Takeaways From Louisville Football's Media Day

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - On Wednesday, the Louisville football program held their annual Media Day. That same day, they also kicked off their third fall camp under head coach Jeff Brohm.

As you can imagine, the Cardinals had plenty to discuss regarding the upcoming 2025 season. Below are some of the more impactful takeaways points from those who were made available for questions:

The defense is eager to put together a bounce back season.

At this point in time, it's well established that Louisville is expected to have a high-caliber offense in 2025. Isaac Brown and Duke Watson are o two of the best running backs in the nations, Chris Bell and Caullin Lacy anchor a very good wide receiver room, and Miller Moss is a quality quarterback.

Where the majority of the questions lie for Louisville is on the defensive side of the ball. The Cardinals are coming off of a disappointing 2024 season for this unit, one where ranked 56th in scoring defense, 64th in total defense, and 100th in passing defense.

On top of that, it's a defense that loses plenty of impact players, such as draftees Ashton Gillotte and Quincy Riley. That being said, it's a defense that is ready to bounce back and show what they can do.

"I think the defense looks good," returning defense tackle Rene Konga said. "Guys last year did a good job setting a standard. Then it's on us, the guys over here last year, to carry that standard onto the defense. I think it's been a great job so far"

On paper, Louisville's defense, does have some potential. They return impact guys like Konga and linebacker Stanquan Clark, and infused that core with a good amount of newcomers - such as defensive end Clev Lubin and safety JoJo Evans. They'll have to continue building chemistry, but it's not out of the questions that this side of the ball can bounce back.

"The few starters we have back on defense, I expect them to play very well," Brohm said. "They've been our best players to date, and they've learned from our mistakes, both as players and coaches, and how that we got to improve on that. We have some new additions. They're not aware of some of the things that happened before that, but they've watched it on film and learning from it. So I think it's a good nucleus of hungry new pieces that want to come in and compete, that are challenging our guys, and then some veterans that have been here and know this is how it's done."

Louisville remains very high on their offensive line.

As previously stated, when most people talk about Louisville, that conversation revolves around their offensive skill position players. However, the program is also very high on their offensive line.

"It's an important piece, no matter what's going on," Brohm said. "We did lose some guys, but I feel confident that we have a good nucleus of guys coming back, a good nucleus of additions we've added to the team that have proven that they can play football for us. We expect to have depth there once again, and it's important to do that. We lost a few guys last year, but other guys stepped in and did a good job. Coach (Richard) Owens and his crew have done a really good job at getting them ready to go. I expect those guys to play well."

It's an offensive front that does lose some impact pieces, such as Monroe Mills, Austin Collins and Michael Gonzalez. However, starters Pete Nygra and Rasheed Miller are back, as are also bringing back contributors Trevonte Sylvester and Lance Robinson.

Additionally, Louisville was very active in the portal with this position group. FIU's Naeer Jackson, FAU's Jordan Church, SEMO's Carter Guillaume, Purdue's Mahamane Moussa and Mississippi State's Makylan Pounders are all expected to compete for a starting role.

While there are plenty of new faces for a position group that ranked 17th in sacks allowed and 18th in tackles for loss allowed last season, the chemistry building has gone very well, and the Cardinals are anticipating being very good up front.

"I feel like it's going great," center Pete Nygra said. "A lot of the guys that have stepped up this year, they were here on the team last year. They just had a limited role in playing, mainly because due to injury. But we had a lot of good player last year as well. Just getting practice in, spending extra time together, going through the film, extra walkthroughs and stuff. We do that, we'll be great to go for the first game of the season."

The communication issues from last season seem to be in the past.

Sure, while the defensive players themselves certainly had their struggles last season, another reason why Louisville's defense struggled at times in 2024 was because of issues with the in-helmet communication system.

Far too often, defenders were either completely out of position because the call didn't come through in time, or they were still looking at the sideline/player with the helmet comms when the ball was about to be snapped. It wasn't the main issue with the defense last season, but it certainly played a role.

Fortunately, it doesn't appear that this will be a major issue in 2025.

"Well, we went through some hiccups for sure. ... but I think we were able to adjust pretty good after the few hiccups we had, and we kind of have the system down now," Brohm said. "It's a little different than how you use it on offense with the speed of the game, so you have to be really be strategic and have a plan put together. I think we understand that way better now, and have kind of morphed, midway through the season, into what we're doing now, and trying to improve on that."

One way that they were able to fix their communication issues last year was having defensive coordinator Ron English come down from the skybox and onto the field, which they did midway through the season. On top of simply knowing how to use the in-helmet comms more efficiently, Brohm and the other coaches simply got better about not overcomplicating the call.

"I can maybe talk too much and it gets muddied, so you got to be a little more concise and not over talk to be quite honest with you," Brohm said. "It sounds easy, but sometimes it can be a little hard. If it's loud, the noise is there a little bit, and sometimes it's a little bit muffed. You got to be clear, you got to be short, you got to be concise, and even sometimes you got to just let them play ball. Having that right mix, we went through a few things, especially on defense, to get better at it. I think now we have a better system that we're going to work all fall camp, which started today, so that we have it down as well as we can for the first game."

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