The Cardinal Countdown: 14 Days Until Kickoff

2021 Season Recap: Sam spent last year slinging the ball for Santa Monica Junior College out in …wait for it….Santa Monica, CA. The Knoxville native played for well known Alcoa High in Tennessee up until his Junior season, throwing for over 1,400yds and 21TDs helping them win their fifth straight State Championship in 2019. Looking to see some new competition the Tennessee native went out west and enrolled at Venice High School, but had his season cut out from under him with COVID. After turning some heads last year in JUCO, playing at 1st Team All-Conference and 1st Team All-California level, schools took notice, including Ole Miss and Kentucky among others. But Vaulton ended up choosing the Cards to further his career. His local QB mentor out in California thought that was a good idea as well. You may have heard of him….a Mr. Steve Clarkson. See some highlights below.

2022 Season Outlook: Vaulton is coming to Louisville to do two things. Learn from some talented and experienced QBs in the room already, and secondly…he wants to play. Sam is coming in with a chip on his shoulder and is looking to move up the depth chart once he gets the offense. Even after the departure of Malik the room will be crowded next year with some familiar faces and some new guys coming in looking to make a quick impact. We’ll see what Sam can do soon enough.

Sweet Tweet:

“Excuse me sir, it appears you unknowingly dropped this dime…” Poor #9 knew that throw meant it was night, night time.

*****

2021 Season Recap: Marvin Dallas has been a name on my radar for quite some time. Coming out of JUCO as the #1 prospect at OLB the newcomer was coming in to make a big impact, but knew he needed to wait his turn with some vets in the fold. After suffering an injury in 2020 Marvin came back ready to make some plays, and he got some opportunities at LB here and there to do just that. Marvin played in all 13 games and became a mainstay on special teams, and even got a start at OLB against Duke. He finished the season with 21 tackles, a couple TFLs, a sack, a QB hurry, and a big interception against Duke that he took back for 27 yards.

2022 Season Outlook: While I won’t go as so far to name names, the CARD position has been a bit tough to swallow at times the last couple years. I felt like we never really had the right guy in that spot and were just shifting talented players into that position because they were capable of doing the job. Now, I think the Cards may have two or even three guys who can play that spot and are actually a good fit. Ben Perry, a top recruit last year, has earned his name on the one line, but even Marvin spoke about this yesterday in his press conference that coaches are letting him know he will be splitting time during the year (we got a Wayne/Luke situation here). Marvin is a touch undersized but has good speed and can find the ball and make plays. Marvin admitted that in seasons past he let the mental aspect cloud his thoughts and create hesitation. Now that he is more comfortable with the playbook and the scheme, he can do less thinking and just go hard and fast. I like Dallas to take his Senior season as a chance to make a name for himself.

Sweet Tweet: The twitter handle above is temporarily shutdown…just like your wideout when they try and run some flimsy curl route on Dallas. “That’s the one Marv, that’s the silver Tuna”

Shoutout ‘The State of Lou’ for the tweet vid