Louisville football’s newest commit indicates rebuild ahead of schedule

Louisville football adds a huge target to the 2020 class as Christian Fitzpatrick completes his official visit weekend with a commitment to the Cards.

It’s brotherly love in the city of Louisville. Despite falling to Clemson on Saturday, it’s been a great weekend for recruiting for both the Louisville football and Louisville basketball programs.

After watching Chris Mack pick up a big commitment (you can read about him here), Scott Satterfield got his turn to celebrate a big win as the Cards landed arguably their most important target in the class of 2020 in Dez Fitzpatrick’s very talented younger brother, Christian Fitzpatrick.

I recently wrote about the 6’4” 210lbs Fitzpatrick rescinding his original verbal commitment to Washington State University, then announcing an official visit to Louisville for the Clemson game. The Cards were confident that If all went well on the official visit, they should receive good news even with a loss to the Tigers – and they did. 

Christian tweeted out his official commitment to Louisville Sunday evening –

Christian is no stranger to the campus or facilities, as he’s visited many times with his dad (and football coach) Greg Fitzpatrick since his brother Dez’s commitment in 2016. However, with the unfamiliar incoming coaching staff and the notion that the future of Louisville’s offense would be on the ground (which he wasn’t exactly wrong), Christian committed to the passing attack of Washington State University in July, before de-committing just last week.

After speaking with Coach Fitzpatrick last week on the BRL Podcast we had a sense this was coming. Greg spoke about Christian’s decision to take an official visit after he originally committed to doing so a while back, despite his commitment to Washington State. However, at the time, we had no clue when the decommitment would happen.

With the overall recent success on the field and the direction the program is headed under first-year coach Scott Satterfield, ultimately the brothers could not pass up the opportunity to suit up together on gamedays.

Even the older brother had to get in on the action –

https://twitter.com/dezfitz8/status/1186075737008279558?s=20

The way the older Fitzpatrick has been playing I was expecting to see him make the jump, but I just might start getting my hopes up from the looks of things.

We’ve known about Christian and his recruitment for quite some time but most of the talk has been squarely upon him being the younger brother of Dez, rather than on what he’ll bring to Louisville. So what are Satterfield and staff getting?

Well first off the new Louisville staff will get a big target with Fitzpatrick. Standing at 6’4, Fitzpatrick is already listed at 210 pounds touting a college-ready body and physique built to thrive in the ACC. While Dez has been known at Louisville for his ability to get down the field and beat defenders with his speed (even doing so after the catch), Christian is built more from the mold of current receiver Seth Dawkins, presenting his quarterback with a big, and extremely athletic target.

Describing his own game to former Big Red Louie Contributor Ross Prophater, Christian Fitzpatrick said:

"“I’m a real physical receiver, but also smart with it. I can get over the top of a defense, but I’m good at recognizing soft spots to beat the defense. I’m a smart wide receiver. I have great hands and if you throw it up to me, I’m coming down with it every time. I can’t remember the last time I had a drop.”"

You’ve probably seen exactly that in videos shared on social media throughout the summer camp circuit and throughout the first half of the season and my guess is you’ll see it at a very high level under Scott Satterfield over at least the next three years

While his play is dynamic and will be a huge asset to the program for the future, it’s the message that Fitzpatrick’s commitment sends to everyone around the nation that to me is most important.

Not only has Christian been along for the ride to see his brother Dez over the last few years, but he’s gotten to see the program at its highest point in 2016 and 2017, and then at it’s lowest point last season under Bobby Petrino.

He’s seen what Louisville can be and what it shouldn’t be and now with Scott Satterfield and his staff building a new style of play and new way of doing things around the program, Fitzpatrick going “all in” shows other recruits that the rebuild is way ahead of schedule.

It would’ve been easy for Fitzpatrick to stay committed to Washington State or look at other universities without the “baggage” that Louisville has. But instead, after what he saw from the new staff and the new-look program he decided that continuing to move the program that he’s spent so much time around the last few years and make it special once again was the best move for him and his career.

Paired with two dangerous quarterbacks in the class in Tee Webb & Chubba Purrdy, Louisville now has their star receiver on the outside. He’ll also join slot receivers Braden Smith, Nick Malito, and Dexter Rentz as the Cards fourth commitment at the wide receiver position in the class of 2020 – something not many of us expected.

Louisville now has 23 players in the class and will look to stay rolling heading into the early signing period.