Louisville football secures fourth commitment in eight days

Louisville football recruiting is continuing to pick up steam during the month of June, landing their fourth commitment in eight days.

In the words of Louisville football’s Gunter Brewer – “Freak Alert!”

We’ve known for a while it was going to take time for Louisville football’s recruiting efforts and relationship building to pay dividends. But over the last month, the coaching staff has been hitting the recruiting trail harder than ever, and the ROI has been tenfold.

Dezmond Tell, Zay Peterson, and Khatavian Franks all announced their intentions to spend the next three years playing football at the University of Louisville under the new direction of head coach Scott Satterfield over the course of the last seven days, bringing the class count up to six.

After this morning there’s now a seventh player committed in the class, raising the toll to four players in eight days. The commitment came from Collierville, Tennessee DT Jared Dawson.

The three-star defensive lineman chose the Cards over offers from ACC foes Georgia Tech and Wake Forest as well as Kansas, Missouri, and Memphis.

The new Louisville staff has been all over Dawson since offering him a scholarship earlier this spring, maybe even pursuing him harder than anyone on a long list of school’s. Dawson used one of his official visits early in May to check out the campus and get a closer look at the program, specifically meeting with the coaching staff to find out more about his fit and role should he chose to become a Card.

https://twitter.com/jareddawson92/status/1127739135538618368

While currently a tad undersized, Dawson is listed as a defensive tackle at 6’2″ 255-pounds and should be a nice fit in the Bryan Brown-led defense for the Cards, due to his versatility and ability to play both inside and outside.

As a junior Dawson showed great production for Collierville High School, totaling 68 total tackles (40 solo), and an incredible 29 tackles for loss. Dawson possesses good speed for a guy his size and uses it well when working to get into opposing offenses backfields. He also has really nice power and shows promise with being able to bull rush up the middle and take up multiple linemen, freeing others in the front seven to make plays.

Just based off of watching a bit of film, Dawson looks to be at his best when rushing the passer but also shows a lot of promise in the run game with his speed.

That’s not it. While there’s a lot to like about his game on the field, Dawson’s off the field interests give us more insight to what type of kid he is.

While staring as a defensive lineman at Collierville, he also doubles as a wrestler. This past season Dawson placed third in the heavyweight division at the Tennessee Class AAA state tournament going 50-3 in total during the season.

As if that wasn’t enough, Dawson is off the charts smart, scoring a 30 on his ACT and garnering interest from some of the most prestigious academic universities in the country including Yale and Army.

Collierville head coach Joe Rocconi described Dawson as a quiet but confident kid, saying,

"“He’s quiet but I think it’s a very quiet confidence. When he says something, he says what he means and he means what he says. I like him. Big time.”"

His determination, smarts, and skill level will all be a great fit for the Cardinal program.

Louisville now has two defensive linemen in the class of 2020 with Dawson and fellow three-star Dezmond Tell, and due to the line being an area of weakness over the last several years – it wouldn’t be surprising to see more lineman, particular at DE, come on board over the coming months.