Louisville Football: Petrino Making Local Recruits Top Priority in 2019 Class
By Jacob Lane
The Louisville football program has a total of six commitments in the 2019 class, three of them are from the state of Kentucky. Expect several more over the coming months.
Fans around the Louisville football program have known about some of the big names in the 2019 recruiting class hailing from the city of Louisville, and around the state for quite some time.
The narrative has existed for several years that Louisville head coach Bobby Petrino has “failed” to recruit or make the recruitment of local players a priority. Though Louisville has had two straight top 30 recruiting classes, both of them being the best in recent memory regardless of coach, fans continue to want to bring up how the Cards have missed on local players.
Stephon Herron Jr. (2019), Rondale Moore (2018), Tahj Rice (2018), and Rodjay Burns (2016) are just a few of the names that are brought up when the conversation gets started about local recruiting.
While those are all extremely talented players that the Cards weren’t able to bring into the program, Petrino and staff have done just fine finding talent to keep the program growing and most importantly winning.
Some fans may see quotes from some of the top recruits in the class of 2018 who felt like they weren’t being prioritized by the staff, including Purdue and former Trinity four star prospect Rondale Moore. Even 2019 recruit Stephon Herron, told the Courier Journal last summer, “it seemed like they were recruiting out-of-dudes better than they were recruiting me and Rondale, two big athletes, 10 minutes away.”
But in 2019 things have changed. The class, as mentioned, already has commitments from one local prospect in Aidan Robbins from Manual high school, and two others from inside the state of Kentucky in Jack Rudolph, and newest commit Anthony Adkins. And if the quotes from Bobby Petrino earlier in the week tell us anything, it’s that the Cards aren’t nearly close to being finished. With two other four star prospects, and a handful of high level three stars, the Cards could end up with another top recruiting class, with a lot of “local flavor.”
Petrino said, “We worked hard at it all spring and certainly had our area coach in their school in the spring and then our position coach got there too. We’ve had a number of kids over to camp.”
So who are these kids… Let’s take a look.
Milton Wright
Position: WR/TE (Could play S or LB at the next level)
High School: Christian Academy of Louisville
Milton Wright should be and likely is, the top target of the Cardinal staff here in the city of Louisville. His talent is incredible, and was on full display this summer when he won MVP of the Rivals Summer Camp Series. Wright’s offers show just how good he is. Currently he’s being pursued several blue bloods including Alabama and Ohio State. He has elite size at 6’3, 190 pounds, with room for more growth. This would be the biggest local commitment, if the Cards landed him, since James Quick.
Everything that I’ve heard indicates the Cards and Bobby Petrino are in good shape to land him, but expect Alabama to make a big push for the local WR/TE.
J.J. Weaver
Position: DE
High School: Moore
JJ Weaver is another “elite” recruit that the Cards should be making a priority. We all know the struggles that the defense has had upfront, and adding a kid with elite college football size, 6’6, 220, along with quickness/athleticism, makes him a must have. Weaver, like Wright, has a lot of great offers and will have plenty of teams on his trail. He currently has offers from Miami, Georgia, Purdue, Ole Miss, and Oregon.
Weaver told 247 Sports he’d be committing in November of 2018, and didn’t have a list of schools quite yet. However, before his junior season at the Courier Journal media day for Moore High School, Weaver said at that time “Louisville was his top school.” Obviously since that date, Weaver has received several more big time offers, but I’d still say the Cards are probably in a good spot.
Jared Casey
Position: LB
High School: Ballard
Bobby Petrino and his staff offered Jared Casey after visiting the Ballard High School product last month, making him a new local target for the Cards. Casey transferred to Ballard last season from Trinity, but missed the season due to injury. The linebacker was an “under the radar” prospect who had just a few offers, until this summer when he began visiting camps. Since then his recruitment has picked up, and the Ballard linebacker even added a fourth star.
Casey told Cardinal Sports & Rivals recruiting expert Dave Lackford, “Coach VanGorder compared me to Jaylon Smith from his time at Notre Dame and said I’m his top priority at linebacker… (Petrino) wanted me to be the first local kid to commit and help keep all the local talent home.”
There’s not been much news on the recruiting front with Casey, but this likely will come down to Cincinnati, Oregon, and Louisville.
Shawnkel Knight-Goff
Position: LB
High School: Doss
Just like JJ Weaver, Knight-Goff is a big defensive end with a lot of potential. Many thought the recruitment of the Doss High School product was finished last month, when he committed to Mark Stoops and the Kentucky program, only to back off his decision less than a week later. There’s no real way to tell where the Louisville coaching staff stands in terms of their interest in SKG, though they offered him several months back.
Knight-Goff has serious potential, and his offers show that. After his commitment to Kentucky, Doss coach Michael Crowe told the Courier Journal, “I think he’s going to be a great prospect. His upside is tremendous.” Currently the 6’3, 210 pound defensive lineman has offers from Purdue, Cincinnati, Kentucky, Indiana, and Louisville, but I fully expect more offers to come when the season rolls around. If Weaver were to commit to Louisville, it would be interesting to see if the Cards would continue in their pursuit of Knight-Goff.
Recruiting with the class of 2019 is really beginning to heat up, and that can be seen recently here with the Cards, as they’ve scored commitments from the aforementioned athlete Robbins, and Larue County’s Anthony Adkins.
It will be interesting to see if Bobby Petrino is able to land all of the recruits in the class locally, several of which have offers from big, blue blood programs. If the Cards do get these commitments, expect them to rank within the top 20 for the first time in the Bobby Petrino era.
The class of 2019 isn’t the only class locally with a lot of talent. Following behind 2019, is the 2020 class, which features several players who could end up being four star talent when it’s all said and done.
Next: Dae Williams and Colin Wilson Ready to Lead Louisville Football’s Offense in 2018