Louisville football: The rebuild and life after Lamar Jackson

Defense

Louisville’s defense wasn’t anything special last season. With just four starters returning, it could be one of the ACC’s worst. The troubles start, and are probably most prominent up front. Only one lineman, end Jonathan Greenard, returns, and around him is a bunch of youth. Tackle GG Robinson is the oldest of the bunch, as a junior, but he’s never really contributed a ton.

Outside of him, nose tackle Mike Boykin is a JUCO transfer sophomore, with no D1 experience. He was great for his JUCO team, but the ACC is a completely different experience. Jarrett Jackson rounds out the group. He’s a true freshman, and not a particularly highly touted one, so this could be a bit of an issue. Sadly, there’s just not many other players on the roster that could take his spot, so he’ll be thrust into action early.

The linebackers aren’t in much better of a place. Once again, just one starter, middle linebacker Dorian Etheridge, returns, and he’s just a sophomore, though he was very good last year. Junior Boosie Whitlow and sophomore CJ Avery are both new to the starting lineup. They did both play sometime in the past (Avery last year, Whitlow at South Carolina), but they haven’t started before.

The defensive backfield is the most experienced group, despite just half of its starters returning. Those returners are pretty solid though, as safety Dee Smith had 49 tackles last year, and Russ Yeast was solid at corner in seven starts. Oklahoma transfer P.J. Mbanasor should be serviceable across from Yeast, and JUCO safety Marlon Character has plenty of talent.

How bad can it be?

It’s never a good sign when a team lands a bunch of transfers and JUCOs on one side of the ball in one season. That either means that there’s no depth or no top end talent, and in Louisville’s case, it was both. The Cardinals defense is not in a good place, and I have no confidence that it’ll improve this season. In a conference like this, that simply can’t work.

They might get lucky, and put together something serviceable because of the amount of transfers they have, but I wouldn’t bank on it. I think this defense will finish in the mid-80s, and if something is going to keep Louisville out of a bowl game, that’s the most likely cause.