Five Questions Heading Into Louisville's 2026 Spring Practice

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - As quickly as the previous year ended, preparation for a new season of Louisville football will soon be beginning.

Later today, the Cardinals will be returning to the practice fields of the Trager Center and kicking off spring practice - their third under head coach Jeff Brohm. Spring ball kicks off on Tuesday, Mar. 17, and will conclude on Friday, Apr. 17 with the program's annual spring game.

As you can imagine, it has been an extremely busy offseason. While Louisville does lose several playmakers, they were able to retain a handful of their top players from last season, while simultaneously bringing in a myriad of talent via the transfer portal and the high school ranks.

Heading into Brohm's fourth season as the head coach, there is no shortage of storylines. Here are our five biggest questions surrounding the Louisville football program heading into the start of spring practice:

What should be expected from Lincoln Kienholz?

For the fourth year in a row, Louisville will feature a new starting quarterback for next season. After five years in college, Miller Moss has officially run out of eligibility, and now he is off to the next stage in his career.

Instead of going with a home grown option on his roster, Brohm once again opted to go the portal route for his next starter, eventually landing Ohio State transfer Lincoln Kienholz. While there's also West Georgia transfer Davin Wydner and true freshman Briggs Cherry on the roster, the starting job is by far Kienholz's to lose.

There's just one big difference between Kienholz and Brohm's three previous portal quarterback: he has zero starting experience. While Moss, Texas Tech transfer Tyler Shough and Cal transfer Jack Plummer all had questions entering their tenure at Louisville all three at least had one season's worth of starting experience.

That's not to say Kienholz doesn't have incredibly high upside. He's insanely athletic, perhaps even more so than Shough was. He also pushed both Will Howard and Julian Sayin up until close to the very end of fall camp for the starting jobs in 2024 and 2025, respectively.

But in his three seasons as a Buckeye, he had just 12 appearances and no starts, throwing 21-of-36 for 250 yards and a touchdown, as well as 17 rushes for 68 yards and two scores. Kienholz was someone who turned heads in practice while also showing in-game flashes, but he's also never been in a starting role. In theory, he should be able to put together a very good season given the weapons around him and Brohm's prowess as an offensive mind, but we can't say with certainty.

Can the new-look offensive line take a step forward with consistency?

It was a tale of two halves for Louisville's offensive line last season. Over the first five games vs. FBS opponents, this unit was certifiably putrid, giving up 7.2 tackles for loss and 2.8 sacks per game while only rushing for 93.0 yards. But over the final seven? Those numbers improved to just 4.7 tackles for loss, 1.6 sacks and 205.3 rushing yards per game.

Following the end of the season, for better or for worse, Louisville saw 10 scholarship offensive lineman depart the program - including five of their top six. Rasheed Miller, Mahamane Moussa, Pete Nygra and Trevonte Sylvester all graduated, while Jordan Church transferred to Texas Tech.

Because of this, the Cardinals put a massive emphasis on O-lineman in the portal, and wound up with a great haul here. By the time the transfer window closed, UofL had landed Georgia Southern's Johnnie Brown III, Boston College's Eryx Daugherty, South Carolina's Cason Henry, Delaware's Anwar O'Neal and Kentucky's Evan Wibberley.

Additionally, Lance Robinson - Louisville's third-highest graded lineman on PFF last season - is running is back. Not to mention that Cameron Gorin cracked the two-deep as a true freshman lat season, and Jarvis Strickland is a highly-ranked true freshman as well.

On paper, this has the makings to be a very good offensive line. Whether or not this actually results in a better and more consistent on-field product remains to be seen.

Who will step up in the interior of the defensive line?

When breaking down Louisville's position-by-position roster, the only spot that has a case to be as deep and productive as the running back spot is at defensive end. Clev Lubin is one of the top edge rushers in all of college football, Tyler Thompson was one of the most underrated defenders in the ACC last season, A.J. Green has NFL potential, and both Micah Carter and Eric Hazzard have shown flashes.

