Notes and Observations from Louisville's Fifth Open Spring Practice of 2025

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - As quickly as it started, spring ball for the Louisville football program is deep into the second half. Concluding their third week of their five-week long spring practice, the Cardinals now have ten of their 15 sessions already in the books.

Their tenth practice, which took place on Thursday, was the fifth of six practices that were open to both the fans and media. Like we were for the first four open practice, Louisville Cardinals On SI was there for it all to watch the fourth open practice of spring ball.

Previous Open Practice Notebooks: Practice One, Practice Two, Practice Three, Practice Four.

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

Like most of the other open practices, this one got underway with a special teams period, with this session starting with field goals. It was mainly Cooper Ranvier and Nick Keller getting the bulk of the work, with Ranvier being a little more consistent in terms of both power and accuracy. Keller's kick were a little low at times, with one even getting blocked (I think it was either Adonijah Green or T.J. Capers who blocked it, not 100 percent sure though).
With this being the first open practice held inside the indoor facility (hence I could get a better look at defensive positions), I spent every non-team period watching as much of the defense as I could. Still, I admittedly couldn't see much of the linebackers and safeties in their respective drills.
During the first set of positional drills, I mainly watched the defensive line. The group as a whole moves very well in terms of speed and overall fluidity, but of course there were standouts, and I think both Green and Clev Lubin overall looked the best here. In a one-on-one drill that placed an emphasis on disengaging rip moves, Wesley Bailey, Maurice Davis and Jerry Lawson were the most emphatic. During the sled drills, Denzel Lowry demonstrated the most pop here, but for what it's worth, Eric Hazzard actually broke one of the sleds.
I also happened to glance over at the cornerback group working on various cones drills while watching the linemen. Rodney Johnson Jr. had the quickest feet, Justin Agu looked pretty fluid overall, and Antonio Harris put on display some good burst.
Before the start of the first 11-on-11 team period was a brief one-on-one period between the receivers and defensive backs. From what I saw: Johnson and Harris both had interceptions right off the bat, while Caullin Lacy beat D'Angelo Hutchinson fairly well over the middle, Antonio Meeks did the same to Rae'mon Mosby, and Bobby Golden made a tough over the shoulder basket catch.
Now onto the first 11-on-11. While most of spring up to this point has been played at a gear that hasn't been close to 100 percent (mainly because of health and scheme install reasons), this was the first open practice where you could immediately tell that they were really going at it. As far as the most noteworthy depth chart takeaways here, Rene Konga and Jordan Guerad started with the ones in the middle of the line (like I expected them to), while Capers and Kalib Perry got a fair amount of reps as the first team linebackers.
In terms of the plays made, there were plenty to go around. I noticed that the running backs had some good early success, as Isaac Brown juked around several defenders on one run while also running through Micah Rice on another, Duke Watson made Agu bite on a bad angle, Keyjuan Brown has a bruising early run, and Jamarice Wilder broke out a nice juke towards the end, Passing-wise, there was a lot of success there too. Moss had his first of a few beautiful deep balls to Chris Bell here (against Johnson no less). Deuce Adams had a great throw to Lacy on a corner route, then had another great throw to Meeks who found the hole in zone coverage. Adams also got plenty of run on option plays, as did Brady Allen, and both looked good in the open field as runners when they did tuck and run. Of course, the defense made plenty of plays as well. JoJo Evans got a nice PBU in coverage against Lacy, then delivered a good hit for a breakup later in the segment. Hutchinson also had a nice PBU as well. But what really stood out defensively in this segment was the front seven. Micah Carter had back-to-back reps where he shot the gap, then used a nasty speed rush on Mak Pounders. Lowry and Saadiq Clements both had sacks as well. In general, the front seven did a great job of swarming the line of scrimmage and getting into the backfield.
Following this team period was a brief positional one, so I went back to watch defensive line. Lowry looked fast and violent on the dummy slalom drill, and Clements looked good as well. In another go at the one-on-one rip drill, Bailey, Clements, Green and Lawson all stood out here.
During the positionals, the offensive line and defensive line both met up for one-on-ones, and there was some great work from both sides here. On the offensive side, Pete Nygra was arguably the top performer. However, Lance Robinson was also consistent, Carter Guillaume played with a mean streak during the entire drill, Naeer Jackson and Rasheed Miller both had some good one-handed reps, while Jordan Church and Mak Pounders also had some good wins. That being said, the defensive players were just as dominant at times. Lubin was up and down but probably had the best bend out of all of them. Carter and Davis put on display some nasty spin moves, while Bailey and Dillon Smith flashed some good power moves at times. Lowry and Guerad were consistent throughout the period as well. Hazzard and Xavier Carter both had good bounce-back reps as well.
After this was the final period, which was a scrimmage-like 11-on-11 period. Here, the offense stood out the most, at least from my vantage point. Moss delivered two more "drop in the bucket" style throws to Bell, Lacy scored on a drag route/pick play in the red zone, Allen had a couple really good strikes in tight windows, Adams tossed a bomb to T.J. McWilliams while also looking good on designed runs, and Watson picked up big yards on a toss sweep. Don't worry, there were some big defensive plays as well. Lubin had a strip sack, Lawson was able to chase down a scrambling Adams, Capers and Corey Gordon Jr. both delivered huge hits, and Evans had what would have been a pick six towards the end of the period.

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