Louisville football gets a crushing blow, but one that was expected. The Cardinals have been targeting Kentucky natives heavily the past few classes, especially in the 2027 class. The Cardinals landed multiple in-state recruits, including 4-star wide receiver Ja’Hyde Brown.
Brown currently attends Christian Academy of Louisville, where he ranks as high as No. 66 in the nation, No. 11 among wide receivers and No. 1 among recruits from Kentucky. Someone Louisville fans have also had their eyes on is one of Brown’s teammates in the 2028 class, Kellan Hall.
The Louisville native is a 5-star defensive lineman and one of the top recruits in the 2028 class. However, the Cardinals got bad news early Friday, as Hall updated his recruiting list to just 12 schools and didn’t include Louisville.
Local 5-star Kellan Hall cuts Louisville from updated list
It has always been a dream and an extremely long shot for Louisville to land Hall, as he has been trending with other powerhouse programs, but it does sting not to make the hometown’s final 12. Hall earned over 29 offers from some of the nation’s top football programs, and now he is down to just 12 schools.
The Louisville native’s final 12 includes Kentucky, Oklahoma, Michigan, Ohio State, Georgia, Tennessee, Texas A&M, LSU, Notre Dame, Miami, Texas, and Oregon.
NEWS: Five-Star DL Kellan Hall is down to 12 Schools, he tells me for @Rivals
— Hayes Fawcett (@Hayesfawcett3) August 21, 2026
The 6’5 270 DL is ranked as the No. 2 Recruit in the 2028 Rivals Industry Rankingshttps://t.co/VKiDCU9lOj pic.twitter.com/9WGZBmXPXh
The Louisville native was nearly unstoppable this past season for Christian Academy, helping lead the school to an undefeated season and a Class 3A state championship after logging 53 tackles, 17.5 tackles for a loss, and 6.5 sacks.
The 6-foot-4, 265-pound defensive lineman ranks as high as No. 2 overall in the 2028 recruiting class, No. 1 among defensive linemen, and is a unanimous 5-star recruit and the unanimous No. 1 recruit from Kentucky.
It was always a dream for Cardinals fans since Hall is a local 5-star, but the signs have been there that he was likely going to go somewhere else. On3 Sports gives Oklahoma an 83.9 percent chance of landing the 5-star, with Ohio State behind at 3.3 percent, followed by Notre Dame at 2.8 percent.
So now the hope is that Hall chooses anywhere but Kentucky or Miami, so the Cardinals don’t have to face him and their two rivals don’t earn his commitment.
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