Louisville Football doubles up with two 2020 football commits

The Louisville Football staff took a break from the trenches and landed two skilled position players this afternoon. Josh Minkins Jr. became the first legacy pickup for the new staff when he committed the staff during an unofficial visit today. Dexter Rentz announced his decision this afternoon on Mark Ennis’ radio show. Minkins will play for ShaDon Brown at safety while Rentz gets to be the first wide receiver to commit to the staff.

Minkins is the son of Josh Minkins Sr. who played for UofL from 99-04. His recruitment exploded this summer after he killed it on the camp circuit. He was named the DB MVP at The Opening in Nashville. It was just a matter of time before he committed once he got his offer. At 6-3/185, Minkins has a great frame that should be easy to build on. He also has good speed and has really good ball skills. Bryan Brown’s defensive backfields at App State routinely finished highly ranked in interceptions because he had players that knew how to locate and catch the football. Minkins is a very good wide receiver and those skills translate to the other side of the ball.

Dexter Rentz was recruited by ShaDon Brown and he’s a slot guy who had a ton of big plays last year. He averaged 20 yards per catch with 8 interceptions and 14 total touchdowns as a junior. Rentz has some craftiness to his game because of his quickness and short area burst. It allows him to play outside, inside, as well taking handoffs as a running back. Those skills will help him at Louisville as Scott Satterfield’s offense will use slot guys on jet sweeps and reverses. He also has outstanding body control. That is a skill that you really can’t teach. Some guys just know how to get their feet down on the sideline and how to adjust in the air to make a catch. Rentz shows those abilities.

Gunter Brewer has a strong history of developing wide receivers but one of my favorite guys that he has worked with is Ryan Switzer. Switzer is a guy with great traits but not great size or testing numbers. He became a great receiver for UNC and he’s hanging on in the NFL with the Steelers. I was always impressed with his route running ability and his ability to find spots in the defense. But it always stood out that he did great things to separate so that he could make a play after the catch. Personally, I think that Brewer’s coaching helped develop those abilities. Maybe he could do the same with Rentz.

Louisville has been on an insane run in recruiting lately and they’re not done. To put it bluntly, I was/am almost certain that they would be getting two commitments soon. I had no clue that either of these guys were going to commit today. So be on the lookout for them to land a couple more guys this weekend and they could get two more guys on defense pretty soon. The staff targeted a fairly small group of guys that they wanted for this class and they have landed a bunch of them lately.

Scott Satterfield said that he wanted to fill this class before the season started. There’s a good chance that he will be more than halfway done before July at this point. That should lead to a situation where the staff can focus all of their attention on a handful of high priority targets late this summer. That’s a dream scenario for this very active staff.