Position Breakdown: Tight Ends

Returning Players 

Redshirt Junior Chris White and Redshirt Senior Nate Nord.  White came to Louisville in 2009 as a walk-on out of John Hardin High School in Elizabethtown.  As a true freshman in 2009 Chris picked up a redshirt, no game action for 2010, then logged three starts in six appearances throughout the 2011 season.  Nord is a guy who was projected to do more as he came in as a 3-Star Tight End out of Boca Raton Florida, but injuries have really hampered his career at Louisville.  After coming in and redshirting for the 2008 season, Nate saw zero game action for 2009, and ended up playing in 9 and 10 games for the 2010 and 2011 seasons respectively with all four of his career starts coming in 2011.

Newcomers

2-Star True Freshman Hunter Bowles out of Glasgow, KY., and 2-Star JUCO Transfer Ryan Hubbell.  With the experience from the returning guys and JUCO experience for Hubbell I wouldn’t at all be surprised to see Bowles ended up redshirting for the 2010 season.  Hunter is a very physical athlete and can do a really good job blocking out of the Tight End position.  That could play a major role for Louisville throughout his career.  Hubbell comes to Louisville from Iowa Western Community College where he was ranked the No 3 Junior College Tight End in the country.  Keep reading and you’ll hear more about Ryan.

Player To Watch

Ryan Hubbell is a guy that really impressed me coming out of the spring.  With Ryan enrolling early at Louisville in January, he was given a valuable head start on learning the schemes that he would be expediting and the personnel he would be doing it with.  I went into the spring expecting him to have good hands and vision, but what really surprised me was his blocking ability, even in somewhat of an upright stance at times.  It would not surprise me in the least to see Ryan lock up the starting position at some point throughout the season if not very early on.

Expectations

Louisville has not had an Honorable Mention, 3rd Team, 2nd Team or 1st Team All American Tight End since Ibn Green in the late 1990′s.  Will that change this year?  Not likely.  I do however; expect to see a more dominant Tight End position similar to what we have seen in the likes of Ronnie Ghent, Gary Barnidge & Cam Graham days.  This year the position will be building.  Building on what I expect to be a very dominant position for the 2013 season with a Senior Ryan Hubbell and a Redshirt Junior Gerald Christian who is sitting out this season due to NCAA transfer rules. Christian comes to Louisville from University of Florida as a 4-Star prospect out of High School and the No 2 ranked Tight End in the country.  It will be very interesting to see how things will play out with these guys and 1st year Tight Ends Coach Sherrone Moore.  I have faith that Moore will get everything out of this group that he possibly can and they will absolutely be ready by kick-off.