Louisville football adds sack artist as graduate transfer for 2019

Louisville football has had the ball rolling in the 2020 class, but they haven’t forgotten about the needs of the 2019 roster.

As of May 29th, Louisville football had just three players committed in the class of 2020 and fans were beginning to get a little restless.

The Cards have since secured an incredible 16 commits in the class of 2020 during the month of June, and one in the class of 2019 – in cornerback Justin Ford, who should be able to provide some much-needed depth right away.

Last week Louisville defensive coordinator Bryan Brown took to Twitter, as did several others, to tease another commitment for the Cards, leaving the entire fanbase on edge. This particular commitment was teased with the caption:

"Junkyard has added a piece to help us for 2k19!! #Uncaged19 Pass Rusher coming through!!!!!!"

Twitter then went silent. No commitment was made, leaving the fanbase left to speculate who it might be.

Now this afternoon, we now know that the player teased last week was Marshall graduate transfer, Ty Tyler. His commitment to Louisville could be arguably the biggest, aside from yesterday’s announcement from 2020 four-star QB Chubba Purdy.

https://twitter.com/TireonT/status/1142526314219560960

Since entering his name in the transfer portal back in the last week of May, Tyler has been arguably one of the hottest names across the country – making this arguably one of the biggest pulls by the new staff.

The 6’3″, 262-pound redshirt junior defensive end had been hearing from the likes of Virginia Tech, Texas Tech, Central Florida, and South Florida, amongst others before choosing the Cards.

Tyler is exactly what this defense needed for the 2019 season – a bonafide rusher who prides himself in making big plays in opposing offenses backfields, both in the run and the passing games.

In 2018, Tyler finished the season for Marshall with 44 tackles, 10 tackles for loss, and nine sacks – which incredibly was just two fewer sacks than the entire defense for the Cards as a whole  – and was named to the All-Conference USA second team.

In his four years playing for Marshall, Tyler had 91 tackles, 21 tackles for loss and 13.5 sacks as well as two forced fumbles and two fumble recoveries.

Louisville’s defense will be adding a ferocious, versatile defensive lineman, who will be able to play both the defensive end and defensive tackle position due to his power, quickness, and athleticism, who will likely start from day one.

Though the Cards have several experienced players returning up front, including Amonte Caban, GG Robinson, and Tabarius Peterson – the group combined for just six sacks and were rendered ineffective throughout the majority of the season.

With a new scheme look for a now fortified defensive line group to take their games to the next level and potentially get back to the old Louisville ways of dominating up front.

Tyler becomes the fifth graduate transfer to commit to Louisville since the new staff took over in December, joining center TJ McCoy, offensive lineman turned tight end Ean Pfeifer, North Carolina wide receiver Thomas Jackson, and former Patriot League DPOY TJ Holl.