In Jeff Brohm's first year as the head coach for Louisville football, he took the Cardinals all the way to the ACC Championship Game and finished the season with a 10-4 record, earning a College Football Playoff ranking of 15th. They'll hope to replicate that success and maybe even do better in 2024.
Louisville football was coming off an 8-5 record under four-year head coach Scott Satterfield, who had matched his best record from his first season as the Cardinals' coach. Still, Brohm's success came somewhat unexpectedly, especially in a conference that still had Clemson and Florida State vying for the top two spots in the championship game.
What's notable about Brohm's arrival was how impactful the transfer portal was for the Cardinals football team. Last season, Louisville finished with the No. 12 ranked transfer portal class, bringing in 25 commits while seeing 25 outgoing transfers. The 2024 transfer class follows a similar pattern, with a nearly equal number of incoming and outgoing transfers.
For the 2024 winter cycle, Louisville football will welcome 26 incoming transfers while seeing 18 outgoing, ranking them with the No. 6 portal class in the country, per 247sports. Twenty-one of these will be three-star commits, while five will be four-stars. It appears to be another significant overhaul and restructuring of the Cardinals' roster for next season.
Brohm proved last season that the Cardinals are certainly capable of competing in the ACC. With a brand new haul of transfer commits, like former Miami Hurricanes running back Donald Chaney Jr., they could very well find themselves back in the conference title game in 2024.
Donald Chaney Jr. transfers to Louisville Football
Donald Chaney Jr. originally came to the Hurricanes as a four-star prospect, ranked as the No. 74 overall player in the country, No. 5 running back, and No. 12 player in the state of Florida. Chaney showed promise early on, but injuries plagued him for most of his collegiate career.
After playing in 11 games and rushing for 322 yards and three touchdowns, with 11 receptions for 143 yards his freshman season in 2020, he tore his ACL a couple of games into the 2021 season. He never made a full return until last season after another lower-body injury in 2022. However, he was part of Miami's running back committee and played in all 11 games. He was the third-leading rusher on the Hurricanes last year with 478 yards on 94 carries (almost five yards per carry) with two touchdowns. It was the healthiest that Chaney had looked over the past couple of seasons.
Donald Chaney Jr. now comes in as a three-star transfer and the No. 279 overall player in the portal, and No. 28 running back, per 247sports.
The former Hurricanes running back would likely still be an integral part of Miami's running game if not for transferring, but now he could be the lead back for the Cardinals and Brohm in 2024. If anything, Chaney will be a veteran back for the Cardinals in a running back room that was left depleted after Jawhar Jordan left for the NFL and Isaac Guerendo graduated. Only scholarship players Maurice Turner and Keyjuan Brown are returning, plus incoming freshman Isaac Brown and Duke Watson, according to SI.
Chaney still has a lot of potential left, and with the way Brohm has a knack for bringing out the best in his players, he could be Louisville's sneakiest transfer portal acquisition in 2024. However, also keep your eyes out for tight end Jaleel Skinner, another former Miami player, and quarterback Tyler Shough out of Texas Tech.
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