U of L football preseason: defensive line

With preseason camp set to start on Tuesday, Aug. 5, college football is so close we can taste it.

So, with that in mind, we'll review each Louisville football position group over the next seven days as the players get ready for camp. We started with special teams, and now we'll work through the defense before finishing with the offense. Once camp gets going, we'll be updating our U of L page like crazy, and the closer the season gets, we'll review each opponent on the schedule.

The goal with this series is to give a snapshot of each position group -- who's coming back and who's new, if there's a fight for a position and what kind of ability the position group has.

Today, we turn to the defensive line, a group that turned to a three-man front and lost all of its starters.

Positions involved

Right end, left end, nose tackle in a 3-4 scheme

Where the units ranked nationally last year

Scoring defense - 12.2 points per game (2nd)

Total defense - 251.5 yards per game (1st)

Rushing defense - 80.7 yards per game (1st)

Passing defense - 170.8 yards per game (5th)

Sacks - 43; 3.3 per game (2nd)

Tackles for loss - 102; 7.8 per game (7th)

Takeaways - 27; 16 interceptions, 11 fumbles (23rd)

Who's returning

DE Sheldon Rankins, Jr.; DE James Hearns, R-Fr.; NT DeAngelo Brown, Soph.; NT Johnny Richardson, R-Fr.; DE BJ DuBose, Sr.; DE Kyle Shortridge, R-Fr.; DE Pio Vatuvei, Jr.

Who's new

Hearns, Richardson and Shortridge all redshirted last season. Vatuvei is a transfer from San Mateo Community College, where he spent one year after a freshman season at Washington.

Any position battles?

None of the starting positions are safe, though Rankins is considered the defensive front's leader and him coming out of the starting lineup would be a bit surprising. DuBose is a pretty safe bet to start. Brown is coming off an Achilles' heel injury that forced him out of last season, but former U of L coach Charlie Strong raved about him late last season, saying he'd be an impact player in 2014. He'll fight with Johnny Richardson, who redshirted last season but, at 6-3, 334 pounds, is a big body in the middle.

What to expect

Louisville coach Bobby Petrino is excited about his front seven. He's said it multiple times. But that excitement, to me, is as much about the linebackers as anything. The defensive line has a lot of questions.

The defense as a whole struggled in the spring game, which, in fairness, had stripped-down rules to keep the quarterback from taking hits. The defense wasn't allowed to blitz in what would normally be pressure situations. Still, the running backs in both the first and second units ran all over the front sevens, and the safeties, as we'll discuss in a few days, had some major problems.

Yet former defensive end Lorenzo Mauldin, who's now at outside linebacker, insisted this group would be solid because of its experience. Rankins played in 10 games last fall and started in the Russell Athletic Bowl. DuBose appeared in 11 games and played both tackle and end.

After that, the experience is rather thin. Hearns came to college as a linebacker but added 47 pounds to switch positions. Shortridge, who I covered in high school, had an ankle injury that required surgery in the offseason. He was a physical powerhouse in high school, though there questions at times about his motivation. Richardson is a big kid who hasn't played at the college level.

In other words, this part of the defense will be a work in progress. In the 3-4 scheme, controlling the interior is a critical task for the three down linemen because the outside rushers thrive in downhill, one-on-one settings with tight ends or running backs. If the interior linemen are neutralized in one-on-one blocks, like Alabama did to Notre Dame in the title game two years ago, the holes are huge and offensive linemen get downhill against linebackers. That's not good.

We haven't had a chance to study how new DC Todd Grantham moves the D-line around, at least in full game mode, so it's hard to project how active they'll be. The previous staff loved standing up ends or switching fronts to confuse offenses.

That said, I don't know what to think of the front three. The depth is there, I just wonder if it's as talented a group as U of L needs against the FSUs, Clemsons and Miamis of the world. Marcus Smith, Brandon Dunn and Roy Philon aren't here anymore, and Mauldin's standing up at linebacker. That's a tall order to replace those guys.

Previous position previews:Special teams

Tomorrow's position preview: linebackers