The Cardinal Countdown: 20 Days Until Kickoff

#20 Trenell Troutman

Class: Junior

Ht/Wt: 5-11/197

Position: Defensive Back

Hometown: Miami, FL

Twitter: @FlyyNell

Thoughts: Troutman’s journey to Louisville and his career thus far have had quite a few ups and downs. From committing to the Cards early in the recruiting process back in 2016, to losing his recruiter/position coach (Dennison) before ever playing a snap for him, to a tough 2018 season, to getting his position coach back on the team, and go ahead and mix in a few position changes along the way.

Troutman has been been shifted around a bit from linebacker to secondary but it appears the staff will keep him at safety in 2020. Coach ShaDon Brown highlighted Troutman earlier this week as one of the handful of guys he currently trusts to put out there on gameday. Troutman didn’t blow up the stat sheet last year (26 tackles, 1 TFL 1 FF) but he played in all 13 games and contributed on special teams when he wasn’t getting reps in the secondary. While I’ve never personally shared a field with Troutman you can tell from watching him play he has a chip on his shoulder and if I had to guess, he does a bit of talking out there each week as well. So much so, he’s got guys throwing punches at him.

Troutman came in as a highly touted prospect and now that he’s an upperclassman I’d anticipate he will start to contribute a bit more and push for more time behind Seniors Yeast and Isiah Hayes. With Yeast still working his way back from injury a guy like Troutman could see more time early in the year if Russ isn’t ready to go. Trenell has good speed and we’ve seen flashes of his ability the last couple years in terms of coverage and open field tackling. I’d like to see him take that next step in 2020 and position himself as leader on the defense in 2021.

Sweet Tweet:

Me and you both, man. Me and you both.