Louisville held its second open practice of the fall this morning and allowed fans and media to get a look at the team on a nice Saturday morning. I’ve been covering these practices for about fifteen years now, and I’ve never seen this many fans at a practice before. Jeff Brohm seemed to point to his focus on keeping players healthy, so it wasn’t much of a surprise that they did not have a full team segment in the practice.
Instead, we got a lot of “Pass Skeleton” where the skill players go through
plays without the offensive and defensive lines. When the offense and defense split, we did get a lot of the offense against the scout team as the defense works on the far side of the field, which is hard to see.
We’ll be heavy on the skill positions in this post, but that’s what we all care about anyway. Let’s jump in.
QUARTERBACKS
The group of quarterbacks as a whole continued their strong play from the spring period. Lincoln Kienholz was steady and confident in his play while Davin Wydner and Briggs Cherry played much better than expected. Linc showed off his athleticism today with a number of pinpoint throws on the run to different levels of the field. It was pretty obvious that Brohm wanted to work on this specific area of the passing game, and the offense executed it well.
Linc is also plenty capable of pushing the ball down the field in different ways. The offense ran a handful of deep over and deep crossing routes throughout the practice, and it stood out that he had no issues throwing from the opposite hash to the other sideline. He will still have to show what he can do in live games, but there are no signs that I have seen that make me concerned that Linc can’t be a good steward of this offense.
I think it’s fair to say that Davin Wydner didn’t excite many fans as the de facto backup for this season when he signed on. Wydner is a former walk-on at Ole Miss who put up fairly average numbers at West Georgia last season. However, Wydner has impressed in the practices that have been open to the public while also playing very well in the spring game.
Wydner looked good today in practice, with good pace on the ball and good accuracy downfield on the crossing routes Brohm called continuously. Wydner was decisive with the ball, which is typically the biggest issue for guys who move up in competition. Things move too fast for them, and they struggle. I just have not seen that from Wydner, and he may be a serviceable backup this year if he is pushed onto the field for a stretch.
Briggs Cherry is the most comfortable freshman quarterback I can remember seeing in the 10+ years of covering these open practices. He had the best throw of the day on a go route down the sideline to Rhys Dorsey, which elicited the biggest reaction from the fans on the day. Cherry also consistently hit guys on throws all over the field throughout the practice. He also showed the decisiveness you want to see from a guy who is moving up in competition. He certainly looks like a real option down the road if he continues to progress.
OFFENSIVE SKILL
Because we didn’t get a full team segment, I’ll just break down the backs and receivers.
Isaac Brown didn’t participate in practice until the very end, but I didn’t catch anything he did. He spent most of the practice working out with a trainer on the side.
Keyjuan Brown got the first reps in the group, with Marquis Davis looking to be the next man up heading into the season. All of the backs looked the part, but Davis looks like the most natural catcher of the ball, to me. Brown also did well in a segment where they practiced screen passes.
Lekhy Thompkins and Braxton Jennings rounded out the group, with Thompkins sporting a yellow jersey due to a pec injury. Jennings takes the award for the most improved body for this season. He was a skinny guy who looked like he had not seen the weight room this time last year. He looks like a P4 running back now, and he hasn’t lost a step.
Lawayne McCoy was the star of the practice for me. He made play after play against tight coverage on intermediate routes while also getting behind the coverage when he ran routes down the field. I think he had a solid season for FSU last year in a limited role, but he looked like the guy who showed out against Miami today, and I think he will be a key player for the offense this year.
After missing the spring, Tre Richardson is fully healthy, and he looks as good as advertised. Richardson has legit track speed when he gets into the open field while also being shifty in tight spaces. Early in drills, he beat T.J. Banks badly on a seam route with his speed, and he followed that up later in the drill by using his quick feet to beat Banks on an outside-to-inside move to get himself back inside for another seam route. The only thing left to see with Richardson is how they will use him.
I wouldn’t say any other receivers jumped out to me, but Treyshun Hurry was consistent all day. He was also a favored target of Linc’s. With Kris Hughes out for the year, they will need someone else to step up to add depth. Marlon Harbin and Rhys Dorsey were guys who made a few plays today. We’ll see if anyone else stands out next week.
It wasn’t great to see Brody Foley stay down after taking what looked like a grazing blow to the head early in practice. He got up eventually and didn’t seem to have an issue, but it appears that he sat for the remainder of the practice, likely as a precaution. The staff did a great job of building this room, so depth will be a feature through the season. Jaleel Skinner and Justyn Reid both looked the part, with Reid again showing off better movement skills than expected.
DEFENSIVE SKILL
The secondary was outstanding today with great coverage in one-on-one drills against the receivers early in practice. They continued to shine in pass skeleton drills where they were tight in coverage and very aggressive. Steve Ellis started the day praising his guys loudly, with Tayon Holloway and Brycen Scott being the two guys who received the loudest praise. Jaydin Broadnax recovered a fumble in pass skeleton at some point. I believe he caused the fumble as well, but I couldn’t say for sure. The secondary being so aggressive led to multiple guys being around the ball on the regular.
Kaleb Beasley remained at the starting spot next to Koen Entringer as he continues to hold off Banks for the first-team reps. I expect all three guys to play a lot, with Banks being an option in packages in passing situations. Coverage wasn’t great from this group in one-on-one drills, but Banks and Jordan Vann both had impressive interceptions where they undercut seam routes.
We didn’t get to see much from the linebackers today with no full team segments, but Ben Perry has moved to the inside with Blake Ruffin as the first man up behind Antonio Watts. It was nice to see Watts back to full health. He had a couple of PBUs where he played the ball while avoiding getting a flag. The top of the depth chart will be one of the best in the ACC.
SPECIAL TEAMS
The kicking game is not sound at this point. Brohm made that clear on Thursday, and we got to see what his issues are pretty clearly today. Nick Keller looks to be the top option at kicker, but he continues to be inconsistent with his accuracy. Bode Shoads looks to be the next man up after Keller. The staff held a kicking competition where each kicker had one minute to make five kicks from different distances. When these two faced off, Keller won by going 4-4 while Shoaps missed his third kick.
To end the practice, Carson Hilbert faced off against Garth White. While Hilbert went 3-5, White went 3-4. White was able to attempt a 50-yard kick, which he nailed. It was a cool wrinkle to the practice to push a group that is obviously struggling.
I’m fairly certain that neither of the two punters who took most of the snaps today was on the roster in the spring. Niall Hayes may have just arrived on campus this morning, in fact. Hayes is an Australian player who uses the rugby style of punting. On his first attempt, he stumbled before putting a nice punt inside the 10. He and Adam Winkenhofer were both average at best today, and they will need to be much more consistent before the season starts. It should also be noted that the snaps for the punters were flat-out bad. Lots of work to do in the kicking game.
