Louisville Football Recruiting Notes

We are three days away from National Signing Day and the Cards’ football recruiting is still very much ongoing. This past weekend, the Cards received two verbal commitments, then lost two verbal commitments, and then may have gained a big commitment.

That probably made no sense, but here’s the news anyway.

On Saturday, big defensive tackle Jamaine Brooks committed to the Cards. Brooks is a 6-4, 315-pounder from Miami, Florida. Brooks chose the Cardinals over Illinois and Minnesota.

That same day, the Louisville staff received a much anticipated commitment from linebacker Deon Rogers. Previously a Georgia commit, Rogers switched to the Cards after several changes to the Bulldogs’ defensive staff. Deon is 6-3, 197 lbs, from Port St. Lucie, Florida and runs a 4.48 40 time.

On Sunday, Louisville lost two previous commitments. Anthony McClung, a wide receiver from Indianapolis, decommitted from the Cards after speaking with the Louisville coaches and learning he was being asked to greyshirt and potentially switch to defense.

McClung instead chose to commit to Cincinnati. Also on Sunday, quarterback Mike Rocco, an original Steve Kragthorpe commitment, committed to the University of Virginia.

Rocco had been widely rumored for several weeks to be quietly exploring other options, despite claiming to be a solid pledge for the Cards.

However, Rocco was looking at stiff competition at the quarterback position from his class as the Cards received verbals from highly acclaimed Luke Woodley and dual-threat Marcus Smith.

The potential huge news may not be unrelated to the Rocco decommitment. According to the Ohio State recruiting blog BuckNuts.com, quarterback Dominique Brown has committed to Louisville.

Dominique Brown, 6-3 and 215 lbs, is a four-star recruit and top 200 player nationally. He is an Ohio native and played at Winton Woods high school.

Brown has rushed for over 1,000 yards the past two seasons and is considered to be an elite prospect. He was being heavily recruited by Ohio State, but they wanted him to play receiver while Louisville offered him the chance to play quarterback.

We have not heard yet any official word on Brown, outside of the report cited above, but we have been hearing favorable reports on him recently and a commitment would not be a shock.

Louisville is still very much in the mix for big time prospects such as four-star defensive tackle Todd Chandler and four-star receiver Kadron Boone. Those two will come right down to the wire.

Chandler will decide between Louisville and South Florida, while Boone will decide between the Cards and LSU. In terms of ranking those two, Chandler is more of a necessity whereas Boone is more of a luxury.

Regardless, it will a very exciting Signing Day and we will obviously provide any updates as news breaks.