When it comes to the interior of the line, questions start to arise because of the bodies lost here. Their starting tackles in Jordan Guerad and Rene Konga both graduated, go-to reserve tackle Denzel Lowry graduated as well, and fellow backup tackle Jerry Lawson transferred to Oklahoma State. In fact, the Cardinals only return two defensive tackles - Bailey Abercrombie and Dillon Smith - and both are redshirt freshman.

As expected, Louisville had to hit the portal heavy here, landing Houston's Joshua Donald, Purdue's Demeco Kennedy, Miami's Daylen Russell and EKU's Tommy Ziesmer. While they were able to re-stock the middle of the line from a numbers perspective, no one has clear leg over the other.

Donald had a great 2024 campaign at App State, but didn't play at all last season with the Cougars. Kennedy had a solid 2025, but maybe not a great one. Russell has some upside thanks to his talent, but not a ton of overall experience. Ziesmer had an extremely prolific 2025 season, but it came at the FCS level.

Because of these questions and unknowns, one of the starting tackle spots will likely go to Kentucky transfer Jerod Smith II, who is an edge but played a lot of last season at three-tech. As for who emerges next to him as a starter, it seems that is up for grabs.

What is the ceiling for the secondary?

Entering the 2025 season, the secondary - particularly the cornerback room - was the position group that had the most question marks on the entire roster. But not only did Louisville wind up having a good pass defense, it was the No. 1 passing defense in the ACC at 188.8 passing yards allowed per game.

Like every other position group, there's been some turnover at both corner and safety, losing eight total scholarship defensive backs While there are some questions for both spots, there is a lot of potential due to the fact that each player is led by a high impact guy.

At cornerback, Louisville brings back their top player in Tayon Holloway. At safety, the Cardinals added a true difference maker in the portal in Koen Entringer. It's the pieces behind them that start generating some questions.

Kentucky transfer corner D.J. Waller has shown good things in spurts, but has struggled to stay healthy at times. Texas transfer corner Santana Wilson has a very high ceiling due to his talent, but has minimal playing time up to this point. Elon transfer Brycen Scott was productive last season, but it was at the FCS level. CB Jaydin Broadnax is extremely talented, but a true freshman. Tennessee transfer safety Kaleb Beasley was good in spurts for last season, but he'll be asked to take on a bigger role after being a rotational piece. Ole Miss transfer safety T.J. Banks does have starting experience, but was very more hit-or-miss.

Like so many other position groups, on paper, Louisville could be in line to have another very successful secondary. However, there are a ton of new faces, and a lot is hindering on both individual growth and their cohesion as a unit.

How will team dynamics shift with so many new position assistants?

Over the first three years, Louisville's coaching staff was extremely consistent. The only position assistant to depart the program during this time was wide receivers coach Garrick McGee last offseason, and he was replaced with Deion Branch - who was already in the building in a non-coaching role.

When spring ball starts, the Cardinals will not only have four new position assistant, but a brand new defensive coordinator. With Ron English taking the 2026 season off from coaching, defensive line coach Mark Ivey and cornerbacks coach Steve Ellis were promoted to co-defensive coordinators.

Ivey was also moved to coach the D-line after Mark Hagen was not retained. As a result, quality control coach Adam Mueller was promoted to coach the linebackers, while fellow QC coach Brandon Sharp received a promotion to coach the safeties - something English previously did on top of being the DC.

There's also been movement on the offensive coaching staff. With tight ends coach Ryan Wallace leaving for Oregon State and offensive line coach Richard Owens heading to Alabama, Brohm replaced the two with Paul Petrino and Dale Williams, respectively.

Brohm has put a massive emphasis on coaching continuity over his first three years at the helm. It will be interesting to see how the team-wide practice dynamics, as well as at the impacted position groups, will shift for this fall when compared to seasons past.

What should be expected from Lincoln Kienholz?

Can the new-look offensive line take a step forward with consistency?

Who will step up in the interior of the defensive line?

What is the ceiling for the secondary?

How will team dynamics shift with so many new position assistants?

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