Who will be Louisville football's starting running back? 5 things to watch at fall camp

Louisville’s fall camp is set to begin Wednesday, signifying the start of the 2022 season.

The Cardinals, who were picked to finish fourth in the Atlantic Division by media members in the preseason poll, are armed with a mix of experience and newcomers, among both players and coaches. The squad will look to put it all together in hopes of its first winning record since 2019, Scott Satterfield’s first season at the program’s helm.

Louisville’s season opener is also its first ACC game, with the Cardinals traveling to Syracuse for an 8 p.m. contest on Sept. 3. With a little over four weeks to go before that game, here are five things to watch for heading into fall camp:

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What will the offense look like under Lance Taylor?

Louisville underwent five coaching changes during the offseason. The team brought back Nic Cardwell to coach the offensive line, in addition to hiring Wesley McGriff to coach the secondary and serve as co-defensive coordinator and Josh Stepp to take over the tight ends room. Greg Gasparato moved from coaching safeties to outside linebackers and Lance Taylor became the new offensive coordinator.

Taylor has had success as both a running backs and wide receivers coach at the college and professional levels, respectively. Now replacing Stu Holt as the Cardinals’ OC, the former Alabama walk-on wide receiver has an experienced quarterback in Malik Cunningham and a bevy of skill players to work with, like Miami transfer wide receiver Dee Wiggins and redshirt sophomore running back Jalen Mitchell.

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Satterfield, who has known Taylor since coaching together at Appalachian State in 2009, will still call plays. But the new OC will play an instrumental role in putting plays together and being the leader for the offensive unit.

“What he has done is come in and really — the organizational skills that he has with our offensive staff, and then our offensive unit bringing them together,” Satterfield said about Taylor during the ACC Kickoff on July 20. “A lot more of the offensive units, making the whole offense feel a part, and I think he is tremendous with that. … He has brought some new ideas, some new things that we can do, and he is coaching our wide receivers, and I love our group in that room.”

Having a full spring and summer to get acclimated, Taylor will use fall camp to continue settling into his role before making his debut with Louisville in September.

What will Malik Cunningham do in 2022?

A good portion of Malik Cunningham’s spring was devoted to getting him more comfortable passing in the pocket as opposed to being more prone to run. He showed progress in that during the spring and continued the work over the summer.

Part of that was developing even more confidence in his receivers group, which was built both on and off the field. With more at his disposal, the hope is that Cunningham can do less while still being a dynamic, dual-threat quarterback for the Cardinals.

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Last year, Cunningham totaled a team-high 1,031 rushing yards – fifth-most in the ACC – becoming the second Cardinals quarterback to reach 1,000 rushing yards after Lamar Jackson accomplished the feat in 2016 and 2017. Cunningham also threw for 2,941 yards, becoming the second player in school history to eclipse 2,800 yards with 19 rushing and passing touchdowns in a season for a combined total of 39.

His numbers helped Louisville’s total offense to rank No. 14 in the country, though it didn’t always translate into wins for the squad. The Alabama native will have one last fall camp with the Cardinals to make the necessary adjustments to his game to not just help himself and preserve his longevity, but also to use the depth he has around him.

“A lot of receivers that we're going to have this year didn't really play last year, didn't have really much production. A couple of them did, so just working on the things that I'm going to be doing in the game, simulate game-like stuff, just getting those throws in and working on all aspects of the game,” Cunningham said of his offseason focus. “Moving in the pocket, throwing off platform, going through all my reads, checking down to the running backs, not looking to run – things like that.”

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Who will be RB1?

One of the best problems the Cardinals have on their team is depth at running back. So much so, that it was the only position on the pre-fall camp depth chart that didn’t have a starter.

Trevion Cooley, Jawhar Jordan, Tennessee transfer Tiyon Evans and Mitchell were all listed as ‘or’ options for RB1 on that early list. The lack of an apparent decision will provide at least one outright position competition during fall camp.

The four-headed running back threat presents an opportunity to get more players involved in the run game outside of Cunningham, who was the team’s leading rusher a year ago. Adding Evans from the transfer portal also helped fill out the room. The former Volunteer suffered from an injury-riddled season in 2021 and played in only seven games but averaged 6.5 yards per carry for a total of 532 yards on 81 totes.

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In April after Louisville’s spring game, Satterfield praised Jordan’s spring practice performance and called Cooley one of the more improved players on the team but spoke most about Mitchell, who he referred to as ‘steady Eddie.’ The redshirt sophomore was the team’s second-leading rusher behind Cunningham last year with 772 yards on 155 carries with five scores in 12 games played.

“He’s probably our best pass pro guy, blocker,” Satterfield said of Mitchell. “He can catch the ball out of the backfield and make some big-time plays there, but he also ran the ball hard. I think he’s just really consistent. That’s what you want in a football player is somebody to be consistent. He brings it everyday, doesn’t say much. Just comes out here and works hard, but I do think having Tiyon and Cooley and Mitch and Jawhar, all four of those guys have helped each other.

“I think (running backs coach De’Rail Sims) has done a really good job managing that room and really trying to get the best out of those guys.”

Which transfers can make an impact?

Satterfield wasn’t shy about going to the transfer portal during the offseason, bringing in 12 new players.

Most have had the spring to adjust to their new team and made an impression already. Some, like wide receivers Dee Wiggins and Tyler Hudson along with linebacker Momo Sanogo, have made a strong enough impression that they’ve earned starting spots on the pre-fall roster.

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The bulk of the transfers are defensive players, helping to fill vacancies at just about every position. Sanogo in particular has been lauded as a leader and is expected to have an impact on the Cardinals’ defense following four years at Ole Miss.

One of the team’s biggest gets was defensive lineman Jermayne Lole, who came to Louisville after spending three seasons at Arizona State. Though currently listed as a backup to sophomore Dezmond Tell, PFF deemed Lole college football's second-best interior defensive lineman prior to the 2021 season. The Long Beach, California native was sidelined for the year, though, with a triceps injury sustained during the preseason. As a sophomore in 2019, he produced the Sun Devils’ third-highest tackles in a season since 1990 with 72, behind Shante Carver (79 in 1993) and Terrell Suggs (73 in 2002).

Louisville also added seven players to the secondary, giving McGriff depth behind returners Kei’Trel Clark, Josh Minkins, Kenderick Duncan and Chandler Jones.

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Who will bounce back in fall camp?

Injuries will always be something teams face, but the Cardinals took three huge blows last season with Clark, linebacker Monty Montgomery and wide receiver Braden Smith all going out with ACL tears at various times in the year.

All three were missed at their respective positions last year and have been cleared to play this fall. It'll be the first time they'll see live reps since getting hurt, which may cause them to both be anxious to play while also needing some time to get back into the swing of things. Montgomery and Clark, one of Louisville's two all-ACC preseason team selections, are projected starters and should get plenty of reps in the fall to help that process come along quicker.

Smith is currently listed as the backup to Ahmari Huggins-Bruce but should still be in the rotation of receivers throughout camp. Having played only five games in 2021, Smith caught 11 passes and one TD for 68 yards but averaged 13.7 yards per catch for 370 receiving yards during his first season at Louisville in 2020.

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This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Louisville football: As fall camp begins, here's what we're watching