Tag: Jack Plummer

Panthers projected depth chart following 2024 NFL draft

How do this year’s draft picks and undrafted free agents fit into the fold for the Panthers?

We’re not going to get too ahead of ourselves with our new friends. But we are a bit eager to see their names in the mix.

Here, with undrafted free agents included, is our projected depth chart for the Carolina Panthers following the 2024 NFL draft . . .

Bold = draft pick
Italics = undrafted free-agent signee

Offense:

1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th
QB Bryce Young Andy Dalton Jack Plummer
RB Chuba Hubbard Miles Sanders Jonathon Brooks Raheem Blackshear Mike Boone Spencer Brown Tarik Cohen Jaden Shirden
WR Diontae Johnson Jonathan Mingo David Moore Jalen Camp Jalen Coker
WR Xavier Legette Terrace Marshall Jr. Michael Strachan Cam Sims Sam Pinckney
SWR Adam Thielen Ihmir Smith-Marsette Devin Carter
TE Tommy Tremble Ja’Tavion Sanders Ian Thomas Stephen Sullivan Jordan Matthews Chris Pierce
LT Ikem Ekwonu Yosh Nijman Ricky Lee Jeremiah Crawford
LG Damien Lewis Cade Mays
C Austin Corbett Brady Christensen Andrew Raym
RG Robert Hunt Chandler Zavala Nash Jensen J.D. DiRenzo
RT Taylor Moton Ilm Manning Badara Traore

Defense:

1st 2nd 3rd 4th
DE Derrick Brown LaBryan Ray Jaden Crumedy
DT Shy Tuttle Nick Thurman Popo Aumavae
DE A’Shawn Robinson Raequan Williams
OLB Jadeveon Clowney K’Lavon Chaisson Amaré Barno Derrick McClendon
LB Shaq Thompson Trevin Wallace Chandler Wooten Claudin Cherelus
LB Josey Jewell Tae Davis Michael Barrett Jackson Mitchell
OLB D.J. Wonnum DJ Johnson Luiji Vilain Taylor Upshaw
CB Jaycee Horn D’Shawn Jamison Lamar Jackson
CB Dane Jackson Dicaprio Bootle Willie Drew
SS Xavier Woods Jammie Robinson Sam Franklin Jr. Demani Richardson Clayton Isbell
FS Jordan Fuller Nick Scott Alex Cook DeShawn Gaddie Jr.
NCB Troy Hill Chau Smith-Wade AJ Parker

Special teams:

1st 2nd
K Eddy Piñeiro Harrison Mevis
P Johnny Hekker
LS JJ Jansen
KR Raheem Blackshear Ihmir Smith-Marsette Xavier Legette
PR Ihmir Smith-Marsette Xavier Legette

[lawrence-related id=696339,696231,696193]

Jack Plummer smoked USC one year ago, tries to double the fun vs Trojans in Holiday Bowl

Jack Plummer prepares for a reunion against USC.

Jack Plummer is no stranger to the USC Trojans. Plummer is the quarterback of the Louisville Cardinals. He will face the Men of Troy in the 2023 Holiday Bowl in San Diego on Wednesday.

Remember: Plummer was at Cal last season. He played USC and its shaky defense. Plummer is not a brilliant quarterback, but this USC defense has a way of making ordinary quarterbacks look great. We knew USC was wobbly on defense last year, but we didn’t think Plummer would torch the Trojans — he was going to make some plays, but it turns out that he did even more than what we anticipated:

We covered last year’s Cal-USC game and had this to say:
“It did come as a surprise that the Trojans made California Golden Bear quarterback Jack Plummer look like Aaron Rodgers for much of the game, especially the fourth quarter.”

“Charmin-soft coverage, not taking away routes, not being especially physical with typically unimposing Cal receivers, and the list goes on: USC flunked in the secondary. Giving up over 400 passing yards to a Cal offense which struggled to score against Colorado is beyond belief.”

Plummer knows that D’Anton Lynn, USC’s new defensive coordinator, will not coach the Trojans in this game. That could be the edge Plummer needs to smoke USC’s defense one more time.

Visit our friends at Fighting Irish Wire, Buffaloes Wire, and Ducks Wire.

Holiday Bowl will reunite USC with a former Pac-12 quarterback

Jack Plummer meets USC again.

The wait is over. USC knows its bowl destination and opponent. The Trojans are heading to San Diego for the Holiday Bowl against Louisville. USC gets to play a 10-win team which reached its conference title game. Louisville made the ACC Championship Game before losing to unbeaten Florida State. The Cardinals finished their regular season 10-3. They were 10-1 before losing to Kentucky and then Florida State.

Louisville’s quarterback is Jack Plummer. He faced USC last year when he was with the Cal Golden Bears.

We remember it well:

“It did come as a surprise that the Trojans made California Golden Bear quarterback Jack Plummer look like Aaron Rodgers for much of the game, especially the fourth quarter.

“It did come as a shock that Cal’s bad offensive line and generally unreliable offense were able to move the ball so easily against the Trojans.”

USC’s defense was coached for most of the 2023 season by Alex Grinch, but we will see if new coordinator D’Anton Lynn is actively involved in the Holiday Bowl defensive game-planning process. The more Lynn is involved, the less likely it is that Plummer will repeat his 2022 performance against USC.

