Louisville Football: Three Things We Learned From Bobby Petrino’s Press Conference

Louisville football head coach Bobby Petrino met with the media today to discuss the state of the program as the team kicks off practice tomorrow.

Louisville fans got a nice update on the Louisville football program today when Head Coach Bobby Petrino met with local media to discuss everything from the quarterbacks, to the defense, and player health. Petrino had some very interesting things to say on his team, but nothing stuck out more to me than his thoughts on the season.

Though national media have expressed their doubts and disbelief in the team this season, picking them to finish fifth in the ACC Atlantic division, Petrino doesn’t think that matters. “Our projections, our expectations as a team aren’t down at all,” he said. “There’s not a thing we can do about what is going on out there so hopefully it motivates us.”

The team will open up camp tomorrow after what Petrino called “a great summer” with a newcomers practice and a veterans practice. Bobby Petrino gave updates on several players, the new defense led by Brian VanGorder and much more.

Here are my three takeaways.

1 – The Cards are finally healthy

Last season the Cards dealt with a plethora of injuries, several of which carried into the offseason. Guys like Colin Wilson, Dae Williams, Tre’sean Smith, Jared Goldwire, and others were healing up from injuries, some of which were pretty serious, and had big question marks surrounding them heading into camp.

Today Petrino cleared that up.

Sophomore running backs Dae Williams and Colin Wilson, who both deal with significant ACL tears last season are both healthy and back to 100% according to Petrino. They will both head into camp competing for the starting job along with returning backs Trey Smith, who Petrino has singled out several times over the last few weeks, along with full back/tail back Tobias Little. Petrino has been extremely high on all of these guys, and as he said on media day he believes this team will be extremely balanced and will feature a nice running attack.

Non-related to injury, Petrino also talked about incoming freshman Hassan Hall today saying, “I’m excited about a young man named Hassan Hall. I think he’ll be the fastest guy we’ve had at running back.”

Petrino also went on to say that sophomore safety Tre’Sean Smith, who suffered a nasty knee injury during the team’s bowl loss against Mississippi State, is back and will practice this weekend. “TreSean will start practice tomorrow.. The trainers say he is ready to go. There will be some parts of practice like one on one and competition drills that he won’t go early but trainers believe he will be ready for the first game,” said Bobby Petrino.

Another name that Petrino mentioned was incoming sophomore Jared Goldwire, who committed to this Cards this past season out of Fort Scott Community College. The 6’7″ 280 pound defensive lineman had shoulder surgery after signing day, but he will be good to know. Petrino told the media today, ” Jared Goldwire is back 100% and should compete for a spot on the defensive front.”

2 – Petrino has a system for the new redshirt rule

One of the more intriguing rule changes this summer from the NCAA was the new redshirt rule. In the past the NCAA was extremely “stringy” on what a player could do in order to maintain “redshirt eligibility.”

The new rule basically allows for players to play in up to 4 games per season and still maintain the redshirt, meaning they get 4 games for free essentially, while have five total years to play.

Petrino was asked how he might handle that this year. “My philosophy is who I think can contribute and help us,” Petrino said, “and use them early in the season. and then normally who you would redshirt, use them late in the season.”

This is an extremely interesting approach, one that could help the Cards immensely. There are several incoming freshman who could benefit this team, but may need some time in order to improve. Guys like Yassir Abdullah, Dejmi Dumervil Jean, Chandler Jones, Jairus Brents (we’ll touch more on him in a second) and Adonis Boone are all seriously talented players who may need some time to get adjusted to their roles, maybe add some strength or speed, and could provide impact later in the season.

3 – Four-star freshman Jairus Brents is on the roster and will practice

Jairus Brents, a four-star cornerback out of Louisville Waggener High School in the class of 2018 that had offers from just about every major blue blood program across the country, ended up at Louisville after many believed that wouldn’t happen. However, after his commitment several “incidents” involving Brents took place that put his spot on the roster in jeopardy.

I won’t dive into that, if you want that information you can do some digging yourself, but after weeks of speculation, Brents is indeed on the Louisville roster for the 2018-19 season and will begin practicing tomorrow.

As we are all well aware of, Louisville had some serious issues in the secondary last season both with veterans and young guys, and this year will be tasked with replacing all four starters. There is some nice depth at the cornerback position including two power five transfers Rodjay Burns (another 502 product) who transferred from Ohio State and Oklahoma transfer PJ Mbanasor, along with Russ Yeast, Chandler Jones, Telly Plummer, Marlon Character and a few others. Even with those players on the roster, there is still a lot of question marks.

Enter in Brents. Again, the kid is extremely talented and could be an impact player from day 1. At 5’10”, 178 pounds, Brents is extremely athletic, fast, and has elite play making ability. With him on the field the Cards are significantly better, no doubt about it. However, getting past his legal issues was a huge hiccup and now that-that is out of the way, he should be able to get into school and get focused on the upcoming season.

Usually press conferences aren’t a big deal and not a lot can be taken away from them, but today I feel like we learned a lot about this team. With Puma at the helm,  even replacing the most dynamic college football player of all time, the Cards are in a good position to get to the “next level” of the ACC. Though there is a lot of doubt coming from the national media, that’s bound to happen when you lose a player the caliber of Jackson.

However, those guys don’t know names like Jawon “Puma” Pass, Colin Wilson, Seth Dawkins, Jaylen Smith, Kemari Averett, Jon Greenard, Mike Boykin, Jaylen Smith, Dorian Etheridge, and all the others who will be dominant players this year and should help the Cards overcome onlookers low expectations.

CardNation FOOTBALL IS BACK. Only 29 more days until our beloved team takes the field in Orlando against the Alabama Crimson Tide.

Time to get to 1-0!