{"id":2586,"date":"2026-03-18T00:46:36","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T00:46:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/03\/18\/what-we-learned-from-louisville-footballs-first-2026-spring-practice-the-courier-journal\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T00:46:36","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T00:46:36","slug":"what-we-learned-from-louisville-footballs-first-2026-spring-practice-the-courier-journal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/03\/18\/what-we-learned-from-louisville-footballs-first-2026-spring-practice-the-courier-journal\/","title":{"rendered":"What we learned from Louisville football's first 2026 spring practice – The Courier-Journal"},"content":{"rendered":"

The word of the day was hungry.\u00a0
Louisville\u00a0football<\/a>\u00a0head\u00a0coach\u00a0Jeff Brohm<\/a>\u00a0called a\u00a0couple\u00a0players\u00a0hungry to get better and prove themselves, while noting that the\u00a0Cardinals\u2019 coaching staff<\/a>\u00a0must\u00a0be hungry to\u00a0take on\u00a0anything\u00a0to make the team better.\u00a0Between new coaches\u00a0at new positions\u00a0and\u00a0new players\u00a0from both\u00a0the transfer portal<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0high school recruiting\u00a0class<\/a>, Brohm is\u00a0establishing\u00a0a \u201chungry\u201d mentality as the Cardinals began\u00a0spring football practices\u00a0Tuesday.\u00a0
\u201cWe’ve\u00a0spent a lot of time since everyone got back to school learning the\u00a0new nuances of the offense and defense, a\u00a0lot of\u00a0new players\u00a0absorbing\u00a0the information,\u201d Brohm said.\u00a0\u201cThey’ve\u00a0been getting in\u00a0good shape\u00a0physically and condition-wise, and now\u00a0it’s\u00a0about putting it together.\u00a0So,\u00a0I think for the first day, it was\u00a0a good job.\u00a0There’s\u00a0still a\u00a0long ways\u00a0to go.\u201d\u00a0
UofL will have\u00a0four more\u00a0open practices before its spring football game at 6 p.m. April 17 at\u00a0L&N Stadium<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0
Here are three takeaways from the Cardinals\u2019 first open practice:\u00a0
Cardinals\u00a0linebacker\/safety\u00a0Antonio Watts<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Vanderbilt transfer\u00a0wide receiver\u00a0Tre Richardson<\/a>\u00a0will miss spring practices. Watts suffered a knee injury and had surgery after Louisville\u2019s\u00a020-19 loss to Clemson<\/a>\u00a0on Nov. 19,\u00a0while Richardson had foot\u00a0surgery\u00a0after the Commodores\u2019 34-27\u00a0ReliaQuest\u00a0Bowl loss to Iowa on New Year\u2019s Eve.\u00a0
Brohm said Richardson and Watts are\u00a0both on target to be healthy by July, at the latest. Watts had initially entered the transfer portal in the offseason but opted to stay with\u00a0Louisville for his final year of college.
\u201cHe’s played\u00a0a lot of football, so\u00a0for him, getting him\u00a0healthy,\u00a0it’s\u00a0important,\u201d Brohm said of Watts, who ended the season with 42 tackles (6\u00bd for loss) two sacks and a team-leading three interceptions.\u00a0\u201cHe’s\u00a0been out here learning, helping\u00a0the others, and I think\u00a0he’ll\u00a0be a big part of the defense.\u201d\u00a0
Brohm has mastered the art of uncovering hidden gems. At Purdue, he turned walk-on Aiden O\u2019Connell into an NFL quarterback. And at Louisville, Tyler Shough\u00a0used a stellar seventh-year senior season to become\u00a0the\u00a0third quarterback taken in\u00a0the 2025\u00a0NFL draft<\/a>\u00a0before becoming the New Orleans Saints\u2019 starter as a\u00a0rookie.
Now, Brohm\u00a0has the opportunity to\u00a0develop Ohio State\u00a0transfer\u00a0Lincoln Kienholz<\/a>\u00a0into one of the best quarterbacks in the country.
