The Cardinal Countdown: 41 Days Until Kickoff

#41 Jarrod Barnes

While still officially listed on the roster Jarrod posted a message on instagram (Gorgui voice) indicating that he has transferred from UofL to Ohio State. Jarrod has already completed his undergraduate degree from UofL and wished to move back home to Ohio to be closer to family. Jarrod will walk-on for the Buckeyes and have two years of eligibility left. Wish Jarrod the best of luck moving forward

#41 Kevin Elijah

Class: Junior

Ht/Wt: 5-7/156

Position: Cornerback

Hometown: Bakersfield, CA

Twitter: N/A

Thoughts: Kevin comes to the Cards after a couple seasons at Bakersfield Community College. While we have some talent in the secondary we are not very deep and not very experienced. I think a lot of fans expect JHC, Williams, Tru and Shaq to step right into prominent roles and pick up where Gaines, Holliman, Sample and the rest left off in 2014, but that is expecting quite a bit. Those guys were talented (hence them being NFL draft picks) and acting as if filling those holes is “no big deal” could set us up for disappointment. I think our secondary will be fine, but we may have some rough patches those first few weeks.

Players like Elijah may not get a ton of reps but we need some players back there who have a few years under their belt and can provide adequate relief if we’re put in a pinch. Not much film from college I could find but Kevin got some face time as a senior in high school on the ‘IBN Sports Daily Play’…

Anyone else waiting for the “boom, goes the dynamite” call?

Sweet Tweet: No twitter for Kevin that I could locate but with him coming over from California I was curious to see who else we grabbed from The Golden State considering it hasn’t exactly been a pipeline in recruiting for Louisville in the past.

As I dug through the roster the interesting thing is that we actually have six players from California currently and every single one of them arrived here from a Junior College. We snagged James Sample, Tyler Ferguson and Pio from there last season and then Cole Hikutini, Kiola Mahoni, Elijah and Jeremy Smith in 2015. The funny thing is if you look at next year’s top JC players from Cali we already have the #3 prospect in Dwayne Wallace committed and have offered the #2 prospect (a cornerback) as well. Looks like Bobby and staff are trying to build something out there and are being fairly successful in doing so. Sample and Pio prove the concept of looking out west works and I think Cole, Smith and Mahoni will cement that philosophy this season.