Photo: Eric Crawford

Spring football practices are right around the corner, and Bobby Petrino is chomping at the bit to get that work in.  The first week in March has been early spring testing week for the Louisville football Cardinals.  The team has been tracking things like their 40-times, broad jumps, and weight lifting max outs. Some of our favorite Cardinals have been showing off their raw abilities, and fans have taken notice.  Yesterday the team maxed out squats and earlier we posted a video showcasing Griffin Uhl’s authoritative squat max out.  Coach Petrino released a list of the top five squat max outs on UofL’s football team.

1.) Griffin Uhl, FB – 655 pounds

2.) John Miller, OL – 615 pounds

3.) Sheldon Rankins, DE – 600 pounds

4.) Brandon Radcliff, RB – 585 pounds

5.) Jamon Brown, – 565 – pounds

You could put the Yum center on Griffin Uhl’s back, and he would lift it.  Uhl and fellow running back Brandon Radcliffe will be a powerful bruising running combination for years to come.  Offensive lineman John Miller may be this year’s strongest man across the offensive line.  Miller may be this year’s O-line inside anchor and the primary hole exploder for Louisville loaded backfield.   Offensive Tackle Jamon brown was not to be outdone.  His 565 shows that he is up for the task of keep quarterback Will Gardener clean.

Louisville’s football team really has been geeking it in the weight room with Coach Petrino and the new staff.  The depth chart is completely up in the air when a new coaching staff takes the reins, and everyone is looking to impress.  Early evidence has yielded a competitive spirit on the football team as guys get a fresh chance to make a first impression.  Louisville’s gross speed was revealed earlier this week, and the Cardinal strength is now becoming more evident.  Coach Petrino and his staff must be having a field day figuring out how to make all of these components fit together.

If you’re a diehard Louisville football fan, then you’ve probably already heard the great story about Louisville sophomore fullback Griffin Uhl.

The Henryville, IN., native’s high school team didn’t have a football team, which made it hard for him to reach his goal of playing division one football.

Sports Illustrated Story On Uhl

Fortunately for Uhl, his hard work and determination didn’t go unnoticed. While training independently and attending multiple scouting camps throughout the summer, Uhl’s unique story started to pick up momentum and multiple programs started taking notice.

Despite not playing high school football, Uhl received interest from Wyoming, Indiana State, Illinois State, Western Kentucky, Murray State, Central Connecticut and Louisville. None of the schools offered scholarship and eventually stopped contacting Uhl, other than Louisville. Former defensive line coach Clint Hurtt saw potential and offered Uhl a preferred walk-on spot with the program.

Uhl is entering his redshirt sophomore season with the program and is putting in some serious work in the weight room. Since he couldn’t compete on the football field at the high school level, Uhl decided he’d compete in the weight room. However, I don’t think there is much competition for the Henryville native.

The Louisville football program went through strength and speed tests this week and on Thursday they maxed out with squats. Griffin Uhl squatted a team best 655 pounds.

Bobby Petrino and the Louisville Football program have been hitting the weight room hard this week. On Monday Coach Petrino shared the results of his team’s 40-yard-dash tests and on Tuesday he listed the 11 players who had the highest max-out weight on the bench press. The team recently had a vertical test and I’m assuming those results will be revealed soon enough.

Here is a brief video of the team working hard in the weight room and maxing out on the bench press. Here are the results.

Photo: Eric Crawford

Spring football practices are right around the corner, and Bobby Petrino is chomping at the bit to get that work in.  Yesterday we reported on the recently released 40-yard dash times for the Louisville football team.  Fans and coaches alike were excited by the blazing velocity that was demonstrated by some of the Cardinal skill position players.  Tuesday was the day for Louisville’s power brokers to shine in the weight room, and some of our biggest Cardinals did just that.

