Lets Go Portaling, the ‘Before’ Picture

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For those who have followed college football for quite some time, they realize that ‘recruiting season’ isn’t actually a season, but a three hundred and sixty five day a year adventure of selling your staff, your program, and your current athletes that this school, program, facility, is in fact, the place to be. It never ends, and the grind to get better never stops.

This recruiting concept has been unchanging from the time I was just a little boy when we’d have to check the TV listings to see which regional game we were going to get that week, but the last few years have thrown a new wrinkle in the fabric of college athletics, the elastic waistband of the sport if you will, known as the transfer portal. It continues to stretch in size each year as we feed it more and more players, but unfortunately for those seeking a landing spot and a new start, the duration of the portal has grown smaller. Lets hit some high level points on the portal, then look at the Cards specifically.

Portal Rules and Such

This year has brought about a few new changes in the land of the portal, and frankly kept some things the exact same. Maybe it’s best we hit the high points before we get too deep into the Louisville roster. Grab a helmet and suit up, but hold off on the astronaut food, this should only take a minute:

The portal in and of itself remains the same as far as it’s intent, a player is given a window of time to ask the school for their “release” and post their respective resumes for the entire sport to peruse and see if they have an opening for a player such as yourself. FYI: Most outside linebackers tend to leave off “Microsoft office skills” from this glorified LinkedIn post.
In the past there we two windows to enter your name, a postseason portal, and a post spring portal. It was chaos. So the NCAA changed it this year, and now we have just one, and we’re in it right now. From January 2nd to January 16th (15 days) anyone and everyone can throw their name out there and see who’s biting, but if you do, there is no guarantee your existing school will bring you back (See: “grass always greener”).
Teams in the College Football Playoff, whose season may overrun the window, or at a minimum go deep into the 15 day duration, are granted an extra five days from their teams last game to also enter the portal. Although as you may see, many are already jumping in as limited spots exist.
Teams who have a coach leave or fired during the year get an additional 15 day window starting five days after the HIRING of a new coach. As fickle as college football is, this could happen anywhere at anytime, so nice to know this extra caveat in the rulebook.
Once in the portal the player can be contacted by coaches and teams, usually to setup a visit or at least a discussion about playing time, the plan, NIL deals, etc. It is illegal for a staff to contact a player before this time…but agents and friends somehow might find ways to get a few tidbits of info prior to January 2nd. I know, I’m as surprised as you that people still find loopholes for illegal activity. Shocking, really.
Players CAN NOT enter the portal after January 16th without an exemption, one which may or may not be granted and may or may not allow for immediate play (i.e. may need to sit out a year).
Players DO NOT have to sign with a new school prior to January 16th, only enter their name. While in theory they could wait until August to enroll as long as all eligibility is ship-shape, most guys want to be involved in spring practice and attempt to solidify a starting sport early. You’ll see the majority of players signed look to get on campus in February to gear up for spring ball. The later you wait the greater the risk that there simply isn’t any roster spots available, but some have rolled the dice, and used it to drive up the price at positions of need in the summer. It’s a gamble, so you better have some folks around you who know what their doing.

Your 2026 Louisville Cardinals

If you look at the roster below, it may be a bit sketchy, but many rosters across the sport are in a similar state, looking to add anywhere from one (I see you, Dabo) to maybe forty new players to flip their roster after a disappointing season, or maybe a coaching change with a new philosophy. Now is not the time to panic….that comes later. Lets take a look at what we have on board as we sit today (trying to keep it to scholarship players, with freshman at the end). There are multiple other sites to track live changes as this will be a moving target, but here is what I see right now:

Quarterback

Briggs Cherry

With Moss graduating, and Brady Allen, Mason Mims, and Deuce Adams all entering their name in the portal, the room is slim, and needs life support quick. We all knew Brohm would target a QB no mater what, the question was is he looking for an experienced backup behind a Deuce or Brady next season, or another starter. We now have the answer. This piece, in my opinion, is critical to establish early to build offensive weapons around.

Running Back

Keyjuan Brown, Jamarice Wilder, Lekhy Thompkins

While ‘In Brohm We Trust’ is still printed on some of the fans currency, I’ve got a few ‘In Barclay We Trust’ nickels laying around as well. The running back coach has proven he can develop talent, but we have had consistent seasons where injuries have been huge in this group, and if not for depth, we could have derailed quickly. We need to hold tight to Keyjuan, and grab another starting caliber back to pair with Thompkins/Wilder.

Wide Reciever

Antonio Meeks, Brock Coffman, Terrance (TJ) McWilliams, Gavin Waddell, Marlon Harbin, Payton Cook

In case you’re not up to speed, lets run through it real quick. Gone due to graduation or transfer are Chris Bell, Dacari Collins, Caullin Lacy, Bobby Golden, TreyShun Hurry, and Kris Hughes. Yea, I know. So in my small brain, the way you pull in studs at wideout is to show the track record of the offense, show the guys you have put in the NFL by having them play in this offense…..and then tell them the talented QB who will be running it (see Quarterback, above). I think we need at least three starting caliber guys here to start, maybe more.

