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

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

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

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

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

Since I spent the first two days of practice checking out the offensive skill position groups, for the third practice, I spent most of the individual sessions watching the offensive line. During walkthroughs to start practice, Mahamane Moussa continued to take snaps at left tackle after Trevonte Sylvester did so on the first day. Otherwise, the rest of the starting offensive line was consistent with what it has been up to this point in camp: Lance Robinson (LG), Pete Nygra (C), Victor Cutler (RG) and Rasheed Miller (RT). Of note, Moussa, Carter Guillaume and Sam Secrest (on top of Nygra and Michael Flores) also got some walkthrough reps at center.
During the positionals segment, Guillaume and Jordan Church stood out the most during a drill that tested out their footwork - which considering both are guards, is a great thing. In the more traditional sled drill, Church, Guillaume, Moussa, Robinson, Naeer Jackson and Jimmy Williams III were all fairly consistently powerful with their strikes. In fact, Rasheed Miller even broke the sled.
I also peeked over at the tight end position while they were doing their blocking drills, and... it could have been better. Jacob Stewart and Grant Houser looked fine, Jaleel Skinner and Davon Mitchell were up-and-down here, and Nate Kurisky flat out struggled.
During this segment, I happened to catch Cooper Ranvier drill a field goal from around 50 yards out in a crosswind. Not bad.
After this, the offensive line, running backs and quarterbacks did a combined walkthrough where they practiced various play action concepts and shallow routes. This then turned into a team period between them and primarily the two's and three's in the front seven (although some ones were mixed in). Both Stanquan Clark and Caleb Matelau logged TFLs after shooting the gap, Secrest bodied Jerry Lawson a couple times in pass protection, walk-on running back Braxton Jennings got to showcase how shifty he can be, while Shaun Boykins Jr., had a couple noteworthy runs as well after taking contact.
Following another extended walkthrough, we got out first taste of 11-on-11 this fall. Here's some notes regarding the defensive depth chart: Jordan Guerad and Denzel Lowry were the starting inside lineman, Wesley Bailey and AJ Green got the edges (meaning Clev Lubin was still running with the twos), T.J. Quinn and Stanquan Clark were the inside linebackers with Antonio Watts at STAR, as expected, while Jabari Mack started alongside Rodney Johnson Jr. at corner, with JoJo Evans and D'Angelo Hutchinson on the back end at safety. Some other DT notes: Church stepped in at right guard with Cutler in a non-con jersey, Antonio Meeks is still WR3, recently-reinstated Tayon Holloway is second string with Rae'mon Mosby at CB, Nigel Williams appears to be Watts' backup at STAR, Brady Allen seems to still have a leg up on Deuce Adams as the backup QB, and Jennings got mixed in with the second and third team at times.
This was a relatively short 11-on-11, but both sides put on some good work. Chris Bell mossed Johnson, Caullin Lacy was incredibly shifty on a WR screen, and Brock Coffman made a couple solid plays as well. Defensively, Matelau continued to show really good closing speed, and Justin Beadles got what would have been a sack in a live rep. Of note, there was also a *very* noticeable drop off from the first team offensive line to the second team.
After the water break, Louisville got some more special teams work in. There was a drill specifically working on blocking gunners, punt blocks, and then of course, catching punts. In the latter, Isaac Brown, Lacy, Bell, Meeks, Bobby Golden and Duke Watson all got involved here.
Prior to the final 11-on-11 was another 7-on-7 period. Miller Moss delivered a strike to Skinner on a seam route, while Meeks caught an impressive diving catch from him. Adams got second team reps here, and unsurprisingly, he hd the most zip on his throws. Allen did look solid in her reps with the third team though.
Then for the final period, and 11-on-11 team segment, the offense was the clear winner here. Watson was very shifty after a catch out of the backfield. Brown (who understandably didn't get a ton of reps because he's the best player on the team) looks incredibly explosive on an outside zone run. Boykins had multiple runs where he was both shedding tackles and gliding through rushing lanes, which makes me think that he should make the permanent move to RB. Keyjuan Brown demonstrated some solid contact balance. Moss tossed an absolute strike to Hurry, who was able to complete the catch after a defender forced him to bobble it. Kris Hughes had a couple "wow" plays, one where he leaped to high point the football, and another being a sliding catch on an absolute bomb from Adams. The latter also seems to be getting more and more comfortable with Coffman, who made a couple grabs here. Also, they once again ran a play that had Lacy motion to the backfield to take a handoff up the middle.
That's not to say that the defense was completely lifeless. Mack stood out with a PBU, Lubin and Maurice Turner got TFLs, Micah Rice delivered a big hit and someone did force a fumble on Jennings. That being said, they very much lagged behind the offense in this final segment. In fact, not only did Brohm chastise them following a seam route from Hughes, Ron English tore into the secondary after practice was over.

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