The Cardinal Countdown: 25 Days Until Kickoff

#25 Josh Minkins

Class: Freshman

Ht/Wt: 6-2/179

Position: Safety

Hometown: Louisville, KY (Product of Ballard High School)

Twitter: @JoshMinkinsJr

Thoughts: Minkins was a nice get last year for a couple reasons. Not only is he a multi-sport uber-athletic young man that can likely play a few spots for Coach Brown, but he’s also a local legacy recruit who was a big help in starting to grow some roots with the local high schools. Minkins, for being a true freshman, actually looked pretty solid in 2020, getting reps in seven contests and hitting the stat sheet in four of those games, finishing the year with six tackles.

While the staff was looking at Josh to help fill the void at safety after losing Russ and Hayes he unfortunately suffered an injury not too long after new years and was sidelined during the spring. Satterfield provided an update a few weeks ago saying he was nursing his way back to 100% but was unclear about a timetable for return saying it could be in the first few weeks of the season or may not be until conference play. I did notice our guy Keith Wynne said Minkins was active during the first day of Fall Camp but was wearing the protective orange jersey. The good news for the Cards is that some of the newcomers, via transfer and high school adds, have stepped up and are looking like solid contributors in Josh’s absence. When Minkins returns to the field I think he’ll be battling some of these guys for time, but will absolutely be a part of the rotation with the safeties as needed.

Sweet Tweet:

My man got more sleeves than sweatshirt wearing octopus, but he out there looking fresh, though. You think they’re just plain old dry fit material, but I call that a ‘mink’ coat.

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#25 Jawhar Jordan

Class: RS Freshman

Ht/Wt: 5-10/186

Position: Running back

Hometown: Chandler, AZ

Twitter: @cutsondime

Thoughts: Before I watched a single second of Jordan his story was letting off some strong Trey Lewis vibes. Like, “that guy looked pretty good against us, maybe we should go get him?” For those who may have forgotten Jordan torched the Cards for 223 all-purpose yards while playing for the Syracuse Orange back in 2019. That was easily his best game of that season and ironically, he probably has more AP yardage in Cardinal Stadium than any other running back on the roster not named Hall, Mitchell, or Burkley.

Jawhar was a nice back out of high school, considered Top 50 nationally by ESPN, and Syracuse was excited about his potential. While he got a few shots in the ground game at the end of the season as a freshman (including against UofL) the Orange ended up using a redshirt on him and he eventually earned the role of starting tailback for the Orange in 2020. Unfortunately, three games in Jawhar suffered an injury that ended his season, and as he sat on the sidelines he watched Syracuse lose eight straight games to finish the year. A couple weeks later he was in the portal.

Jawhar joined the Cards over the summer and was in pads as fall camp started last week. A couple reports made comments about him being noticeably behind the other backs but you’d expect some rust that needs to be knocked off in general after the injury on top of learning a new scheme, new plays, etc. If he can’t crack the rotation out of the backfield do not be shocked to see him get some opportunities on special teams. In his only opportunity last year at kickoff returns he took one back 22 yards and in 2019 he averaged just a hair under 29yd/ret. Not to shabby to have him and Hall back there together as those numbers would have put them both in the Top 10 nationally in 2019. Either way we’ve added a young man with ACC experience who still has four seasons of eligibility left, a nice pickup.

Sweet Tweet:

Wow, even back in 2018 Jawhar was already envisioning a game on November 13^th, 2021 where the #CuseNation would come into Cardinal Stadium and he would run for 200+ in a dog walking that would embarrass their friends and family…..Nostradamus trash talk. I can dig it.