Q&A with U of L def. coordinator Todd Grantham

Louisville defensive coordinator Todd Grantham was a popular guy at media day on Saturday. He's the fourth-highest-paid assistant coach in college football and essentially the head coach of the Cards' defense.

Since arriving at U of L from Georgia, Grantham's changed the Louisville defense from a 4-3 scheme to a 3-4 and moved two key defensive players -- Lorenzo Mauldin and Terell Floyd -- to different positions than the ones they've played since they arrived at Louisville.

Grantham faces a significant challenge this fall: The offense will produce numbers. There's no question about that. But how will the defense do? Fair or not, this group will be compared to the 2013 Louisville defense, which ranked first in the nation in total defense and second in scoring defense.

Sure, the defense lost two first-round picks, a third-rounder and several other NFL signees, but fans are used to seeing an aggressive, confident defense in Louisville red.

Grantham spoke to The Courier-Journal and a host of other reporters during the media day roundtable on Saturday morning. Here are some of the highlights from his conversation:

On junior-college transfer Pio Vatuvei

Pio's very similar to (fellow juco transfer safety James Sample). We knew the kind of player he was. I had a good relationship with his coach in junior college. We're very comfortable with him as a person. He's got some good movement skills for a big man. You can never have too many guys who can do that. A rotation is critical at that position, probably more so than any other. He's a guy who we're going to work hard to get in our rotation.

On inside linebacker Keith Brown

Keith's a guy who's worked very hard. We have to progress him to where (fellow middle linebackers) Keith Kelsey and James Burgess are. The more reps he gets on the grass and without us on the field and just play, you can see him progress. We have to keep giving him the looks that we need to see.

On his middle linebackers, which is his position group responsibility

I've been pleased with Kelsey and Burgess and really Stacy Thomas. All of those guys have bought in and can help us. They communicate. We have to continue to develop running schemes. I like the direction we're heading. You have to keep building blocks and lay the foundation.

On Bobby Petrino's involvement with the defense

Any time you're the head coach, you're going to know what's happening with the defense. He's a guy that is very bright in the sense that, from a structure standpoint, here are the things that give us trouble. That's a great tool for us.

On defensive tackle DeAngelo Brown

DeAngelo's a guy who's very stout inside. He's taking up a couple guys in double teams. He works hard. Coming off an injury from last year, you can see an improvement in his movement skills from the spring to now. He's done a really good job of getting himself in shape.

On a defensive tackle's transition from a 4-3 to a 3-4

However you line up on guys, you still have to go strike guys and deliver blows. For a guy like him, it's probably more of an advantage to play that way for his skill set.

On defensive end BJ DuBose

The big thing that you always do is you evaluate the players you have in your team. Your scheme is relative to your personnel. DuBose is a guy who is playing end for us. He has shown some ability to be hard to block one on one. He can give you a little pass rush as an edge rush or inside guy.

On outside linebacker Deiontrez Mount

Mount's a guy who is probably as healthy as he's ever been. He gives us the ability to set the edge in the run game but he's got some movement skills for the pass game. When you look at our outside backers, guys who have movement skills who can play in space like that and you add that with his ability to come off the edge, he's a guy who can give us some production at that spot. He's a smart guy that can play more than one spot, which allows us to have some flexibility. He can be an outside backer or a defensive end pending on the situation. He's a senior who's invested a lot of time.

On Lorenzo Mauldin

He's a guy who can disrupt the game. The big thing for any linebacker is being stout at the point of attack against the run and have the ability to affect the game rushing the passer. I think he can do both things well. It's just a matter of working hard to get him caught up from not being here in the spring. That's what training camp is for. We have time to get that done. We just have to make sure we do that every day. Lorenzo is a guy who has a lot of pride in himself.

On switching Terell Floyd from cornerback to safety

We're always going to work to play guys at positions that best fit them. When he was playing corner, I saw a lot of passion in him. He's physical as far as a tackler goes. He's got coverage skills but he's got size. When you look at the attributes he has and you look at our safety situation, we felt like it would be best to play him at that position. It was a pretty natural move. It's going to allow him to make a lot of plays for us.

I've been really pleased with his progress and what he's done. He's embraced the position taht we put him in. I've been really pleased with him.

On Louisville's safeties and Gerod Holliman

As a group in general, we still have to work. I like the progress we're making. Holliman's much improved. He's done a good job with our strength and conditioning staff to get in the shape you need to be in to play big minutes. He studied the system and continued to work and he's shown up. We have to continue to develop him but he's a guy who's moving in the right direction.

On transitioning between coaching staffs

Any time there's a change as a coaching staff, you want things done a certain way. Part of that is explaining why you want it done that way. Nothing wrong with the way things were done before. This is the way things are done. This is the way you want to do it. You always have to flexible with your system relative to the players you have. We'll be different next year than this year.

On reading into first-team units in practices

We rotated a lot of guys in the spring. We set the guys as going with the first group, but it's interchangeable.

On why he came to Louisville

When you look at the landscape of college football, it's changing. The University of Louisville has an athletic director who is pretty aggressive and has a great vision of what he wants. Coach Petrino has won here before. If you go back through the history of Louisville football, he was a part of a great tradition when he was here before. Going to the ACC allows you to be in one of the toughest conferences in the country. The importance to that moving forward is, the way this four-team playoff system is going to go, if you win your conference, you'll be one of the four teams playing for the national championship. The combination of what I feel Coach Petrino is as a head coach and a offensive guy, I felt like it was something I wanted to do. Any time you can do something for the first time, it's kind of cool. Louisville going into the ACC is something that's exciting to people around here. It's pretty cut and dry.