5 players for Louisville football that you need to know

Anthony Johnson – CB

Sophomore

“In this defense in particular, guys have to fit at every level,” Satterfield said about his Appalachian State defenses way back in 2015, something that up until this day holds true.

One player who I believe fits their defensive scheme to a tee is sophomore cornerback Anthony Johnson. If you know me, you know I’ve been talking about this kid for months. Though the Cards were getting blown out against the likes of North Carolina State, Syracuse, and Kentucky, the one silver lining was Anthony Johnson.

The way he was able to cover receivers one-on-one in a scheme that wasn’t built for much of that and also make plays on the ball, showed that with a quality defensive coach around he could easily develop into a star. Well folks, with Bryan Brown here in Louisville as co-defensive coordinator AND cornerbacks coach, Johnson is set become the star of the Cards defense.

Johnson finished last season with 14 tackles, two pass deflections, and one interception. While those are great numbers, it’s worth remembering just how poor the Cardinals defense was, ranking near the bottom in ever major statistical category.

Even with the fact that Johnson didn’t see a high number of snaps until the end of the season, mostly under Lorenzo Ward as Interim Coach, he rated at the top of the Cardinals defense according to Pro Football Focus.

While App State mostly played with smaller corners, somewhere in the 5’9 to 5’11 area, don’t let that fool you. Johnson, who measures in at 6’1″ 191, has the mentality that fits exactly what the coaching staff is looking for. Speaking on his corners, Brown said:

"“Overall, it’s just that aggressive mentality that we want.  An attacking-style mentality; that’s our overall defense, but we also want that from the guys that play corner.  They’re not very big but they play with a chip on their shoulder and that aggressive mentality. Height, I don’t worry about it too much. Physically, for me, I just look for the most explosive cat that we can find.  No matter the height, whatsoever.  Just explosive; coming in and out of his breaks really explosive, being able to have a really nice vertical jump on deep balls.”"

Throughout Satterfield’s time as Head Coach, the Mountaineers had a group of corners who were some of the best in the Sun Belt as well as nationally. Since 2014, the Sun Belt honored over 10+ corner backs on their first and second-team all-conference teams, 40% of those were made up of App State players, including Clifton Duck and Tae Haynes. During those four seasons, a Mountaineer CB led the league in interceptions on two different occasions.

From 2014 to last season the App State defense intercepted 68 passes, second in the FBS, with corners being responsible for more than 30 of those. With Louisville football having a nice returning crop of corners including Chandler Jones, Marlon Character, PJ Mbanasor, Telly Plummer, Cornelius Sturghill, don’t be surprised to see a much improved unit from a year ago. But also don’t be surprised to see Anthony Johnson take a big step forward as the Cards number one corner.