Welcome to my stream of consciousness 2021 Louisville recruiting class info dump. This will be the first of many.
I'm almost done with all the position hot boards. Only the "Athlete" section remains. This has been a foundational exercise that has given me some insight into who Lousiville is making a priority early and who is sort of waiting in the wings.
Recruiting boards are tiered. Once prospects from the first tier commit elsewhere the staff moves to the second tier and so on and so forth until they fill all the spots at a position. That doesn't necessarily happen right away, however. Last cycle Louisville filled up early and had to hold on to players as other teams swooped in and tried to steal them. So sometimes when a player commits elsewhere teams will still pursue that player without moving to another tier but they will turn the heat up on players further down the board while still recruiting the committed targets above. Eventually, however, a team will cut bait with a prospect and focus more intensely on the lower-tiered targets.
The tiers aren't always filled with prospects a program thinks are the best players in the country but rather based on a player's attainability, system fit, and region.
Attainability means the reasonable expectation that the staff can get the player to sign based on a bevy of factors. Competition is always the number one variable for a team like Louisville. If a kid from Kentucky has offers from and has visited Clemson, Ohio State, and Alabama and doesn't make a trip to campus or communicate well with his main recruiter from Louisville they are most likely to cut bait, case in point Jager Burton who I didn't even bother to list on the offensive line hot board. Other top in-state prospects like Damien Harris, Walker Parks, and Jedrick Wils come to mind.
System fit is also a key variable for who the staff decides to pursue. Louisville likes to stunt their defensive lineman so a big run stuffing two-gap interior lineman isn't going to be a high priority target over a quicker guy who can get skinny and get penetration. I don't want to discuss the comparative merits of this system I'm just using this as an example of fit. Also, Louisville's "Card" position is unique to their defensive scheme. Ideally, a card is long and athletic with a high football IQ who has good straight-line speed and the ability to change direction. He also has to be stout at the point of attack and a good tackler in open space and operate comfortably there. Think of long high school safeties who are a little too “stiff” to play safety in college but can function as a linebacker at the next level. That's a long-winded way of saying they have to be able to cover, play in the box, on the line of scrimmage, blitz, etc. The perfect "Card" would be a player like Isaiah Simmons. In this class, Benjamin Perry is the top priority at the Card position.
I put region last but it's a component of attainability and an argument can be made that it should be put first. Proximity to home matters based purely on human nature. As a species, we are no longer nomadic and we tend to live our lives rooted in one area, notwithstanding the obvious exception of transplants like myself. It blows my mind when USC is offering a kid from Ohio and flying across the country to visit him. Think about how many similar prospects that USC position coach flew over to visit Michael Drennan only to see him chose Kentucky. Most staffs cast what they call a "net" that ranges about 300 miles. Atlanta is a little over 300-miles from Louisville so it's no wonder that so many Louisville commits come from the Peach State. Florida is the exception to the 300-mile rule of course.
Anyway enough of that, here is the info you really want to know:
Right now I feel like Louisville is a good spot for the following prospects:
QB Aaron McLaughlin
RB Corey Kiner
RB Justin Johnson
WR Malik Nabors
WR JJ Jones
WR Kobe Paysour
WR Ahmari Huggins-Brice
TE Jordan Dingle
OT William Griffin
OG Mao Glynn
OG Aaron Gunn
C Michael Myslinski
DE Brayden Wood
DE Mattheus Carroll
DE Alex Okelo
DT Allan Haye
CARD Ben Perry
ILB Jack Dingle
ILB Gavin Barthiel
OLB Ian Jackson (Can play CARD too)
CB Ricardo Hallman
CB Mario Love
CB Daniel Edwards
S Jordan Lovett
S John Howse
That's 25 recruits. I'm not saying they land all those kids but if they landed a majority of them I would give this class an A grade because they got most of the dudes they identified early. Other names to watch closely over the next few months are:
QB Colton Gauthier
RB Jaylen Anderson
WR Dekel Crowdus
WR Micah Crowell
WR Tae'Quan Johnson
TE Lawson Albright
TE Quentin Moore
OT Brody Wisecarver
OG Michael Gonzalez
OG Austin Gentle
DE Travali Price
DE Andrew Booker
DE Travion Ford
OLB Cooper DeJean
CARD Dink Jackson
ILB Jake Chaney
CB Omarian Cooper
CB Kevin Knowles
S Brayln Oliver
ATH Raheim "Rocket" Sanders
Discuss...
