Louisville Football: True freshman Tutu Atwell making his mark

In a down year for Louisville football, there are still some bright spots that shed a positive light on the future of the program. One positive for the Cards is true Freshman Tutu Atwell.

For Louisville football fans, it can be tough to find any positives in a sub-.500 start to the season. But, one thing Cards fans can take away is the outstanding play of some newcomers- particularly true Freshman Chatarius “Tutu” Atwell.

The young wide receiver came into the season with high expectations because of his knack for making big plays with his blazing speed. Atwell has a very unique skill set and can have certain packages of the offense designed strictly for him.

We all expected major impact to be felt from veteran receivers Jaylen Smith, Dez Fitzpatrick, and Seth Dawkins but thus far into the season it’s been lacking from the offense has a whole. Tutu Atwell has been one of the few bright spots, making his mark on the national stage in the loss to Georgia Tech.

Atwell played quarterback during his time at Miami Northwestern where he built a bond with former Louisville football quarterback Teddy Bridgewater. Although Atwell was never projected to take snaps behind center at the next level. he didn’t have a bad high school career at the position. Standing at just 5 feet, 8 inches, Atwell is just a little short to play behind an offensive line that is an average of 6 foot 5.

Ranked by 247 Sports as 57th best athlete in the 2018 class, and 110th overall in the state of Florida with a three-star rating. Atwell has the potential to outplay his ranking coming of high school. He showed flashes all season, but in a losing effort he had a breakout game Friday against Georgia Tech.

Atwell hauled in 4 catches for 79 yards and caught 2 touchdown passes from Puma Pass. Teddy Bridgewater was watching with a smile on his face, and tweeted this out after his second touchdown catch.

Tutu Atwell is the first true freshman with multiple touchdown receptions in a game since 2011. Check out this highlight video of his night against Tech.

https://twitter.com/ULFBRecruiting/status/1049758904270409728

So far this season, Atwell has 10 catches for 188 yards. I look for that number to grow as long as Bobby Petrino can keep getting the ball in his hands. Atwell has the speed and elusiveness to take it to the house every time he touches it. He’s that kind of talent but has to be utilized by the coaching staff properly.

It would be great to see Atwell get the ball on a reverse or jet sweep and see if he can hit the corner and get into the open field. Since he has experience playing quarternack, maybe Atwell could execute a reverse pass and hit the quarterback on a wheel route like Petrino used to do with Michael Bush and Stefan LeFors.

What is next for Atwell? I only see the stock and production going up for the true freshman to finish out the season and will come into next year as a lethal weapon for Louisville football. Atwell will be the type of player to leave his mark on any game he plays in.

It appears he knows that, too. When speaking to the media on Monday, Atwell said of Boston Colleges defense that he sees “A lot of slow people.”

https://twitter.com/Pat_Jaggers/status/1049797822629990400

Bold strategy, Cotton.

Initial reaction is going to be to tell Atwell to just let his play on the field speak for him. Especially after Bobby Petrino and Dez Fitzpatrick came nowhere near backing up their confident talk with play on the field for the first half of the season.

But, if there is anyone who deserves to be able to talk a little smack at this point in the season, it is probably Atwell. He gets open in space. He makes catches, and he makes plays. No other offensive player has performed as consistently when called upon as Atwell.

Not all is bad on the football front this year because of some talented young guys like Atwell. Cards fans can look forward to see talent progress during the rest of this season and the rest of his career.