Louisville football concludes spring with Red-White game. 4 things we learned Friday night

Louisville football concluded its spring season with the offense beating the defense, 45-37, on Friday night. The Cardinals’ defense led for much of the second half before the offense had three touchdowns in the final minutes to earn the win. Still, both sides of the ball provided fans with optimism for things to come heading into Year 2 under coach Jeff Brohm.

"It was a pretty good spring scrimmage like you'd like to have where you see some execution. You see some things that aren't very good," Brohm said. "You see some things that definitely stand out as positives, then you see some things that you definitely need to work on a whole lot to get better. All those things happened in one game, and that's good for us. We'll look at it and learn from it."

The offense scored points in its usual format, while defensive points were given through a defensive stop (two points), three-and-out or a fourth-down stop (three points), turnover (five points) and defensive touchdown (seven points).

Here are four takeaways from the Cardinals’ Red-White scrimmage:

About Tyler Shough

From the moment the spring game began, quarterback Tyler Shough was ready. He opened the scrimmage with an 80-yard touchdown pass to Chris Bell. The two later connected on a 45-yard touchdown to put the offense up, 21-11. Though most of Bell’s yardage on the 80-yard TD came after the catch, Shough was adept at making deep and shorter passes. His throwing motions also vary, with the Texas Tech transfer able to throw the football sideways through smaller windows and also chucking the ball down the field.

"He's got a great arm," U of L defensive lineman Ashton Gillotte said of Shough. "He can put it on the money. He can move a little bit when he's comfortable. He's a good quarterback. I'm looking forward to seeing how that shakes out."

Defensive playmakers

Louisville may not have the depth it wants on the defensive line, but it isn’t short of playmakers. Defensive lineman Maurice Davis and linebacker Trent Carter are only freshmen but made plays during the spring game, notching a fourth-down stop and pass breakup, respectively.

"The depth is being tested right now because there are a lot of young players," Brohm said. "Maurice is a true freshman that still should be in high school and Trent as well. They're out here going against college players and good players."

In addition to the younger players, Louisville has veterans who can also help to carry the load with the defense being short-handed. Redshirt senior cornerback Quincy Riley continued to deliver and picked off one of Shough’s passes near the end of the first half to give the defense a 23-21 lead. Sophomore linebacker Stanquan Clark joined in by picking off one of backup quarterback Pierce Clarkson’s passes after redshirt freshman defensive back Destin Cheirs sacked the signal caller during the second half.

Offensive protection

Shough had a clean pocket for many snaps thanks to the Cardinals’ offensive line. The experienced first-team unit added experienced players from the transfer portal including Jonathan Mendoza and Pete Nygra. Besides those two and others, the unit can rely on returning players including Michael Gonzalez and Austin Collins to hold off defensive linemen Gillotte, Dez Tell and Ramon Puryear. Shough and Clarkson were sacked only twice in the first half.

Collins still is filling in for Renato Brown, who is recovering from a season-ending knee injury but is expected back ahead of the regular season.

Running back competition continues

While some starting positions were cemented during the spring game, there’s no clear-cut front-runner for starting running back. Though Maurice Turner opened the game as the starter with Shough, Keyjuan Brown and Don Chaney were featured in the backfield with Shough later in the first half.

Louisville is down one running back after Peny Boone entered the transfer portal. The Toledo transfer had taken many of the first-team reps during spring practices, though Turner also saw some time with the first team.

Reach Louisville football, women's basketball and baseball beat writer Alexis Cubit at acubit@gannett.com and follow her on X at @Alexis_Cubit.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Jeff Brohm, Louisville football conclude spring with Red-White game