Louisville football: Four biggest story lines entering spring practice

Will coaching consistency and continuity finally pay off for the Louisville defense?

We are in unfamiliar territory as the Louisville Cardinals have managed to retain the same Defensive Coordinator for a second year since Todd Grantham.

With a serious lack of depth at key areas throughout the season, the Louisville defense still competed like we haven’t seen for years; An effort that definitely helped to go 8-5 last season.

Consistency is a big reason to be hopeful for the progression on the defensive side of the ball for 2020, as Louisville DC Bryan Brown is starting to build depth at positions of immediate need in year two.

Another reason to be optimistic about Louisville building defensive depth? Nine of the 15 early enrollees are Coach Brown’s prospects. Although it’s a lot of freshmen, having that many guys enroll early to start building their bodies and learn Brown’s unique 3-4 scheme will pay massive dividends going forward for the team.

Although the Cardinals didn’t make a massive statistical jump in the defensive rankings compared to the previous year like their counterparts on offense, there were many bright spots during last year’s season that has set the foundation and identity for Louisville going forward.

Between the original reshuffling of many now-returning defensive starters and early enrolled freshman, a few of which we expect to be instant impact players, I believe from a familiarity standpoint alone we should see a bigger jump from this Louisville defense in year two under Brown.

Overall, there are many storylines we could touch on going into spring camp (we’ll write about those too). With expectations set from a phenomenal first year, Louisville Football is already ahead of schedule going into Coach Satterfield’s second season at the helm. Here’s to more football just around the corner.