Louisville football recruiting: Cards land athletic 2021 offensive lineman

Louisville football adds lineman from North Carolina.

Just like in 2020, Louisville football is on an absolute tear on the recruiting trail in the month of June.

The Cardinals coaching staff is filling up at positions of need and players are jumping on board in order to assure that they have a spot on one of the country’s quickest-rising names in recruiting.

As we know, Louisville was paper-thin on both the offensive and defensive lines in 2019, and the coaching staff did an excellent job of filling spots up front in the last recruiting class.

Scott Satterfield and co. are doing the same thing again in the 2021 class. The Cards have already brought in four defensive linemen that are solid fits in UofL’s scheme. In addition, the staff already added offensive tackle Zen Michalski (who just received a massive ratings bump in the 247Sports composite) and offensive guard Aaron Gunn.

Louisville football offensive line taking shape

Today, the next piece fell for the Cardinals in the form of offensive guard Michael Gonzalez. The 6’4,” 290-pound rising senior from Monroe, North Carolina has seen his stock rising recently, but he comes as a bit of an unexpected commit for the Cards.

Gonzalez has scholarship offers from Ohio State, Florida, Kentucky, North Carolina, and NC State, but it appears that, aside from the Cards, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest, and Duke had the most contact with him.

We talk about this staff getting exactly what fits their system, and in Gonzalez, offensive coordinator Dwayne Ledford has landed precisely what he looks for in a lineman. He has college-ready size, is superbly athletic playing on the offensive and defensive lines, and he has it together off the field, boasting a 4.3 GPA.

You can find his highlights here.

Gonzalez is listed as a guard, but he has played at tackle almost exclusively so far in high school. Given his quick feet and versatility shown on tape, he could probably be utilized all over the place by the staff.

Louisville football is getting a good one in Gonzalez, and he is a name that will only continue to rise in this class moving forward.