K.J. Cloyd Commits To Louisville Football

The Louisville football staff got a nice boost to their Linebacker depth today with the commitment of KJ Cloyd. 247 Sports ranks Cloyd as the 2nd ranked JUCO Outside Linebacker in the 2021 class. However, Cloyd will be joining the 2020 class and will join the team for the upcoming season. He is rated as a 3-star prospect and holds offers from Ole Miss, Arkansas, Minnesota, Texas Tech, and Arizona. Derek Nicholson gets the credit for landing him and that likely means that UofL plans to play him at Inside Linebacker.

Cloyd is another super long athlete who can run. It’s been a priority to get bigger and faster at the second level of the defense and UofL will be adding some immediate help with that endeavor. Cloyd’s Hudl page says he runs a 4.5 forty and has a 38 inch vertical. Watching his highlights, the speed looks legit to me and if you go back to his high school film you can see that he showed good long speed then, also.

I think that Cloyd is a really good fit either inside as a downhill linebacker who can blitz as well as play the run well or at the Dog spot. He sets the edge well but I do notice that he could do better to shed blockers more quickly. But Louisville is getting a very athletic guy who can do the key things really well and should develop the his body to help with the things he might struggle with. I also think he can cover pretty well as a guy who played some Cornerback and Safety before he bulked up.

Louisville’s football staff has been pretty good so far when it comes to working recruiting rules in their favor. JaDarian Boykin and Jamel Starks both joined the program a year later than expected by going to prep school and both will retain five years of eligibility. Cloyd is another example of the staff working the rules in the favor. Cloyd was a qualifier out of high school so he has the ability to go the JUCO route for one year and head to UofL instead of having to go for two years.

Louisville is getting immediate help with Cloyd and he also has four years to play three seasons. A very nice addition to the roster in a needed area.