The Cardinal Countdown: 90 Days Until Kickoff

#90 De’Asian Richardson

Class: RS Senior

Ht/Wt: 6-3/330

Position: Defensive Line

Hometown: Jacksonville, FL

Twitter: N/A

Thoughts: For those who may not remember, De’Asian started at UofL as De’Asian, then changed his name to Johnny back in 2015 to honor to his grandfather, and is now De’Asian once again. If you think that’s confusing, imagine telling a kid playing for Tennessee back in 2013 that his teammate, wide receiver Paul Harris, was just dismissed from the team….except he was actually playing for Louisville now….and he’s a cornerback…and his name is Alphonso Carter.

De’Asian came to the Cards as a 4-star recruit who took a redshirt and ran through a myriad or injuries over the last three seasons. It’s a close race between number of injuries and number of name changes Richardson has had while at UofL, but I don’t think either of those will keep him from becoming a fan favorite in 2017.

With the departure of DeAngelo Brown the time has officially come for Richardson to become “the man in the mirror middle” of that experienced defensive line. For you faithful countdown readers you already know my stance on the nose tackle position, but just in case you’re new around these parts I’ll give you the Cliff Notes version…

‘It’s the most difficult and underappreciated position on the field’

Fill two gaps, stop the run up the middle, get pressure, call line shifts, represent your University in chicken wing eating competitions…you have to do a little of everything, and be very good at all of them. DeAngelo Brown became the first true nose tackle that UofL has had in quite some time when we switched over to the Grantham’s 3-4 defense. You may not remember but DeAngelo actually started at NT against Miami back in Game #1 of Bobby 2.0, and he never really gave up the spot the last three years. Even though the Cards new defensive coordinator Peter Sirmon hasn’t come out and said matter-of-factly that he will run the 3-4 this year….he’s gonna run the 3-4 this year (with a few wrinkles similar to Grantham, using a “star” position, i.e. Harvey-Clemons, etc). I talked about Kyle Shortridge pushing Richardson some this year, and they will undoubtedly split time, but I think the job belongs to De’Asian heading into the fall, it’s just gonna be up to him to show he can step into that big Brown void, and produce.

He has the size to fill the gap, he’s athletic enough to not get pinned down, and Coach LD Scott seems to love him, which is more than enough for me to be sold. He showed us a few sparks last season in limited time (17 TKL, 4TFL) and as I hinted at above, I think he has the talent to become a name fans fall in love with early this season…which name exactly is up to you, I guess.

Sweet Tweet: No twitter for Richardson so let’s use this as an opportunity to crank out the first litmus test of the fanbase for the 2017 season. We have a decent amount of roster tunrnover (I’ll cover this later), a new defensive coordinator, a new secondary coach, and a new offensive line coach….but we also have Bobby Petrino, a good chunk of the nation’s 3^rd ranked offense returning, and oh by the way, the freaking Heisman trophy winner in Lamar Jackson.

90 Days out…what say you…