Louisville football way-too-early depth chart preview: Secondary
By Jacob Lane
Louisville football: Starters
CB – Chandler Jones (Jr.)
CB – Marlon Character (Sr.)
CB – Anthony Johnson (Jr.)
S – Russ Yeast (Sr.)
S – Isaiah Hayes (R. Sr.)
If you follow Louisville football closely, every one of these names should be familiar for you. That’s always a good thing for a team desperate for improvement across the backline.
When analyzing this secondary, I think the conversation has to start with senior safety Russ Yeast. The former corner was about as close as one can get to leaving the program for good when the coaching staff arrived prior to last season. He is a tremendous athlete who really struggled in his first two seasons under Bobby Petrino. According to the staff, however, that was no fault of his own. Satterfield and company came in and really felt that Yeast was playing out of position, and encouraged him to stick around and try a position change in their system.
When Yeast moved to safety, it changed the whole dynamic of the Louisville secondary last season. Yeast is quick, but he doesn’t possess the agility and press coverage abilities that a power five-level corner needs, and he was often exposed in an already-broken system under the previous regime. When he made the move to safety, Yeast thrived. He is a bit undersized, but more than adequate in pass coverage, and thrives at getting downhill. That will be his MO next season as he assumed more of a leadership role in his second year in a system for the fist time in his career.
Flanking Yeast will likely be former transfer Isaiah Hayes. The Arizona product was a solid option for the wildcats, but showed signs of being a starter when he saw time in year one at Louisville. Now, he has a chance to thrive in the free safety role in place of a hard-hitting Khane Pass, who Louisville loses to graduation. Hayes might not bring the boom quite like Pass, but from my assessment, he is a little bit better in pass coverage- Something that will be of Louisville’s benefit in 2020. If there’s a player that the Cards need to step forward next season, perhaps Hayes is the name to keep an eye out for one defense.
Read More: 5 players who will benefit from expanded roles in 2020
The cornerback position is where Louisville will have the most continuity returning all three starters from a year ago, Chandler Jones, Anthony Johnson, and Marlon Character.
Jones started every game for the Cards a year ago and was one of the most improved players overall and should take an even bigger jump in year two. He’s a player who I believe with more time in the system and the ability to play without thinking should lead to much more productivity, including takeaways.
The same will be true of Anthony Johnson and Marlon Character who will compete for the second spot opposite of Jones. Much like Jones, both showed major improvement last season in their first year playing for Bryan Brown and should be in line to produce much more in year two.
Louisville’s secondary has to be one of the most improved groups this year or there’s going to be more issues defensively. Last year no player in the secondary recorded more than one interception, which has been a crucial stat for Brown-led defenses. Too many missed tackles and missed assignments led to big plays thus the defense finishing 79th overall in pass defense. They’ll rely on the trio of experienced corners quite a bit this season.
Thankfully, I think we’re going to see Jones develop into a fringe NFL Draft prospect as a junior while Character and Johnson become dependable and productive starters.