Tightend

Jaleel Skinner, Dylan Mesman, Julius Miles

One of the more underutilized areas of the offense, in my opinion, and I’d love to see another piece or two added, as the guys brought in have been used, just not as mush as I would like overall. We continued to rely on Kurisky and Skinner to be the primary pass catchers, and now Kurisky is in the portal. Also, one small note, as we sit today, we have no tightend coach. Ryan Wallace (former TE coach) took the job at Oregon State as Co-OC/TE Coach for the Beavs. That needs to be addressed if we look to bring in talent, as guys want to know who they are playing for.

Offensive Line

Lance Robinson, Sam Seacrest, Jordan Church, Naeer Jackson, Jimmy Williams III, Cameron Gorin, Gradey Anthony, Tyler Folmar, Jarvis Strickland, Charlie Edgeworth, Max Merz, Ben Corhei

The truth around the trenches is always the same. This is where you win and lose games. Offensive line is consistently one of the more underrated aspects of the game, but when you have a good one, you can dominate the run game, open the pass, and abuse the defense. It’s not hyperbole to say you need a solid “three deep” across the line due to injuries, fatigue, and overall depth. I see roughly 5-6 guys I trust as we sit today to play significant snaps in 2026. We need bodies. Losing Ransom McDermott, and a piece I thought would work nicely in Carter Guillaume is not ideal.

Defensive Line

Clev Lubin (!), Justin Beadles, Eric Hazzard, Jerry Lawson, Dillon Smith, Maurice Davis, Sam Dawson, Jonathan Adams

The defensive line was a great piece of that unit last season, and I saw in my crystal ball some nice parts of what we were building in 2026…and then they entered the portal. For me, no sugar coating, I love AJ Green and hope he returns, but with his name along with Micah Carter, and Selah Brown, guys I thought we’re developing, we are low in the name recognition department. Bringing back Clev was Priority #1 in my mind, and they did it (hat tip), but now you need the partner in crime to avoid double teams all year. This is where I think Vince Marrow has to earn his salary pulling in some guys who can dominate in the trenches.

Linebackers

Stanquan Clark, TJ Capers, Trent Carter, Cam White, Caleb Matelau, Taj Powell, Brady Ballart

I see Stanquan and TJ at the top of the list and get excited, but it’d be unfair to gloss over the loss (as we sit today) of Antonio Watts. Would really like to see a change of heart on that one as I love his game. If that doesn’t occur, we need help at the STAR/CARD spot. It’s a tough position and I’d prefer we not throw a redshirt freshman there if possible.

Secondary

Tayon Holloway, Blake Ruffin, Justin Agu, Rae’mon Mosby, Antonio Harris, Micah Rice, Jaydin Broadnax, Kris Brunson, Jordan Vann

Defensive line and linebacker talent can be quickly minimized if you don’t have the guys outside who can play coverage. Louisville has been blessed with NFL talent the last few years, and needs to reboot in a few key spots. This is an area they have had success dipping into the G4 pool or even below and finding those diamonds in the rough so to speak. This defensive staff needs to brush up on the four C’s (color, cut, clarity, carat) to make sure we’re getting the best value possible down the road.

Everything Else

Defensive Coordinator

Believe it or not, building a defense is kind of tough if you don’t know what scheme you plan to run. Rumblings around the Schellenberger Complex are that we “unofficially”, kind of sort of, possibly, know who the next DC is already, but on paper, we as fans have no clue, and nor do the guys in the portal until they have a phone call. This should be resolved soon to bring some comfort to the perspective defensive targets and a fanbase on edge.

Game Management Coordinator

While not an official title, they can call it whatever they want, I need someone on a headset who understands clock management and timeout usage as soon as possible. We joke at times, we possible overplay it at times, but this year we actually saw points potentially come off the board in multiple instances due to poor end of half and end of game management. Losing ballgames because we are focused on other things instead of these simple concepts is not acceptable. It should be fixed.

Special Teams…leadership

I’ll never publicly get on here and call for someone’s job unless it’s blatantly obvious they are in over their head, as I don’t see the day to day, or the man behind the curtain pulling the levers and pushing buttons. But what I have seen this past season is the reoccuring issues of past in the special teams unit that actually resulted in us losing a game (i.e. Clemson). Botched snaps, botched holds, shuffling of kickers, inconsistent punt game, missing extra points, it was all covered up at times by the big leg of Coop, as we were blinded by the swag and watching him bang 50 yarders…thus seemingly forgetting about the other stuff. Maybe it’s not a job change, but some serious time should be spent on why theses things occurred and finding people to fix it.

*******

I’ll have an ‘After’ post as we draw closer to Spring Ball and recap where the staff targeted their efforts across the three phases. Feel free to use the comment section to throw out names, opinions, tell me where I’m wrong, etc. I’ll try and stay active in the coming weeks. Tighten up your elastic waistband everyone, it’s portal season.

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