The Cardinal Countdown: 90 Days Until Kickoff

#90 Jared Goldwire

Class: RS Sophomore

Ht/Wt: 6-6/309

Position: Defensive Line

Hometown: Tacoma, WA

Twitter: @N/A

Thoughts: Goldwire was a BIG get for the Cards this year both literally and figuratively. Standing at 6-6 and weighing in at a biscuit over three bills Goldwire was a target for numerous schools coming out of the JUCO ranks last season. Having spent a couple years at Fort Scott CC over in Kansas Goldwire was getting offers from Oklahoma, Miami(FL), TCU, and numerous SEC schools, including Week 1 opponent Alabama. A heavy push from former Coach Cort Dennison and a relationship with other Class of 2018 commits seemed to seal the deal for Jared and he was part of the new early signee period back in December, enrolling at Louisville just 5 months ago.

Goldwire is originally out of Washington state and was a dominant force on the west coast out of high school, ranked as a Top 10 player in the state and a Top 10 player national at his position by 247sports. Spending two seasons in JUCO has allowed Jared to get used to the speed of college life and the accountability one has to have getting prepared to play at the Divison I level. Moving up to the ACC and playing at Louisville will certainly bring its own set of challenges, as it does for all incoming students, but the relationship Goldwire has built with LD Scott and Petrino certainly appears to have helped so far. BVG spoke about Jared on NSD and said his combination of size and agility will always be a threat up front fighting to get to the QB, something once again that the Cards may need some help with along the defensive line in 2018.

If there is a “but what about..” category for Goldwire on this breakdown I’d be doing a disservice to not mention the injury bug that has followed him the last few years. At Fort Scott Goldwire suffered a torn ACL which not only limited his 2016 season but had him facing rehab a good portion of the calendar year. After coming back in 2017 from the ACL news broke just recently (February) that Jared had surgery on his shoulder and would not be able to participate in Spring ball, a big reason why he enrolled early to begin with. I’m not sure if this was contact related or a previous injury that had flared up but losing 3-5 months of training and practice is never great. The good news is that Coach Scott at the time indicated that Goldwire should be ready to go for fall camp this year and I’ve heard nothing different since that time.

If you’ve read the countdown the last 9 days you know that my concern up front is depth. We need able bodies to fill in the holes and be solid second string players starting Week 1. While Michael Boykin was the more popular JUCO name in this past recruiting class, if Goldwire can remain healthy I believe he makes an equally large impact fairly early into the 2018 season.

Sweet Tweet: Jared used to have a twitter account but it appears to be deactivated…just like Pusha T deactivated Drake…amiright, fellow kids?

Instead, let’s take a look see at some high school tape on Mr. Goldwire in action (WARNING: Graphic Images not suitable for quarterbacks)