Post-Spring Newcomers Helping Elevate Competition on Louisville's Offensive Line

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - This time last year, the offensive line for the Louisville football program was widely regarded as one of the best units on the entire team after a dominant 2021 campaign. But by the time that the 2022 season was in the books, the Cardinals ranked 74th nationally in sacks allowed per game and 64th in tackles for loss allowed per game. It was about average in the grand scheme of the both the ACC and FBS, but still slightly disappointing for Louisville.

Back in March and April during spring ball, there were signs that offensive line might see more regression heading into year one of the Jeff Brohm era. While Louisville's defensive line is undoubtedly bolstered with both talent and depth, they were getting into the backfield with a little too much regularity during the open practices.

Fortunately, Brohm and the rest of the staff recognized this. With still plenty of open scholarships to play with heading into the spring transfer portal window, Louisville got to work recruiting more big boys on the offensive front. Fast forward to one week into fall camp, and the Cardinals' O-line additions in the portal have made a massive difference.

"It's is a lot more depth, and a lot more people," returning offensive tackle Michael Gonzalez said. "It's competition. When you have a lot more people like that, you can't get settled. There's a guy that's going to be right behind you. You got to keep on working every day, and you got to bring your A-game every day. It's been a lot of competition, and everybody's getting better because of it."

Louisville added five offensive linemen during the 15-day spring transfer portal window: Duquesne's Vincent Lumia, Purdue's Eric Miller, Houston's Lance Robinson and Trevonte Sylvester, plus Rutgers' Willie Tyler. These additions helped the Cardinals finish with the No. 1 transfer portal class in the 2023 cycle, according to On3.

This crop of newcomers brings a ton of experience to the table, with a combined 21 seasons of prior collegiate experience under their belts. This doesn't even include the five years of prior experience from Virginia transfer John Paul Flores, who joined Louisville prior to spring ball. What it does include is some experience in Brohm's offensive system, as Miller spent the first five years of his career at Purdue.

So far during the first week-plus of fall camp, these newcomers have done a "good job" of getting themselves acclimated to both the system and the program.

"Eric Miller, he's been here so he knew all the plays already. Willie (Tyler), he's doing a good job. He's trying to get all the plays down at tackle. Tre (Sylvester) and Lance (Robinson) have done a good job coming in and learning plays," Gonzalez said. "They're gonna have their mistakes, we did in the spring, so they're gonna have their mistakes in fall, but it's just more of a sense of urgency. You got to get it down now, because the season's coming up. So we're just working on that, trying to help them with that."

That's not to say that Louisville doesn't bring back some solid pieces from last year's line. In fact, they bring back three starters in Gonzalez, tackle Renato Brown and center Bryan Hudson, the latter of which was tabbed as a preseason All-ACC Team selection earlier this month.

As Louisville's eight returning scholarship offensive linemen continue to learn the new offensive system, the added competition has only elevated their own respective games during camp.

"It's been good," offensive line coach Richard Owens said when asked about what it was like working with the returners. "It's a work in progress. It's a different system than what they're used to, and what they've done in the past. New terms, learning, it's all different. Every day you come out here, it's a new day. We got to continue to press forward and move in the right direction."

One of the biggest obstacles currently facing the offensive line is just making sure everyone is on the same page. Not only are the eight returners having to learn a new system, but the nine scholarship newcomers are having to as well after coming from different D1 programs or making the jump from high school. There's still kinks to work out in this department, but they are making progress.

"Communication really is the number one thing," Miller said. "It's making sure that everybody knows every call for every situation, because we run a lot of stuff and we're gonna see a lot of fronts. We have to be able to know the language, and be all speaking the same language. If the right tackle is doing something different than the left guard, then we're gonna be on a different page. It's got to be five guys working as one that really is that language. It starts in the meeting room, bring it out to individuals, and then get into group and team situations, and continue to build on that."

But even with an imperfect product, the offensive line has made clear strides since spring ball. They have been consistently giving the quarterbacks more time to deliver the football, and the rushing lanes have been have been a touch bigger as well. This has allowed both the quarterback/wide receiver chemistry a chance to continue building in this pass-heavy offense, and the running backs to build a repertoire on the ground.

And it will only get better with more reps.

“I think the offensive line is getting comfortable,” Owens said. “I think competition is good for us. The guys know they have to compete each and every day out on the field. We added a lot this summer, so it’s taken these guys a little time to get acclimated to what we are doing, but it continues to get better.”

(Photo via University of Louisville Athletics)

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