The Confidential

Louisville 2014 Football Recruiting Update

With the Louisville Cardinals historical 2012-13 year coming to an end with a disappointing CWS performance its time to start looking ahead. Before we focus in on the 2013 football season lets jump ahead a bit. It’s still early in the 2014 recruiting process but the Cardinals are putting together one of their best classes ever. Louisville first ACC class brought in 15 commitments already, a number that is highly unusual for them. ESPN, Scout and Rivals are still evaluating the 2014 class and as the athletes compete in their senior season there will be many changes in the rankings. Even though its still early, lets take a look at some of the Cards top commits.

Reggie Bonnafon is one of the top prospects in the state of Kentucky. To allow 3 star Travis Wright to start his senior season at QB, Reggie started at WR last season for Louisville Trinity and backed him up at the QB position. His impressive performance at QB during last years camps garnered him attention from Louisville, Ohio St, Kentucky, Tennessee, Cincinnati and others. Rivals.com Josh Helmholdt named him one of the top underclassmen at last years Elite 11 camp in Columbus, Oh. saying that he threw the ball well. Reggie was the Cards first 2014 commit and will join former Trinity teammate James Quick, the Cards top 2013 commit. Together they helped lead Trinity to three straight state championships and were part of Trinity’s 2011 Rivals.com national title team. Both ESPN and Scout list Reggie as a top 20 QB with Scout giving him 4 stars.

Teddy Bridgewater, who didn’t switch to QB until his junior season of high school, is expected to enter the NFL draft at the end of this season. Reggie could challenge Louisville young QB group for the starting spot in 2014. If another quality QB comes available however, expect the Cards to take a shot at signing them.

Nilijah Ballew out of Cincinnati, Oh. is a 4 star commit and the 28th ranked safety according to Rivals. He is a player who should move up the other rankings during the season.

The Cards also picked up a pair of commits from Trinity Christian Academy in Jacksonville, Fl. 3 star WR Isiah Ford chose the Cards over Arkansas, Ohio St, Florida and others while 3 star OT Kavaris Harkless also had offers from West Virginia, Minnesota, Missouri, Maryland and others. ESPN lists Ford as the #24 WR and Harkless as the #21 OT.

The Cards ventured into Georgia to nab one of Scouts top 20 MLB. Detric Dukes is a 3 star prospect who also had offers from Auburn, Vanderbilt and others. They also received a commitment from 3 star OLB Henry Famurewa from Georgia as well.

3 Star safety Michael Johnson out of Hialeah, Fl. turned down offers from LSU, Nebraska, West Virginia and others to be a Cardinal. He is another athlete that I wouldn’t be surprised to see as a 4 star recruit by signing day.

Overall the Cards has the making of a very good, solid class. Already this class is ranked 15th by Rivals and 20th by ESPN but the Cards aren’t done. Louisville is also competing for several 4 star prospects, such as Cincinnati’s DT Danial Cage and South Carolina’s DT Poona Ford. Signing a few of these elite players would make this Louisville best class ever, something needed going into the tough ACC.

Louisville 2013 class was only a top 60 class but that had more to do with quantity (15) rather than quality. If you would take the average rating from the players signed and give them the average number of players signed by everyone else and suddenly the class would’ve been a top 40 class.

As ACaffery pointed out in his conference comparison, the ACC only trails the SEC in recruiting. The 2014 early rankings are no different. The ESPN rankings has 5 SEC teams in the top 10 while the ACC has 3. The Rivals rankings are similar with a 4-3 advantage to the SEC. Looking at the top 25 classes ESPN has 9 SEC teams with the ACC trailing with 8. The B1G and the Big 12 has 4 each. The Rivals board also has the SEC with 9 teams while the ACC has 6, B1G has 5 (+Rutgers) and the Big 12 has 3. The Pac 12 is missing from both lists.

Signing day is still 8 months away so these rankings will change, for both the schools and athletes. Around seven current 4 star recruits show Louisville in their top 5, they will need a few of them going into the ACC.

Related articles

• Conference Comparisons: Football Recruiting (atlanticcoastconfidential.com)