Notes and Observations from Louisville's Spring Game

The Cardinals concluded spring ball with the first spring game of the Satterfield era.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Spring ball is now in the books for the Louisville football program.

Sunday afternoon, the Cardinals gathered at Cardinal Stadium and held their first spring game under head coach Scott Satterfield, fully open to the fans. The program conducted 40 minutes worth of position drills, then ran several scrimmage drives to conclude the spring.

Related: Gallery/Video: Scott Satterfield, Louisville Players Talk Spring Game

Considering several players were out due to injuries, and others will not make it to campus until spring, there is bound to be an overreaction or two. But that being said, below is our notebook of the more notable happenings that transpired during the afternoon:

• As has been noted many times over the last few weeks leading up to it, it was a relatively thin spring game with all the injuries Louisville has. Kei'Trel Clark, Monty Montgomery, Caleb Chandler, Kenderick Duncan and Braden Smith were still out, and even guys like Ahmari Huggins-Bruce and Trevion Cooley were sidelined with minor injuries. Still, there was a lot of competition amongst the first and second string players.
• Malik Cunningham, largely, looked really sharp. He has a noticeable zip on the ball, was accurate through most of the afternoon, and you can tell that he had been working on staying in the pocket more. There were still a couple over throws, and he did throw an interception, but he was mostly efficient.
• With Evan Conley out and Khalib Johnson nursing an injury, Brock Domann took most of the backup QB snaps. He looked great on designed run and scrambles, but did look average when it came to actually throwing the football.
• With all the talk about Cooley, Tiyon Evans and Jawhar Jordan in the running back room, it was actually Jalen Mitchell who was spring game MVP. He had three touchdowns on the afternoon, one which was set up by a really long run from him, and the other two that actually came through the air. He had great vision at the line of scrimmage, and did look a little faster than he did last season
• There were a fair amount of check-downs to the running backs, which is a good sign to see.
• Speaking of Evans, he had a handful of runs that displayed why coaches love him so much. He did struggle a bit to get going, and even had to briefly exit due to an ankle injury, but did return and had a really impressive run to the outside that resulted in a score.
• The Tyler Hudson hype is very much real. His catch radius is outstanding, and he's overall a very well-rounded wideout. On a couple occasions, he was also used on jet sweeps, handoffs and option tosses, so he could potentially be an X-Factor on the offense.
• Not to be outdone, Tyler Harrell also set out that he is not just a straight line deep threat. He had arguably the best play of the day, contorting his body to haul in a 40-yard back shoulder throw that put Louisville on the goal line.
• Marshon Ford got run both in the backfield and out wide, and unsurprisingly, excelled in both facets. even hauling in an easy touchdown. Other tight ends that look goof in the spring game were Dez Melton and Francis Sherman.
• Potential offensive impact walk-on's to watch for: running back Grant Goodman and wide receiver Jatavian Churchill. Goodman got a ton of run, and Churchill had a big run-after-catch play.
• A lot has been made about Louisville's overall physicality after the way that the Ole Miss and Kentucky games went last year. While there is still work to be done, Ben Sowders is having an early impact in the trenches. Neither the offensive or defensive line looked overly dominant over the other, and there was plenty of healthy competition at the point of attack.
• It remains to be seen if Louisville finally has their answer at nose tackle after not getting much production there over the past few seasons, but Caleb Banks certainly looks like he could be the disruptor in the middle that they need. He was double teamed through much of the spring game, and still got into the backfield semi regularly.
• Louisville should still be really deep at both inside and outside linebacker next season. With Montgomery still out, MoMo Sanogo dinged up and Yasir Abdullah only seeing a couple series, the depth was on full display. Dorian Jones looked very solid in the middle, and even picked off Cunningham for a pick six. Later in the practice, Marvin Dallas out at CARD did the very same thing to Domann. Ben Perry also looked solid splitting reps with Dallas.
• Another player on the defense who performed really well was Josh Minkins. He has heavily involved in the play with every rep he took, and even had a couple tackles for loss.
• As a whole, the secondary looked okay. There are several guys dinged up in that unit, and a couple others who aren't on campus yet, so that's to be expected. Satterfield even hinted in his post-spring game press conference that they weren't done recruiting in the transfer portal, and I suspect this is an area they are looking to build upon.
• A couple notes to end on: To wrap up the controlled scrimmage, Louisville spent a lot of time working on red zone situations, which is something they desperately needed to improve upon. Also, don't be surprised if the Cardinals incorporate the option into their offense in 2022. Of course, their bread and butter will be zone runs and operating out of the pistol, but Louisville on a select few occasions went to the triple option or the option toss in the spring game.

(Photo via Scott Utterback - Courier Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK)

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