Louisville Football: Jaylen Smith Lands on Preseason All-ACC First Team
By Jacob Lane
The Louisville football program has gotten a little bit of accolade love over the last few days. That continued today with wide receiver Jaylen Smith being named to the preseason All-ACC team.
There wasn’t a ton of love shown for the Louisville football program in the 2018 ACC Media preseason picks, as the Cards were picked to finish fifth in their division, after being picked third each of their last four years. But the Cards have gotten some love when it comes to players and individual accolades.
Last week Louisville football’s Jaylen Smith, along with Dez Fitzpatrick, were named to the Biletnikoff Award Watch List, awarded to the nation’s best receiver at the end of the season while Micky Crum and Kemari Averett were named to the John Mackey Award Watch List, given to the nation’s best tight end.
Both Smith and Fitzpatrick had big seasons last year for the Cardinals, and deserved to be high on the award watch list. Today, some more love was given to one of those players, as senior wide receiver Jaylen Smith was voted by the media onto the 2018 All-Atlantic Coast Conference Preseason Football Team.
Smith who has seen significant improvement in all three seasons as a member of the Louisville football program, and that looks to continue this season as he headlines the deepest unit in the nation.
| Receiving | Rushing | Scrimmage | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | School | Conf | Class | Pos | G | Rec | Yds | Avg | TD | Att | Yds | Avg | TD | Plays | Yds | Avg | TD |
| *2015 | Louisville | ACC | FR | WR | 10 | 29 | 376 | 13.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 29 | 376 | 13.0 | 1 | |
| *2016 | Louisville | ACC | SO | WR | 12 | 27 | 599 | 22.2 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 27 | 599 | 22.2 | 6 | |
| *2017 | Louisville | ACC | JR | WR | 10 | 60 | 980 | 16.3 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 60 | 980 | 16.3 | 7 | |
| Career | Louisville | 116 | 1955 | 16.9 | 14 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 116 | 1955 | 16.9 | 14 |
Smith, who missed three games last season with a broken wrist, still finished the year with over 900 receiving yards, and could have been close to 1,200 had he been able to play in those games. The senior is an elite route runner with a great combination of speed and size, and has shown the ability to beat some of the nation’s top cover corners consistently. Also making the preseason list at wide receiver were Clemson’s Hunter Renfrow, Wake Forest’s Greg Dortch and NC State’s Kelvin Harmon. No doubt, Smith is the best receiver on that list and it’s not even close.
The rest of the first team All-ACC team featured players from Clemson (7), NC State (2), Boston College (3), Wake Forest (1), Georgia Tech (1), Florida State (1), Miami (3), and Duke (2). Aside from Smith, no other Cardinals were included on the first team.
Look at the preseason first team All-ACC defensive line. Incredible. pic.twitter.com/0e5vZzbXnm
— Stewart Mandel (@slmandel) July 24, 2018
As we’ve noted several times throughout the summer, no Cardinal receiver has reached the 1,000 yard mark since Harry Douglas in 2007, a record which easily should come down this season. Puma Pass, who will be taking over for Lamar Jackson at QB, should have no problems getting acclimated to his new role with weapons like Jaylen Smith, Dez Fitzpatrick, Seth Dawkins, Kemari Averett, amongst others.
As pointed out by Keith Wynne, the Louisville defense will certainty be put to the test this season as they will be face every single player who was voted to the first team All-ACC offensive team.
Yikes.