Notes and Observations from Louisville's Second Open Spring Practice of 2026

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Spring ball is in full swing for the Louisville football program. The Cardinals are into their first week of their month-long spring practice, with two of their 15 sessions already in the books.

Their second practice, which took place on Tuesday, was the second of six practices that were open to both the fans and media. Like we were for practice No. 1, Louisville Cardinals On SI was there for it all to watch the second open practice of spring ball.

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

I walked in just prior to team warmups, so got a chance to see some of the special teamers getting warmup kicks. It's early, but I'm already ready to give the placekicking job to Carson Hilbert. EKU transfer Jacob Baker also had a couple really good punts as well. Oh, and Lincoln Kienholz kicked a couple FG attempts from around the 30-yard line - and made both (with one looking like it would have been good from an additional 10 yards out).
During this session, with it being indoors again (thus making drills closer together and easier to see everything), I spent most of the positional periods watch the defensive line since they're typical on the opposite field when practicing outside. During the dummy drill, it shouldn't come as a surprise that Clev Lubin and A.J. Green stood out the most here by far. I also liked what I saw out of Demeco Kennedy and Tyler Thompson, especially on a drill that was essentially a stunt-and-bend type drill. Early in the session, co-defensive coordinators Mark Ivey and Steve Ellis rotated working with the various defensive position groups. For example, Ivey had one drill where he was working with the cornerbacks testing their burst from a three-point stance, while Ellis did a drill with the defensive line working on double teams.
After some extended positional drill work was the first 7-on-7 period. Defensive stood out early, as T.J. Capers picked off Kienholz on the first rep, Davin Wydner and Ryan Zimmerman were a bit iffy at times, there were a couple drops early on, and Myles Norwood had a nice PBU. That being said, the offense did settle in eventually. Marquise Davis had a one-handed ctach on a wheel route, Jaleel Skinner high-pointed a deep seam route, and Lawayne McCoy ran a good comeback route close to the sideline.
Following that 7-on-7 was the first full 11-on-11 team period of the day. The first team unit was largely the same as it was the day before, although Cameron Gorin got a lot more reps at right tackle than he did the day before. I noticed that there was an emphasis on throws on the run early in the period, although that might have been aided by the fact that the defensive line was getting good early pressure. Green got a couple "sacks," and Maurice Davis did a nice job chasing down a screen from behind. Some other reps that stood out here: Kienholz was able to draw an offsides thanks to his cadence, Norwood looked very good in coverage at the closest defender, Braxton Jennings was able to beat the edge on an outside zone run, Montavin Quisenberry had a couple tough catches over the middle from Briggs Cherry, and Keyjuan Brown seems to have taken another step forward in terms of his open field speed.
Following a water break and another segment of positional was another 7-on-7 period. After have a shaky first hour or so, the offense collectively took a step forward here. Kienholz had a couple offline throws lone (which is much better than offline throws short), but found Jackson Voth and D.J. Williams in some small windows in zone coverage, and also had a dot to T.J. McWilliams on the sideline. Briggs Cherry (while definitely still a true freshman) looked like he took a step forward in his confidence, delivering a smooth pass to Julius Miles right over Stanquan Clark, and dropping a ball right in the bucket to Lekhy Thompkins on a wheel route. Ryan Zimmerman even had an absolute strike to Kris Hughes across the field. A couple other notes from this segment: Antonio Harris (who ran with both the ones and twos) had a nice PUB, Santana Wilson snagged a deep interception, and TreyShun Hurry continued showing that he seems a tick faster coming out of his breaks.
Finally, practice wrapped up with a fairly lengthy 11-on-11 period. Isaac Brown doesn't have to practice much, but he continues to show why he's one of the best players in college football every time he touches the ball. Additionally with the offense, Kienholz had a great throw on the run to the sideline, Miles hauled in several passes, Thompkins and Jennings got some good work in, and there was a play that I can only describe as a fake toss RPO. Defensively, there was some good execution on some blitz packages and Holloway had a nice PBU on a deep ball, but this was largely a segment where the offense shined.
That being said, the last 5-10 minutes of practice was a two-minute drill variant of 11-on-11, and the defense shined here. Run consistently were stuffed, Joshua Donald shot the gap on a read option, Maurice Davis sniffed out another screen, Micah Rice had a PBU, and Blake Ruffin picked off Wydner. There were a handful of good plays from the offense during this, highlighted by a leaping grab up the sideline for a touchdown by Justyn Reid, and another leaping grab by Lawayne McCoy. This was a segment where Cherry got a fair amount of extended run.

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