Photo by: Adam Creech | Louisville Athletics
Brown, Clark Confident the Defense Continue to Show Improvement
February 11, 2021 | Football
The University of Louisville football team is officially in the swing of spring camp, and newly-promoted associated head coach and third-year defensive coordinator Bryan Brown addressed the media Wednesday to discuss his plans for the defense this year.
Brown echoed head coach Scott Satterfield's comments from Monday evening, pointing out that the Cardinals need to force more turnovers if they want to become more competitive moving forward. The way to do that, he says, is to get back to basics.
"When you're talking about spring ball in general, you always have to start with fundamentals," Brown said. "That's the main thing: make sure our guys are fundamentally sound. We're not game planning for anybody, we're not scheming an offense. We're just trying to get in our base stuff and do a great job with our fundamentals."
The Cardinals finished near the bottom of the ACC in turnover margin last season, thanks in large part to tallying only five interceptions on the year.
Louisville will likely field a young and relatively inexperienced secondary in 2021, but that also provides an opportunity to implement a new mentality on defense, Brown said.
"All three safeties that we signed, all three of them are here (at spring camp)," Brown said. "We had only two returning safeties coming back… we have four new safeties and two guys who were on campus already. It's awesome to have those guys now. That's the backline of our defense."
Second-year cornerback and transfer from Liberty Tre Clark has stepped into a leadership role to help some of the new members of the secondary understand the defense, a luxury he didn't have last season.
Clark joined the Cardinals just weeks before the season began, meaning he had to learn on the fly. Less than one year later, he's among the most senior players in UofL's backline.
"I basically had to just learn everything that the corner did," Clark said about his entry into he program. "I didn't worry about who was my help, where the linebackers were going to be, what the safeties had to do. I was just worrying about what I had to do.
"Now, trying to become a captain of this defense, I'm trying to learn everybody's position. Being that I have a spring and I'm going to have a fall camp, I think it's going to be dangerous. I'm not being cocky, but I feel like it's going to be a great season for me because I get to learn the playbook in and out."
Brown also pointing to putting opponents behind the sticks on first down as well as third down efficiency as points of emphasis for the Cardinals this offseason.
The Cardinals finished third in the ACC in the number of first downs it allowed last season (averaging 18.2 per game) and seventh in defensive third down percentage (39.9 percent).
This year, they want to rank higher in both of those categories on their way to much better results this season .
"We want to be top dogs. We're tired of being the underdogs," Clark said. "We want to be the Clemson of the ACC. We want to take over. And to do that, we have to put the work in that's necessary."
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Brown echoed head coach Scott Satterfield's comments from Monday evening, pointing out that the Cardinals need to force more turnovers if they want to become more competitive moving forward. The way to do that, he says, is to get back to basics.
"When you're talking about spring ball in general, you always have to start with fundamentals," Brown said. "That's the main thing: make sure our guys are fundamentally sound. We're not game planning for anybody, we're not scheming an offense. We're just trying to get in our base stuff and do a great job with our fundamentals."
The Cardinals finished near the bottom of the ACC in turnover margin last season, thanks in large part to tallying only five interceptions on the year.
Louisville will likely field a young and relatively inexperienced secondary in 2021, but that also provides an opportunity to implement a new mentality on defense, Brown said.
"All three safeties that we signed, all three of them are here (at spring camp)," Brown said. "We had only two returning safeties coming back… we have four new safeties and two guys who were on campus already. It's awesome to have those guys now. That's the backline of our defense."
Second-year cornerback and transfer from Liberty Tre Clark has stepped into a leadership role to help some of the new members of the secondary understand the defense, a luxury he didn't have last season.
Clark joined the Cardinals just weeks before the season began, meaning he had to learn on the fly. Less than one year later, he's among the most senior players in UofL's backline.
"I basically had to just learn everything that the corner did," Clark said about his entry into he program. "I didn't worry about who was my help, where the linebackers were going to be, what the safeties had to do. I was just worrying about what I had to do.
"Now, trying to become a captain of this defense, I'm trying to learn everybody's position. Being that I have a spring and I'm going to have a fall camp, I think it's going to be dangerous. I'm not being cocky, but I feel like it's going to be a great season for me because I get to learn the playbook in and out."
Brown also pointing to putting opponents behind the sticks on first down as well as third down efficiency as points of emphasis for the Cardinals this offseason.
The Cardinals finished third in the ACC in the number of first downs it allowed last season (averaging 18.2 per game) and seventh in defensive third down percentage (39.9 percent).
This year, they want to rank higher in both of those categories on their way to much better results this season .
"We want to be top dogs. We're tired of being the underdogs," Clark said. "We want to be the Clemson of the ACC. We want to take over. And to do that, we have to put the work in that's necessary."
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