The Cardinal Countdown: 9 Days Until Kickoff

A little tardy on the post today because I got a flat tire and then about 8 crappy things happened afterwards to derail my entire morning. I may be rocking a bum wheel but you know who doesn't have a flat tire? Traveon Samuel.

#9 Traveon Samuel

Class: Freshman

Ht/Wt: 5-7/175

Position: Wide Receiver

Hometown: Phenix City, AL

Twitter: @TraDay_DoThis

Thoughts: Three days in a row now I’ve covered a true freshmen who can have an impact on the 2015 season for Louisville. Often times you may view that as a negative, maybe heavy turnover or lack of depth allows a new face to make an immediate impact, but in this case…they’re just that good.

Traveon comes into the program as the highest rated recruit of the 2015 class, with Louisville beating out Auburn and Florida St among others to win his services. I self admittedly suck at the “he reminds me of” game but names like Deion Branch and Arnold Jackson immediately come to mind. Elusiveness, speed, great hands…there are some amazing parallels between all three. Back in the Spring Samuel clocked a 4.40sec 40 yard dash, which is impressive for a true freshman who only had 3 months worth of training from the Louisville staff. I’d actually expect this time to drop over the course of the next couple seasons. Speed isn’t the only tool in Samuel’s shed though as Traveon has shown he has the ability to run crisp routes and make moves in the open field. After watching a few highlight tapes it appears his high school could have run a bubble screen every other play and he would have racked up 8 to 10 yard gains almost every time. Watching highlights from high school, where Traveon was undoubtedly the most talented player on the field most games, can be dangerous in making broad scope assumptions but in every video I watched you never saw a lone player bring Samuel to the ground due to his ability to avoid contact and I think that will translate at the next level. With Quick being the #1 option in the slot I think Samuel will see the field either in his relief or if they go to a 4 or 5 wide set. I love the height of Staples, Sample and Peete, but having both Quick and Samuel on the field at the same time will be a nightmare for defenses, especially if they try and cover one with a  linebacker. Petrino lost a lot at wideout from last year but he is amassing quite an arsenal of weapons for seasons to come and I can’t wait to see how he uses them all.

Sweet Tweet:

Just made this number change #9

— Trâ'Vęøñ Šämùèł (@TraDay_DoThis) June 1, 2015

There are going to be quite a few Traveon Samuel jerseys being worn this year so hopefully he is well aware of the weight that rests on those numbers 9’s sitting atop his shoulder pads. The Parker career highlight tape is pretty damn impressive; I’m looking forward to watching the Samuel equivalent in four years.

P.S. We're in single digits people.