Louisville Football: Puma Pass Steps into the Spotlight

Louisville football completed their annual spring game Friday night with the Red team, who was lead by Jawon “Puma” Pass, defeating the white team by a score of 42-13.

It was beautiful night for some Louisville football at the new look Papa Johns Cardinal Stadium, as nearly 15,000 people gathered for the Annual Wendy’s Wonderful Kids Spring Game.

After the threat of severe weather moved the game from a Saturday afternoon kickoff, to Friday night, which Head Coach Bobby Petrino said would be the norm moving forward, a new era of Cardinal Football began.

As I’m sure you’re well aware a certain former Heisman Trophy Winner, and two time All-ACC player of the year has gone on to the NFL, leaving Jawon “Puma” Pass and Malik Cunningham to fight for the open starting spot.

Both players were at the helm for their respective teams, Puma (Red) & Malik (White), both of which showed us glimpses of what they could do if they were the starting QB in the 2018-19 season.

The Red team came out on top after a dominant performance from Jawon Pass and superstar in the making Dez Fitzpatrick.

As mentioned, Puma Pass was leading the charge for the red offense in the spring game. According to coaches, the teams were split up in an attempt to make the game as even as possible, so it was essentially impossible to determine the future depth chart just going by this game. Instead of guessing what the lineup is going to look like in the fall, I’m going to tell you who made a big impact on the game, and other plays that stood out to me.

Impact Players: Offense

Puma Pass

Obviously the starting quarterback is going to be a big difference maker. There were a few times where he looked to rush into his throws, or force passes into a bad spot, but overall Puma was very efficient and looked to be in a good spot with the offense.

While he threw for 342 yards and 3 touchdowns to go along with 1 rushing touchdown, the thing that impressed me the most about him was his poise. There were at least a handful of times where his first look wasn’t open and he went through his progressions and hit the check down. It was great to see this from a quarterback who is yet to start a game at the collegiate level.

Bobby Petrino had nothing to say but good things about Puma Pass after he was able to lead the red team to a big win, saying:

"“That post route for a touchdown to Dez at the end was as good of a post route as he has thrown this Spring,” He threw it right on a line and hit him in stride. We can win games with throws like that.”"

It also surprised me how quick he looked on a couple of scrambles. While there weren’t a lot of designed runs for him, Puma looked more than capable of breaking off a couple of chunk plays scrambling, which is impressive considering he’s 6 foot 4 and 230 pounds.

Dez Fitzpatrick

Dez “Sixpatrick” just about caught anything and everything that was thrown his way. He’s great at positioning his body to make a catch when the ball is in the air, which he showed on a couple of impressive catches. One of these catches was  a 35 yard post route in which Dez seemed to pin the ball on the defenders back, and then secure it on the way to the ground in what was a truly great play.

Fitzpatrick was able to amass around 140 yards receiving to go along with a couple of touchdowns, one of which was a spectacular grab in the endzone. I realize that I may be jumping the gun a little bit here, but I wouldn’t be too surprised if this is the last season we get of Dez Fitzpatrick being a cardinal.

He shows beautiful footwork and route running to go along with spectacular ball skills which certainly bode well for his future. He doesn’t simply rely on pure speed like a lot college receivers do, he possesses the necessary skills that make a guy successful at the next level. So Cardnation, I’d enjoy Dez while you can because he’ll be playing on Sundays sometime in the not so distant future.

Seth Dawkins

Even though Dawkins was on the white team with Malik Cunningham, Dawkins made it quite clear why he’ll be a starter again come fall. He was able to rack up 5 catches for 96 yards, which included a 13 yard touchdown in the second quarter in which he made a couple of nice moves to get into the endzone. This would end up being the only touchdown the white team would score throughout the game, so it’s fitting that it was one of Louisville’s most talented returning players. I’m really looking forward to what Seth will do this upcoming season.

Kemari Averett

Like Dawkins, Averett was also on the white team. Although he didn’t have Puma Pass throwing him the ball, Averett was able to snag 5 catches for 37 yards.

What impresses me with Averett every time he plays, is simply how athletic he is for such a giant human being. He displayed this athleticism a couple of times on Friday night as he got up field after catching the ball, even diving over a defender a couple of times after catching the ball.

I think this year may be a breakout year for Kemari due to his athleticism and the fact that he’s a mismatch for whoever is tasked with guarding him. If a linebacker is supposed to cover him, he has the ability to out run him. If a defensive back is supposed to cover him, Averett is simply too big for them.

This will make it very interesting to see how Bobby finds ways to get him the ball this year.

Tobias Little

The name Tobias Little itself is a bit of an oxymoron, considering Little is exactly the opposite of what his name implies. He’s listed on the roster as being 6 foot, 250 pounds and I would bet that by the looks of it, every bit of that is solid muscle.

He’s a fullback on the depth chart, but got a lot of carries Friday night as a result of the injuries at running back. He ended up being the games leading rusher, rushing for 80 yards and a touchdown.

Although he won’t get as many carries during the season, he definitely runs down hill and is about as physical as they come for somebody toting the rock. I wouldn’t be shocked if he were to double the amount of touches he got last season as a redshirt freshman.

Malik Cunningham 

Well it’s probably a good thing that Malik Cunningham didn’t change his number to “8” over the off season or I would have trouble convincing myself that it wasn’t a young LJ out there Friday night. While I’m not saying that Malik is as talented or polished as Lamar is, I’d be lying if I said their style of play wasn’t eerily similar.

