Thoughts from Louisville's final spring practice
Well, college basketball season ended just in time for me to catch two spring football practices before Louisville's spring exhibition game on Friday night, which starts at 7:30 p.m. at Papa John's Cardinal Stadium. We don't know the format for the game yet.
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I stopped by Wednesday's practice, the 14th and final one of the spring, and took away a few quick observations:
Mauldin update
The star of the defense, Lorenzo Mauldin, said he's at "95 percent" now after off-season surgery to repair a torn labrum in his shoulder. He's moving from defensive end to linebacker, and plans to start working out in full in May. He's already running and working out on his own and he watched the spring practices from the sideline. April is his last month of rehab.
The change of position shouldn't be too challenging for Mauldin from an athletic standpoint. He already stood up quite a bit in Charlie Strong's defense. It's the terminology that's tough, according to his teammate and fellow end-to-linebacker-mover Deiontrez Mount. Mauldin said he's spent a ton of time learning the playbook and studying.
Switching to a 3-4 base
I put this in my Wednesday story, so I won't spend a ton of time on it, but Louisville looks fine switching from a 4-3 base to a 3-4. Like I said above about Mauldin, the returning players know how to play in a lot of formations. Strong used the 4-3 a lot, but Louisville mixed it up to keep opponents off-guard.
Impressions of the offense
Like I said, because of basketball I haven't seen a ton of practice, but in limited viewing time (and some conversations with others who've seen practice), a few players keep coming up.
On offense, it's freshman running back LJ Scott, who enrolled early but already has a 6-foot, 228-pound frame that's college-ready. DeVante Parker looks as good as you'd expect. He's big and graceful at the same time, and looks poised for a big season. James Quick had a tough practice last week when I saw him, but the former heralded recruit seemed more comfortable this week. And 6-5, 202-pound Matt Milton, a junior, has made an impact this spring as well.
The offensive line looks good, though it's hard to tell when they aren't wearing full pads and moving through full-speed simulations. Gerald Christian had an impressive off-season and should be a factor at tight end.
At quarterback I don't think there's any doubt that Will Gardner will be the leader for the starting job out of the spring. He takes the first-team snaps, and on Wednesday showed the kind of accuracy that will let the team's playmakers get the ball and do their thing. He had some nice zip on his deep balls early in last week's practice, but his second half of that session showed he still had some decision-making work to do.
Impressions of the defense
Terell Floyd and Charles Gaines will tough to beat at cornerback. Gaines is lightning quick and made several nice plays in the two practices I watched.
Richard Benjamin, a freshman who redshirted last season, made a fantastic read of a pass in today's practice and picked it off. Gerrod Hollimon also caught my eye at safety.
The first-team defensive unit had Hollimon and redshirt freshman Jarrod Barnes at safety, with Floyd and Gaines at cornerback. Jermaine Reve, the expected starting free safety, is out with an unspecified injury that required surgery last week.
At linebacker: Mount (strong-side) and Stacy Thomas (weak-side) took the outside spots and Keith Kelsey and James Burgess played inside.
BJ DuBose, Sheldon Rankins and DeAngelo Brown were the three down linemen.
Mount also said that freshman Finesse Middleton, who redshirted last fall, and Thomas have made substantial improvements this spring. Nick Dawson, Trevon Young and Lyn Clark also got shoutouts during post-game conversations with reporters.
Quotes of the day
OLB Deiontrez Mount: "It's a big playbook, and they just want to know who can learn it and who can learn it the fastest."
Mount: "This offense is really explosive. I can't wait for it to show up. Their formations are all over the place, their motion across the field. It's very hard for defenses to match up."
OLBs/ST coachTony Grantham: "I think we're going to come out of spring and take the momentum we have now and really hit the ground running with the rest of the off-season."
OLB Lorenzo Mauldin: "I see a lot of guys getting better from last year. There were a lot of guys who needed to step up to positions that we lost. I feel good to play against other teams with these guys."
Friday's spring game
Kicks off at 7:30 p.m. at PJCS. Admission is free. Gates open at 6. There will also be food, music and rides starting at 4 p.m. I may or may not be on the rides.
Thursday preview
Petrino will discuss spring practice and the exhibition game on Thursday at 1 p.m. I will be live-tweeting from that availability, and we'll also have video of it.