Yesterday was “max out day” at the Louisville football facility.   Athletes sporadically push themselves to lift the most weight possible to track how strong they are becoming in a ritual known as “maxing out.”  The bench press is football’s most commonly tracked “max out.”  “Maxing out” is something that is done by coaches in most sports at every level of competition, from high school on up.  Yesterday was not your typical “max out” day at The University of Louisville, as more than just the linemen took their opportunity to show out.

1. DeAngelo Brown, DT – 475

2. John Miller, OL – 465

3. Gerald Christian, TE – 425

4. Pedro Sibiea, DT/ Jamon Brown, OL/ Griffin Uhl, FB – 405

7. Sheldon Rankins, LB/ Josh Appleby, Punter – 385

9. B.J. Dubose, DE/ Deiontrez Mount, DL/ Aaron Ahner, DT/ Joe Manley, OL/ De’Asian Richardson, DL – 375

Sophomore defensive tackle Deangelo Brown threw up the most weight yesterday with John Miller only ten pounds off of his pace.  Gerald Christian is most known as Teddy Bridgewater’s security blanket, or the tight end that is most often mistaken for Dominique Brown.  He can now be known as the second strongest man across the offensive line after he posted his inspiring 425.

The most outlandish stat of the day was back up punter Josh Appleby almost posting a 400 pound max out.  Appleby will be battling it out at the punter position with last year’s starter Ryan Johnson.  Johnson would be in for a world of hurt if Coach Petrino actually made them wrestle for the job live in the YUM center on Pay Per View.

Tracking a player’s “max out” can be tricky because of the math that is involved with weight lifting.  Weights are typically made in numbers that are divisible by 5.  B.J. Dubose might be able to lift a few pounds more than D’asian Richardson, but they are considered equal because neither could lift 380.

Seven of the fourteen guys on this list are defensive linemen meaning that Charlie Strong and Clint Hurtt’s fingerprints are still all over this team.  Charlie’s leftover influence on controlling the defensive line of scrimmage will be one thing that behooves Todd Grantham’s defense heading into the ACC.  The Cards have flashed enough early speed and strength to excite the fans for another great season of UofL football.

Andy Lyons – Getty Images

University of Louisville Cardinal Football Fans, welcome to the new age. After four seasons of limited access and very little insight given into the football program under the previous coaching staff, new Head Coach Bobby Petrino has made significant changes for both media and fans alike.

Just over two weeks ago Petrino announced that all 14 of the Cards spring practices would be open to the public. That’s 11 more than the previous head coach allowed. All fans could look forward to in recent years was the two to three spring practices (mostly just drills) and then the annual Spring Game.

This season the fans will have 14 opportunities and two and a half of them will be scrimmages. The spring practices kick off on March 18th and will be every Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday for four weeks at 4pm. The Saturday drills with times to be announced will be March 22nd, March 29th and April 5th.

Opportunities to catch scrimmages will be the first two Saturday practices and then again on Friday April 4th. All leading up to the Friday April 11th Annual Spring Game at 7:30pm.

Not only is Head Coach Bobby Petrino opening up opportunity for practices this Spring, but it’s also been announced by Assistant Sports Information Director Rocco Gasparro that Petrino will hold two spring Radio Shows on March 24th and April 10th to discuss the spring practices.

Details have yet to be released, but one can assume it will be held at the River Road Tumbleweed location and be conducted by Louisville radio legend Paul Rogers. As soon as those details are released we will be sure to pass that information along.

Gear up Cards fans, a little pigskin is right around the corner for just a short time before the excruciating spell of almost five months throughout the summer with no Cardinal Football.

Bobby Petrino has wasted very little time since taking over the Louisville football program for the second time. Petrino and his staff got right to work on the recruiting trail after being hired to piece together the 2014 recruiting class.

Since signing day, Petrino has already rallied his troops in preparation for spring ball. The team recently started their 5 AM workouts and other weight room activities. On Monday afternoon, Petrino sent out a Tweet when the ten fastest 40-yard-dash times.

This video was released earlier this week which shows some of the players running the 40-yard-dash and participating in other strength and agility tests. The Spring Game will be here before you know it.