He showed a great ability to keep plays alive and to keep his eyes downfield before scrambling. He hit his checkdown at least three or four times when he could have very easily ran instead. I was very surprised with how elusive and quick Cunningham looked in the open field.

It also seemed as if Bobby called a lot more read options and plays of that nature compared to

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how he called the offense for the Red team led by Puma.

As long as he can improve and learn the offense while he backs up Puma, I’d say the Cards have another special quarterback waiting in the wings with this kid.

Impact Players: Defense

CJ Avery

Coming out of high school, Avery was one of Louisville’s highest ranked recruits in his class and was a great get for the Cards.

Avery showed exactly why during the spring game this Friday as he impacted the game in all facets. He was able to tally 5 tackles, 1 fumble recovery, and 1 interception.

His interception was one of my favorite plays of the game as he was able to drop into his zone on defense, read the quarterback’s eyes and then undercut the route and make a play on the ball.

What makes Avery so special is how versatile he is. He has the speed to cover receivers but also has the strength to get off blocks and make an impact in the run game.

I’m looking forward to seeing Avery impact games this fall just like he did on Friday night.

Russ Yeast

Also a highly touted recruit coming out of high school, Yeast was thrown into the fire a little bit last season as a true freshman when there were multiple injuries at the corner position. He showed during the spring game why he has so much potential.

Aside from being dynamite athlete and returning punts, Yeast also has the physical abilities to be a shutdown corner. He made a couple nice plays during the spring game, with his best being an interception in the endzone.

Besides putting himself in position to make a play on the receiver, Yeast was able to high point the football and had enough athleticism and ball skills to make the play.

Hopefully what Russ put on display Friday is a sign of things to come for this upcoming season.

Dorian Etheridge

The fact that Etheridge started every game as a true freshman speaks to how valuable of a player he is to this defense.

He built on what was a great freshman season Friday by being the leader and essentially the captain of the defense. He was able to make all the calls and let every one know what defense they were running.

Aside from getting every one set up, he also showed why he started as a true freshman. He kept his gap and consistently filled the hole where the ball was meant to go to. What especially stood out to me is how he was able to tackle in the open field.

There were multiple plays where it was just him and the elusive Malik Cunningham and he was able to break down and make the tackle.

Cards fans should be ecstatic that Dorian is going to be leading the charge on defense this year.

Robert Hicks

Hicks is a true freshman who has yet to play in a collegiate game, but there was no telling that this past Friday night.

While Hicks certainly has the physical capabilities to come up and tackle in the run game, I could not believe how well he covered downfield for a guy who is 6 foot 1, 240 pounds. There were multiple plays where Hicks either made a play on the ball or put himself in position to make a play on the ball at least 10 yards down field. He has the potential to be special player by the time he leaves The Ville.

If he can continue to learn the defense and adjust to the speed of college football like I think he can, it wouldn’t be very surprising to me if he plays a lot of meaningful defensive snaps this year for the Cards.

Jon Greenard

Although he wasn’t donning the number 58 this spring, Greenard looked just as dominant in his new number 7 jersey.

After being one of the Cards best players on defense last year, Greenard is heading into his Junior season looking to be just as dominant. He led the defense in tackles for loss last season and showed no signs of slowing down after making several plays behind the line of scrimmage on Friday night.

If he can build upon and improve on what he did last season, Greenard is athletic enough and good enough to get drafted next April. Here’s to hoping he can put himself in a position to do so this fall.

Takeaways from the Louisville offense

The Louisville offense looked a little bit different depending on whether the white team or the red team had the ball on Friday night. When the red team was on offense, led by Puma Pass, they tended to go away from the read-option and more to straight hand offs or designed runs.

Also, the Louisville offense seemed to open it up a little more in terms of throwing the ball when it came to Puma running the offense, as he made several throws down field, and even ran a little play action.

When the white team and Malik Cunningham had the ball, the offense seemed to run a lot more curls, slants, and other short routes. One thing that was interesting however, was that Bobby called for the read option type plays a lot more with Cunningham at the helm. His athleticism at the quarterback position reminds me a heck of a lot of somebody else that used to play here.

I would like to see Puma take care of the ball a little better come fall, as he made a few bad decisions that will more than likely be turnovers more often than not. However, it was just a glorified practice, and practice is all about making yourself better. Let’s hope Puma does just that and we’ll be just fine come regular season.

It’s worth noting that Bobby Petrino drew up a couple of bubble screens to get Tutu Atwell the ball in space.

I’d expect Bobby will open up the offense a lot more once the regular season begins as the play calling Friday looked pretty vanilla for the most part. That being said, with Bobby Petrino calling the offense, I’d be shocked if Louisville wasn’t yet again one of the top offenses in the country.

Takeaways from the Louisville defense

For the most part, the Louisville defense looked pretty similar to how it did last year. They had a safety along with a hybrid type player who seemed to roam around depending on where the offense was lined up.

In terms of play calling the defense was very basic in that they didn’t dial up a lot of blitzes or things of that nature and tended to stick to their base defense. I’d assume this was due to the fact that they’re still trying to perfect the base packages of the new defense that Brian VanGorder installed when he became the new defensive coordinator.

One thing that was very evident during the spring game was that while the Louisville defense will be very young, they’ll also be very talented at just about every level.

I would expect that the defense will employ a lot more different looks and packages when the season rolls around.

Next: Examining Lamar Jackson as a New England Patriot

Louisville now has a little under five months to get ready for defending National Champions, the Alabama Crimson Tide, whom, they will face on September 1st in the season opener in Orlando.