Cards Officially Add Three to Football Staff, Slade to Stay?

I’ve been a bit under the weather the past few days so I haven’t been as on top of things, but Charlie Strong has officially added three to his football staff. We told you last week about Jon Fabris, Pat Moorer, and Vance Bedford, but today we found out Kenny Carter will join the staff to coach running backs and special teams.

Carter comes to Louisville from Florida, becoming the second Gator assistant to join Charlie Strong. He coached the running backs at Florida for the past two seasons and is known as a great recruiter. Prior to joining Urban Meyer’s staff, Carter coached at Vanderbilt, Penn State, Pitt, and LSU.

Just like with Fabris, Bedford, and Moorer, Kenny Carter has spent considerable time in the SEC. He also has a lot of experience recruiting in the southeast, which is proving to be the direction this staff will go.

With Carter’s hiring, this now means the offensive and defensive coordinators, defensive line, and strength coach are now in place. Obviously, offensive line and wide receivers coaches are still to be hired and we will provide names and information when it’s available.

It is looking more and more like secondary coach Larry Slade will be the lone coach to be retained. Slade’s first year at Louisville was 2009, but before, he spent ten seasons on Tennessee’s staff. We have not heard definitive word from coach Strong, but Slade is still recruiting and recruits have made comments implying Slade will stick around.

If true, I like the move to retain Slade. He was highly recommended when hired by Steve Kragthorpe and his success at Tennessee is impressive. Slade is also a good recruiter and has strong ties in the Baltimore, Maryland and Virginia areas, which produces some good talent.

With more of the staff in place and a big recruiting weekend upcoming, I expect to see a lot of news within the next five days or so. There are many big time football recruits coming to campus this weekend and with more staff members officially in the fold, it would not surprise me to see several commitments.

It would also not surprise me to hear about more staff members, or potential staff members, coming out of the weekend. Regardless, it should be an interesting weekend and we will definitely update if/when news breaks.