Louisville's Communication Making Vast Improvements Ahead of 2025 Season

It's no surprise that, heading into the upcoming 2025 season, the defensive side of the ball for the Louisville football program has the most questions. Can the defensive line avoid a slow start? Can the linebackers get better in pass coverage? Can the secondary not be a perceived weak spot?

Sure, the actual players themselves certainly had their struggles last season, and the current group of defenders have some question marks. But one of the reasons that the Cardinals had issues on this side of the ball in 2024 was because of communication issues - specifically with the in-helmet comms system.

Far too often, defenders were either completely out of position because the call didn't come through in time, or they were still looking at the sideline/player with the helmet comms when the ball was about to be snapped. It even resulted in defensive coordinator Ron English having to come down from the sky box to the sideline midway through the year in order to help streamline the communications

This certainly wasn't the main issue with the defense last season, but it certainly played a role. That being said, communication doesn't appear that it will be a major issue in 2025.

"Well, we went through some hiccups for sure. ... but I think we were able to adjust pretty good after the few hiccups we had, and we kind of have the system down now," head coach Jeff Brohm said during the program's Media Day. "It's a little different than how you use it on offense with the speed of the game, so you have to be really be strategic and have a plan put together. I think we understand that way better now, and have kind of morphed, midway through the season, into what we're doing now, and trying to improve on that."

For the upcoming 2025 season, English will remain on the sideline. While it might not be the traditional spot for a coordinator to be, Louisville's players say it has helped them - as evidenced by the fact that the defense did take a bit of a step forward in the second half of the season.

"It's definitely a little bit different," defensive tackle Rene Konga said. "For me, I interact a little more with Coach (Mark) Hagan during the during the game. But if he has something to tell (English), it's definitely a lot easier. He doesn't have to wait until halftime to get the message across. If there's a change he wants to make in terms of the scheme, he doesn't have to wait until halftime. I think it's definitely more helpful for us."

On top of that, Louisville's coaching staff went the extra mile this offseason to retool the way they communicate calls to the plays. Part of this is simply getting more familiar with the actual in-helmet comms system, but they also wanted to make sure that calls were more concise and not as complicated.

"It's just like a car," cornerbacks coach Steve Ellis said. "You go under the hood, and you try to go in there and look at the motor, look at the battery, and that's what we did. Everything we did from an organizational standpoint, from a football standpoint, from a communication standpoint, we looked at to try to rebuild it. Take some things out and to make sure we roll out to this fall camp, we got a showroom car that's ready to roll."

Over the spring, summer, and first few days of fall camp, it seems like Louisville's retooled way to communicate calls to the players has worked as intended.

"I think the guys have did really good job understanding, buying in and learning," Ellis said. "Every time you come back there, the guys are back there in the meeting room, trying to get better, trying to learn."