Louisville’s wide receiver room is shaping up as one of the biggest reasons for optimism around first-time starter Lincoln Kienholz.
The Ohio State transfer will make his first career start in a Louisville uniform Sunday, Sept. 6, against No. 10 Ole Miss in Nashville, and the Cardinals believe the pieces around him can help smooth out the transition. With Tre Richardson, Lawayne McCoy and TreyShun Hurry headlining the group, Louisville plans to spread the ball around and lean on a room that coach Deion Branch thinks might be the deepest Jeff Brohm has ever had at the position.
“Receiver unit, not just saying one or two guys, (but) as a whole,” Branch clarified. “I think we have four to five guys that we're really banking on. ...
(It allows for) more creativity and more trouble for coach Brohm, trying to figure out who's going to get the ball to per play. I think it opens up the offense a lot more, gives the quarterback way more options.
Instead of him just being one-sided, he's just reading one side of the field just knowing that he has three, four guys that he can bank on, on any given play.”
That depth starts with Hurry, the only returning starter in the receiver room. Last season, while Chris Bell handled the bulk of the work, Hurry posted 15 catches for 122 yards and a touchdown in limited opportunities at the X spot.
Branch’s point is that the numbers never told the full story. Hurry has earned more trust, improved over the past year and now looks set for a larger role as one of Louisville’s biggest outside targets at 6-foot-2 and 200 pounds.
Richardson brings a different kind of problem for defenses. The Vanderbilt transfer missed spring while dealing with a lingering ankle injury, but he was back and active in fall camp and is expected to be used all over the formation. At 5-foot-10, he fits naturally in the slot, though he also spent more time outside for Vanderbilt last season and led the Commodores with 806 yards on 46 catches despite playing through injury.
Richardson said the challenge at Louisville has been expanding his route tree.
“I ran a lot of goes, posts, but now I'm running posts, I'm running digs, I'm running slants, I'm running a lot more routes, getting them down,” Richardson said, “and he's giving me the techniques and the tools (on) how to do it.”
McCoy has taken a different path to the same point. Branch said the former Seminole arrived with plenty to learn and was “all over the place” early on, but he has made a big jump after the summer.
McCoy sees himself as a downfield weapon, and a few moments in fall camp backed that up. Louisville even posted a video last Thursday of McCoy making a one-handed touchdown catch from Kienholz on X, formerly known as Twitter.
As a sophomore at Florida State last season, he averaged 14.7 yards per catch.
“I feel like last year was like a teaser,” McCoy said. “I'm ready to pop on the scene now this year.”
Kienholz will need that kind of support as he makes his debut under center, and the Cardinals are making no secret of how much they want to simplify his job by feeding their playmakers. Offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Brian Brohm said the quarterback has a strong supporting cast and that the plan is straightforward.
“We've got receivers that have played a lot of ball and made a lot of plays,” Brian Brohm said. “So, he (Kienholz) has a good group around him that we're going to try to get the ball out to our playmakers and let them make plays.”
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