The South Dakota native was buried on the Buckeyes\u2019 depth chart during his time in Columbus, Ohio,\u00a0but is slated to be UofL\u2019s QB1 this fall. Kienholz\u2019s mobility and athleticism\u00a0immediately\u00a0jump out. He also has a decent, though sometimes inconsistent, range of throws, a testament to his youth and inexperience.\u00a0Brohm will have plenty of time to work with Kienholz in\u00a0preparation for the Cardinals\u2019\u00a0season opener against Ole Miss<\/a>.\u00a0
\u201cI think any time you\u00a0maybe haven’t\u00a0played as much as you want,\u00a0you’re\u00a0hungry, you want\u00a0to go\u00a0prove yourself. I love coaching\u00a0those type of guys,\u201d Brohm said. \u201c…\u00a0Lincoln\u00a0is\u00a0the guy we brought in here to\u00a0take\u00a0the reins and\u00a0showcase\u00a0what\u00a0he’s\u00a0all about.\u00a0And to this point,\u00a0he\u2019s done\u00a0a good job.\u00a0Now,\u00a0we’ll\u00a0get into\u00a0pads,\u00a0we’ll\u00a0get into some game\u00a0situations\u00a0and\u00a0we’ll\u00a0have to push the envelope there to make sure that him, plus all the quarterbacks, are gaining those real reps that matter.\u00a0But I think\u00a0he’s\u00a0eager to get that done.\u201d\u00a0
Richardson is expected to be\u00a0one of Louisville\u2019s starting receivers\u00a0in the fall.\u00a0TreyShun\u00a0Hurry<\/a>\u00a0appears to have\u00a0retained\u00a0his role as a starter\u00a0after starting in 10 of 13 games played last season.\u00a0He\u2019s\u00a0talented but still\u00a0somewhat inexperienced\u00a0after having played\u00a0just 317 snaps, the\u00a0fewest of\u00a0Louisville players who\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0miss a game.\u00a0Embracing the role of being a go-to player is the next step in his development, something Brohm believes\u00a0he\u2019s\u00a0ready to take on.\u00a0
After Richardson and Hurry, that leaves one other\u00a0starting\u00a0spot,\u00a0with\u00a0Florida State transfer\u00a0Lawayne McCoy<\/a>\u00a0eyeing the position.\u00a0McCoy\u00a0doesn\u2019t\u00a0have the size nor physicality that Chris Bell did but\u00a0offers versatility in where he can play after taking 230 snaps in the slot and 217 snaps out wide for the Seminoles last season.\u00a0Like\u00a0Hurry, the biggest knock is\u00a0McCoy’s inexperience.\u00a0
\u201cHe’s\u00a0got to continue to gain\u00a0experience,\u00a0and he does still have some youth, but he can run,\u201d Brohm said.\u00a0\u201cHe’s\u00a0got to be a big playmaker for us.\u201d\u00a0
Reach\u00a0Louisville football, women’s basketball and baseball beat writer Alexis Cubit at\u00a0<\/em>acubit@gannett.com<\/em><\/a>\u00a0and follow her on X at @Alexis_Cubit.<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The word of the day was hungry.\u00a0Louisville\u00a0football\u00a0head\u00a0coach\u00a0Jeff Brohm\u00a0called a\u00a0couple\u00a0players\u00a0hungry to get better and prove themselves, while noting that the\u00a0Cardinals\u2019 coaching staff\u00a0must\u00a0be hungry to\u00a0take on\u00a0anything\u00a0to make the team better.\u00a0Between new coaches\u00a0at new positions\u00a0and\u00a0new players\u00a0from both\u00a0the transfer portal\u00a0and\u00a0high school recruiting\u00a0class, Brohm is\u00a0establishing\u00a0a \u201chungry\u201d mentality as the Cardinals began\u00a0spring football practices\u00a0Tuesday.\u00a0\u201cWe’ve\u00a0spent a lot of time since everyone got […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2587,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2586","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2586\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}