Louisville football: Cards lose running back to transfer portal

How will the loss of a veteran running back hurt the depth of Louisville football?

Over the course of three years, it always seemed that the Louisville football starting running back position was just a fingertip away for Dae Williams.

Two years ago, Dae Williams was the name that everyone was talking about during Spring Practice as the former two-star back out of Oklahoma burst onto the scene, making a name for himself when the Cards needed a start to emerge alongside of Lamar Jackson. An injury put that on hold.

Last year, Williams spent the entire spring and summer being talked about as “the guy” at running back for Louisville in the first season without Lamar Jackson, as the shift from a qb run-heavy offense to a more traditional scheme seemed to benefit the 6’2, 229 pound back who was built in the mold of former legend Michael Bush.

Unfortunately for Dae, injury once again limited his chances of landing the lead role for the Cards in the backfield, ultimately ending his season prematurely.

Little did we know that the last touchdown run, which ended up being the game-winner for Louisville in their last win prior to Saturday against Western Kentucky, was the last time Dae Williams would ever make a significant impact for the Cards.

On Monday afternoon, Williams took to Twitter to announce his intentions to enter the transfer portal.

After never being healthy enough to earn the snaps needed to emerge as a rotational back, or even the starter, Dae Williams saw the writing on the wall. While saying he was 100 percent healthy, Williams never seemed to earn favor with the new coaching staff and ultimately wasn’t even included on the Cards first depth of the season.

Since then, Williams has carried the ball exactly zero times and has yet to play a snap under Satterfield and the new staff.

Instead of losing another season of eligibility watching his teammates get the bulk of the carries, Williams’ decision to transfer allows him to focus on graduating early and recovering from his myriad of injuries while retaining two years of college eligibility likely starting next season.

The junior finished his Louisville career with 60 carries, for 306 yards and five touchdowns. There were plenty of great moments from Williams over the course of his career, including his first career touchdown against Florida State, just six months after tearing his ACL as well as the aforementioned two touchdowns against Western Kentucky last season.

But to me, nothing is greater than this.

Despite all of the injuries suffered and the constant shuffling of running backs, Dae Williams was always a guy who seemed to be upbeat and positive. During his four years at Louisville, I can’t recall anyone who came into contact with him ever say anything outside of he had a great head on his shoulders and a great work ethic. He was the consummate professional who always did whatever he had to do to put the team first and a living example of L1C4.

When new coaches come into programs a lot of the time, there are some players who get the short end of the stick. Unfortunately, due to numerous circumstances, including injury and not fitting into the scheme, it ultimately resulted in Williams deciding he needed to finish his career elsewhere.

Even with Louisville having an overall concern with depth, the loss of Williams shouldn’t be too difficult to bounce back from. The writing may have been on the wall on Saturday night when in the final moments of the game, Maurice Burkley was the running back taking snaps over the more experienced Williams.

For the remainder of the season, Louisville will roll with redshirt freshman Javian Hawkins and sophomore Hassan Hall, with former walk-on Maurice Burkley, and freshmen Aidan Robbins and Jalen Mitchell providing depth as needed.

All of us at Big Red Louie wish nothing but the best health and continued success to Dae Williams wherever the game of football takes him next.