Notes and Observations from Louisville's First Fall Camp Practice

Fall camp is officially here.

On Wednesday, the Louisville football program gathered at the practice fields outside the Trager Center, and conducted their first practice of the fall in preparation for the upcoming 2025 season. It kicks off the third fall camp under head coach Jeff Brohm.

The session was open to fans and the media, and Louisville Cardinals On SI was there for it all to watch the first day of the Cardinals' three week-long period of fall ball.

Considering it was the very first day of practice, there is bound to be an overreaction or two, especially since players were just in soft shell helmets.

That being said, below is our notebook of the more notable happenings that transpired during the first day of camp: 

• Just as a fair warning, there wasn't really a ton of major takeaways to be made from this practice. Under current NCAA rules, the first two days of fall camp have the players where only helmets, and this was almost exclusively an install practice where they simply get players to go through the motions and knock off the rust. There were a couple 7-on-7 periods, but not a full blown 11-on-11. I have some notes for this practice, but expect later open practice notebooks to have a lot more juice in them.
• After team warmups, Louisville held a brief punt/punt return segment on the main practice field. Cooper Ranvier booted the ball the farthest on his kicks, but Nick Keller held his own as well. As far as the returners go, it was: Caullin Lacy, Bobby Golden, Brock Coffman, Antonio Harris, and (surprisingly) Dacari Collins.
• During the first segment of positional drills, I spent this time watching the wide receivers - mainly so I could watch Collins and TreyShun Hurry. While I was impressed with how well Collins moved for his size, Hurry was the one who impressed more here. Of course, Lacy and Chris Bell had by far the best showing, and looked incredibly agile. Antonio Meeks, WR3 from the spring, didn't take part at first but eventually mixed in once they started getting balls from the quarterbacks.
• Miller Moss obviously was the most accurate when the receivers started running routes on air, but Deuce Adams was by far the best when it came to hitting guys in stride on deep balls. During this segment, Coffman also showed nice body control on a catch, and walk-on Jaedon King high-pointed a ball well.
• This is when I also noticed that Shaun Boykins Jr. was not with this group. Instead, he was actively cross-training with the running back group. Something to watch for down the line.
• I chalk this up to it being the first practice of fall camp, but there were a lot more quarterback overthrows and a lot more wide receiver drops than I anticipated. However, I don't expect this to be a common theme.
• Following the positionals was a brief 7-on-7 period that lasted maybe five minutes. During this time, Lacy had a great sideline catch, Hurry was able to haul in a ball off of a one-handed bobble, Adams had another strike up the seam, and Nigel Williams had a great PBU.
• Then, there was an extended period with the offensive line where they worked extensively on blocking schemes. Again, as expected with an install-heavy day of practice. Of note, from left-to-right, the starting offensive line was: Trevonte Sylvester, Lance Robinson, Pete Nygra, Vic Cutler and Rasheed Miller.
• Following a water break, the team did kickoff work on one field, and then the linemen did work on the other field. I went to go check out the latter, and the offensive line was basically continuing to work on nailing blocking schemes amongst themselves, along with a couple other drills. Again, it's hard to take away much from the first day of practice where there is very little contact. But on a drill that tested both footwork and their striking power, both Nygra and Cutler stood out the most here.
• Close to the end of practice was a slightly longer 7-on-7 segment than the one earlier in the practice. The defense looked crisp early, as Caleb Matelau had a near-pick, Cameron White played some tight defense to force a drop, and Antonio Watts had a pass breakup. The offense did eventually catch up though. Mason Mims delivered a strike to Jaleel Skinner, Moss did so to Meeks in a tiny window and on a dig route, Bell was able to leap to high point a ball, and Nate Kurisky snatched a ball away from a defender.
• Wrapping up practice, there was another "offense on air" type of segment. Collins and Hurry got regular reps at WR3, but so did Meeks, and Skinner got reps at tight end before Kurisky.