Collins continues to move well for his size, but overall isn't quite the open field runner that guys like Bell, Hurry, Meeks and Caullin Lacy are.
Up next was a short 1-on-1 period, and like I have seen throughout camp when it came to this drill, there was good work on both sides of the ball. Jaleel Skinner snagged a ball over Stanquan Clark, while Bell and Bobby Golden had catches that required some upper-level body control. Then on the other side, Rae'mon Mosby showed consistently good recovery speed, JoJo Evans was a pest on every rep, and Tayon Holloway started to get some more reps with the first team.
Then practice transitioned to a period that put the offensive line/tight ends/running backs against the defensive line/linebackers for a red zone team period. As we've seen several times in practice, the offensive line has continuously shifted guys around, and today was no different. Today's first team O-line, from left to right, was: Makylan Pounders, Lance Robinson, Pete Nygra, Rasheed Miller and Mahamana Moussa. Like with the period before, there were great showings from both the offensive and defensive players. Isaac Brown displayed the kind of burst you see on Sundays, Keyjuan Brown had a rep that fully showcased his patience as a runner, while Shaun Boykins Jr. continues to make progress in his transition to running back. Conversely, Jerry Lawson had back-to-back tackles for loss, T.J. Quinn had one as well, and Cameron White had an impressive stop for a short gain. There was also a fumbled snap exchange from Mason Mims.
After this period was a very long 11-on-11 segment. A couple depth chart notes: T.J. Capers, Micah Carter and Tayon Holloway all got some of the initial first team reps, and have slowly been getting more ingrained with the defense. On the other side, while I do think Skinner becomes the starting tight end at this point, Nate Kurisky and Jacob Stewart were all cycled with the ones here as well.
A couple tangents before highlighting the reps from this segment. Nigel Williams went down early with what was a knee injury, and was down for a few minutes. Fortunately, it looked worse than it actually was, and he was back in with team during the next 7-on-7 period. Also, both Jeff Brohm and Ron English went off on their respective units at some point during this period.
During this period, Duke Watson was who shined the most, in my opinion. He escaped a tackle from Stanquan Clark on one rep, took a swing pass for a first down and then some on another, and had a nasty one-cut to hit the hole for what would have been a TD. Of course, other offensive players stood out, too. Miller Moss (who had a bounce back day after an up-and-down practice on Tuesday) hit Jaedon King on the money on a deep out route, Braxton Jennings continued to flash long term potential with his shiftiness, Deuce Adams did well on a designed draws while Brady Allen pulled back-to-back read options at one point. Defensively, there wasn't as many notable plays made, but Justin Beadles did have a would-be sack, D'Angelo Hutchinson showcased some good closing speed, the overall screen game was held mostly in check.
There was a brief moment where the team gathered around the placekickers to hype them up on kicks. Of the three attempts, only one was made (I'm assuming it was Ranvier since it had a lot more juice behind it than the other two).
Then the team gathered to continue the 11-on-11, but it had a two-minute drill twist on it. Here, the defense was able to have a much better showing. Stanquan Clark and Jabari Mack both has PBUs against Chris Bell, with the latter also snagging an interception thanks in part to a pressure from Denzel Lowry. Micah Carter had back-to-back big hits, and Justin Beadles had a TFL on an option keeper. There were a couple notable plays by the offense, mainly a great top tap catch from Caullin Lacy and big gain by Skinner from a catch in the flats.
After this was a much shorter 7-on-7 period, and both sides made some incredible plays. Allen uncorked a bomb to Bell in stride, T.J. McWilliams made an incredibly tough catch through contact, and Skinner barely got his feet down for a corner catch in the end zone. Then on the defense, Rodney Johnson made a leaping PBU to deny a touchdown, Tayon Holloway forced a fumble, while Daeh McCullough swooped in to break up a pass with a hard hit.
There was then a brief punt/block drill following the 7-on-7. While there were a few good kicks, this was not a banner day for the punters overall. Then at returner, Lacy, Collins, Golden, Meeks and Antonio Harris all took part here.
On the next 11-on-11 segment, while the offense stood out early - with highlights being Moss navigating a collapsing pocket to kind Skinner, and Watson exploding on an outside zone - the defense won this period over. Corey Gorden Jr. snagged a pick, A.J. Green blew up a fake bootleg, Evans laid the wood on Boykins in the gap, and Denzel Lowry batted down a pass at the line of scrimmage.
There was also another individuals period and a final 11-on-11 segment, but to be honest, I skipped this because it was so hot outside.

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