Associated Press

Spring football practices are right around the corner, and Bobby Petrino is chomping at the bit to get that work in.  The Cardinal skill positions are once again stuffed to the gills with elite level talent.  The “who is the fastest cardinal?” was placed on the table and left there a couple years ago.  Coach P has already begun 5 AM practices and weight room activities.  Recently he got all of the players out on the field to clock their 40-yard dash times.  The Cardinal football team showed off their speed to their new coach, and some student athletes made a huge impression.

Both Corvin Lamb and Robert Clark burned the competition by running their 40-yard dashes in 4.30 seconds.  Charles Gaines may have come off the blocks poorly and he lagged behind with his 4.31.  The current Cardinal trio of Lamb, Clark, and Gaines would have been top five performers in February’s NFL draft combine. Dri Archer was the only player to run his 40 in a faster time than 4.30 seconds.  Devante Parker’s presence on this list surprised some who consider him more of a vertical threat than a speed demon.  DP’s was just enough to edge out fellow Louisville native James Quick.  Quickie is still a freshman and is the youngest person on this list by a landslide.

Top 10 40-Yard-Dash Times

1. RB Corvin Lamb — 4.30

1.WR Robert Clark — 4.30

3. CB Charles Gaines — 4.31

4. WR DeVante Parker — 4.34

5. WR James Quick — 4.38

6. WR George Clements — 4.40

7. Safety Terrence Ross — 4.42

8. CB Terell Floyd — 4.43

9. WR Matt Milton — 4.46

9. WR Eli Rodgers — 4.46

9. RB Brandon Radcliff — 4.46

Charlie Strong built the Cardinals into one of the quickest teams in all of college football during his tenure here.  Coach Bobby Petrino knows that a lot of the swiftness resides on the offensive side of the ball.  Coach Petrino is an offensive mastermind that can get creative to use Louisville’s speed in a myriad of ways.  Charles Gaines is a defensive player that has switched between offense and defense multiple times.  Gaines’ speed may be enough to convince Coach Petrino to start young Mr. Gaines on both sides of the ball.   Bobby Petrino and Louisville fans should already be salivating about the upcoming football season.

Andrew Weber – Getty Images

The NFL draft is slowly marching towards us.  This is the first year that several marquee Cardinal football players will come off of the board early and often.  Draft scenarios are as infinite as lottery number selections, making the draft impossible to predict.  Many fans are anxious to know which scenario is likely to befall their favorite UofL player during this May’s draft.  We will be presenting you with different UofL football player draft scenarios during the weeks leading up to the draft.

Team: Green Bay Packers

Record last year:  8-7-1

Coach: Mike Mccarthy

Draft pick in question: Round 1, 22^nd overall

Key returning players: Aaron Rodgers, Eddie Lacy, Randall Cobb, Jordy Nelson, Clay Matthews, B.J Raji,

Players currently at position: M.D. Jennings, Sean Richardson

Chances of starting:    Current Packers starting Safety M.D. Jennings has played professional football for four years and has only mustered one interception during that span.  The Packers are almost a complete team with holes primarily on the defensive side of the ball.  Calvin Pryor is one of the best safety’s in this year’s draft.  CP can fly from sideline to sideline and punishes ball carriers with jarring hits when they encroach upon his area.  The Packers have spent a troth of money on the offensive side of the ball, which left the defense with limited resources.    Pryor would walk into Green Bay and be best safety on the roster from day one.

Team chances next season:     The Green Bay Packers have been considered a legit Super Bowl contender for the better part of two decades.  A jarring injury on national television to star quarterback Aaron Rodgers left the Green Bay Packers reeling last season.  The Packers were able to make the playoffs despite playing without Rodgers for a significant chunk of the season.  The Packer machine shows no signs of slowing down and the addition of Calvin Pryor would patch a hole in an already sturdy battleship.  The Packers are thirsty for an impact player in the secondary and Calvin Pryor is just that.  The Packers could reasonably see a 12-4 record next season with the addition of a dynamic playmaking safety like Calvin Pryor.