I'm almost done with all the position hot boards. Only the "Athlete" section remains. This has been a foundational exercise that has given me some insight into who Lousiville is making a priority early and who is sort of waiting in the wings.
Recruiting boards are tiered. Once prospects from the first tier commit elsewhere the staff moves to the second tier and so on and so forth until they fill all the spots at a position. That doesn't necessarily happen right away, however. Last cycle Louisville filled up early and had to hold on to players as other teams swooped in and tried to steal them. So sometimes when a player commits elsewhere teams will still pursue that player without moving to another tier but they will turn the heat up on players further down the board while still recruiting the committed targets above. Eventually, however, a team will cut bait with a prospect and focus more intensely on the lower-tiered targets.
The tiers aren't always filled with prospects a program thinks are the best players in the country but rather based on a player's attainability, system fit, and region.
Attainability means the reasonable expectation that the staff can get the player to sign based on a bevy of factors. Competition is always the number one variable for a team like Louisville. If a kid from Kentucky has offers from and has visited Clemson, Ohio State, and Alabama and doesn't make a trip to campus or communicate well with his main recruiter from Louisville they are most likely to cut bait, case in point Jager Burton who I didn't even bother to list on the offensive line hot board. Other top in-state prospects like Damien Harris, Walker Parks, and Jedrick Wils come to mind.
System fit is also a key variable for who the staff decides to pursue. Louisville likes to stunt their defensive lineman so a big run stuffing two-gap interior lineman isn't going to be a high priority target over a quicker guy who can get skinny and get penetration. I don't want to discuss the comparative merits of this system I'm just using this as an example of fit. Also, Louisville's "Card" position is unique to their defensive scheme. Ideally, a card is long and athletic with a high football IQ who has good straight-line speed and the ability to change direction. He also has to be stout at the point of attack and a good tackler in open space and operate comfortably there. Think of long high school safeties who are a little too “stiff” to play safety in college but can function as a linebacker at the next level. That's a long-winded way of saying they have to be able to cover, play in the box, on the line of scrimmage, blitz, etc. The perfect "Card" would be a player like Isaiah Simmons. In this class, Benjamin Perry is the top priority at the Card position.
I put region last but it's a component of attainability and an argument can be made that it should be put first. Proximity to home matters based purely on human nature. As a species, we are no longer nomadic and we tend to live our lives rooted in one area, notwithstanding the obvious exception of transplants like myself. It blows my mind when USC is offering a kid from Ohio and flying across the country to visit him. Think about how many similar prospects that USC position coach flew over to visit Michael Drennan only to see him chose Kentucky. Most staffs cast what they call a "net" that ranges about 300 miles. Atlanta is a little over 300-miles from Louisville so it's no wonder that so many Louisville commits come from the Peach State. Florida is the exception to the 300-mile rule of course.
Anyway enough of that, here is the info you really want to know:
Right now I feel like Louisville is a good spot for the following prospects:
QB Aaron McLaughlin
RB Corey Kiner
RB Justin Johnson
WR Malik Nabors
WR JJ Jones
WR Kobe Paysour
WR Ahmari Huggins-Brice
TE Jordan Dingle
OT William Griffin
OG Mao Glynn
OG Aaron Gunn
C Michael Myslinski
DE Brayden Wood
DE Mattheus Carroll
DE Alex Okelo
DT Allan Haye
CARD Ben Perry
ILB Jack Dingle
ILB Gavin Barthiel
OLB Ian Jackson (Can play CARD too)
CB Ricardo Hallman
CB Mario Love
CB Daniel Edwards
S Jordan Lovett
S John Howse
That's 25 recruits. I'm not saying they land all those kids but if they landed a majority of them I would give this class an A grade because they got most of the dudes they identified early. Other names to watch closely over the next few months are:
QB Colton Gauthier
RB Jaylen Anderson
WR Dekel Crowdus
WR Micah Crowell
WR Tae'Quan Johnson
TE Lawson Albright
TE Quentin Moore
OT Brody Wisecarver
OG Michael Gonzalez
OG Austin Gentle
DE Travali Price
DE Andrew Booker
DE Travion Ford
OLB Cooper DeJean
CARD Dink Jackson
ILB Jake Chaney
CB Omarian Cooper
CB Kevin Knowles
S Brayln Oliver
ATH Raheim "Rocket" Sanders
Discuss...
