Louisville S D'Angelo Hutchinson Ready to Step Into New Role

Across the sport of college football, every single team has players that will taking on new roles of some sort. Whether the players in front of them graduated, hit the portal, or have regressed in some from, each new season for a team always features a handful of players in new roles.

For the Louisville football program, once of those players is D'Angelo Hutchinson.

The 6-foot-3, 200-pound safety is entering his fourth season with the Cardinals, although he had a minimal role over his first two years at the college level. While he played in 20 games over the course of his freshman and sophomore seasons, he only collected 11 total tackles.

While Hutchinson wasn't able to make a super massive impact during this time, he was busy planning for when that time would eventually come. Playing behind starting guys like M.J. Griffin, Kenderick Duncan and Devin Neal, he wanted to make sure he emulated everything they were doing, so that one day he could get to where they were.

"Being behind them, watching the boys work every day, just adding little notes," he said. "Watching them, I feel like I added all that to my game. Like everybody that I played under, I added a piece of their game to mine. Just being a sponge, and watching them and what they were doing. I'm trying to do the same thing."

Last season, he got his first real chance to put what he had learned to the test. While Griffin and Tamarion McDonald were the starters on the back end, Hutchinson was the go-to reserve safety in 2024. He played in all 13 games, logging 52 tackles (29 solo), two for loss and three pass breakups. Not only did he have the fifth-most tackles on the team, but it was the most for a player with zero starts.

With Griffin and McDonald graduating, that paved the way for Hutchinson, coming off of a breakout season, to finally be in position to earn a starting role. However, that nearly didn't happen - at least at Louisville.

"He came to me, I think it was last January, and basically he wanted to transfer," defensive coordinator Ron English said about Hutchinson. "I said, 'It is your time. You don't want to transfer now.' I had to get on the phone with his mom, and all that stuff."

Hutchinson says that the reason he mulled entering the portal was impatience. While he was in a good spot to become a starter, he wanted to potentially explore opportunities. Fortunately, between the English's efforts to get him to stay, plus the love he feels from the UofL fanbase and his teammates, he opted not to enter his name into the portal.

"The fans, the program, and everybody around that made a huge decision on me staying," he said. "Plus Coach English. I really like working with Coach English, so that also played a huge role. I know I'm getting better, getting ready for pros, and getting ready for the next level.

"Then also my teammates. These are my brothers. I've been with these boys for the last six months, and we've been working. I knew I didn't want to leave. I know I want to be a part of this."

So far, that decision to stay looks like it will pan out in Hutchinson's favor. During spring ball and the first half of fall camp, the safety has not only been regularly running with the first team unit, but he he has been a regular playmaker as well.

"I'm just happy for him because he's more comfortable now, and not thinking," English said of Hutchinson.