Louisville football: Meet the new Card that set social media ablaze

Louisville football JUCO transfer Braden Smith is turning heads early in spring practice. Why he could be an instant impact player for the Cards.

It’s still February, and basketball season is still in full force, but one Louisville football Card caught the attention of Louisville Twitter right in the middle of a huge basketball game.

While we were all locked in on the Louisville-Florida State game, the official Louisville football account posted this little number from the first day of spring practice.

As always, fans look for any reason to overreact to a hype video designed to increase one’s heart rate in anticipation of the first week in September.

But the one thing people couldn’t stop asking was “who the heck is No. 81?”

Meet JUCO transfer, Braden Smith.

A former high school quarterback, Smith is a converted wide receiver with absolute wheels. And, as you might have guessed, he was insanely fun to watch in high school in Flowood, Mississippi.

However, as these things tend to go with smaller run-first quarterbacks (listed at 5’10,” 185), Smith didn’t get much love heading into college, so he opted to stay close to home at Northwest Mississippi Community College.

It wasn’t until Smith made the transition to receiver in 2018 that he truly began to become the high-level college prospect he was when he committed to the Cards.

In his highlight package, Smith demonstrates the ability to get off the line well, and just as he did in his “viral” social media moment, he has already become so adept at gaining separation and being a sure-handed guy in the middle of the field.

Here’s what our buddy Keith Wynne over at Card Chronicle had to say about Smith:

"Smith is a reach for this staff on paper but his film shows that he can likely be a contributor right away. He shows a really good ability to find holes in the middle of the field and he makes catches with his hands away from his body. His past as a quarterback makes me think that he should have some fearlessness in the middle of the field and he shouldn’t have a problem taking a hit. Smith has good speed but he’s not a blazer. He also doesn’t have unbelievable quickness. He projects as a really good possession guy in the slot. UofL doesn’t have that right now and as the offense evolves they will need guys like him."

Tutu Atwell has the starting slot position locked down but given the transfer of back-up Keion Wakefield, the Cards would have been pretty thin across the middle going into the season.

Smith gives Louisville an added dimension in the slot as well.

Atwell loves to play the role of the deep threat that can get behind defenses, but given his slight stature, he isn’t built to take hits across the middle on short down situations.

Though his game is a bit different, Smith will likely play that Eli Rogers type of role where he is looked to when the Cardinals need to find the line of scrimmage and keep a drive moving. If he can do that, he should be able to carve out quite a bit of playing time in a deep Louisville receiving core.