Visit our friends at Fighting Irish Wire, Buffaloes Wire, and Ducks Wire.

Louisville could be 2023’s TCU, according to Timanus’s Week 6 overreactions

After a multi-score victory over Notre Dame to stay undefeated, USA Today’s Week 6 Overreactions say Louisville could match TCU’s 2022 magic.

The Louisville Cardinals would not have been top of mind if you asked anyone for a preseason ACC favorite. Through six weeks, however, they’re the first team in the conference to bowl eligibility and one of three remaining unbeatens after a 33-20 home victory over Notre Dame. But who says the magic needs to stop there?

USA Today’s Eddie Timanus, among his Week 6 Overreactions, said the Cardinals could emulate the TCU Horned Frogs’ CFP run from a season ago, with similar themes in a new head coach, a roster rebuilt through the transfer portal and excellent close-game luck.

Again, it’s important to keep in mind that Timanus framed this as an overreaction, not a prediction. But Timanus pointed out that the Cardinals just need to finish in the top 2 of the ACC to play in the title game and they don’t play North Carolina or Florida State, the other premiere teams thus far.

In all likelihood, a situation like TCU might be a once-in-a-decade situation. There have been 36 College Football Playoff teams since the format’s inception. 30 of them have either been an SEC team, Clemson, Ohio State, Michigan, or Notre Dame.

But there’s some foundation there, and that’s all Timanus is pointing out. The Cardinals control their own destiny for the rest of the regular season. Louisville has maybe the two most electric position players in the conference in Jawhar Jordan and Jamari Thrash, who they can rely on similar to how the Horned Frogs relied on Quintin Johnston. Quarterback Jack Plummer can’t match Max Duggan as a dual threat, but he has 11 touchdowns and four interceptions against Power 5 opponents. The Cardinals are fourth in scoring offense and third in scoring defense in the ACC.

The ACC seems a bit too top-heavy compared to last year’s Big 12 to feel anything more than a faint hope for another Cinderella story. Oklahoma and Texas were rebuilding a season ago, especially with the Sooners an uncommon 6-7. TCU still didn’t win the conference, either, needing the Pac-12 and ACC to both produce multi-loss champions to sneak into the dance.

Florida State hasn’t looked dominant since Week 1, but they still knocked the doors off LSU. North Carolina has the conference’s best player in quarterback Drake Maye, and their defense and rushing attack have shown up consistently throughout the year.

Louisville still has a couple of major tests left this season, with Duke, Miami, and Kentucky all on the schedule. And their white-knuckle scuffle with N.C. State showed any week could pop the balloon. But the path exists, and the similarities aren’t nothing.

Know your foe, Louisville: Which Cardinals could give Notre Dame problems

The Irish continue their gauntlet of difficult games

Notre Dame football will face their third consecutive ranked opponent at night, as they travel to Louisville, Kentucky to face the Cardinals.

The Irish didn’t start this run on a good foot, but righted the ship against Duke. Quarterback Sam Hartman played the hero and the Irish finished their comeback as running back Audric Estime found the end zone with time running out.

Hopefully this weekend won’t be as dramatic, but if Louisville has a say in that, it will be. They’re a solid team that has plenty of playmakers on both sides of the ball. Find out below a few of them that could make life uneasy for the Irish.

What the experts are predicting: Notre Dame at Louisville

Can the Irish survive another tough opponent?

Notre Dame will be facing another quality program in Louisville. An argument could be made that the Irish are the first real team the Cardinals have played so far this season. Whether or not that’s true, the Irish still should give the Cardinals everything they have. That should mean good things, at least in theory.

Here are the predictions from a few college football experts:

Louisville statistical leaders through five games

Does anyone here scare you?

Louisville cracked the rankings just in time for Notre Dame to come visit it. On one hand, the timing couldn’t be better for the Irish as a strong season for the Cardinals could mean a chance to bolster their College Football Playoff chances with a win. On the other, it’s the third straight quality opponent for the Irish with another one coming next week in USC, so the schedule isn’t getting any easier. They need a breather as much as anyone in the country.

Take a look at the Cardinals, and you’ll see some players in particular putting up big numbers. One could argue that’s because the Cardinals haven’t really played anyone yet. Whatever the case, this isn’t a team the Irish can afford to relax against. In fact, it’s a borderline trap game.

Here are the players on Louisville’s roster most likely to put their team in the best spot to succeed:

Tale of the Tape: Notre Dame defense vs. Louisville offense

This could be a challenge for the Irish.

As much praise as Notre Dame’s offense got for making the big plays late against Duke, the defense remains what’s kept the Irish in games.

Even though the past couple of games have been close, the opposing scoring outputs haven’t been very high. Say what you will about the unit only having 10 players for the losing play against Ohio State, but it remains stacked with talent and is showing it. That’s exactly what it’s supposed to do.

The Irish’s pass defense will be tested against Louisville quarterback [autotag]Jack Plummer[/autotag], who is making the Cardinals’ look very good on offense. This will be a good tuneup for the Irish before they have to face Caleb Williams and USC the following week.

But don’t sleep on the Cardinals’ running game as that corps also has put decent numbers. Anything can and probably will happen in this contest.

Here’s a look at how the Irish’s defense matches up with the Cardinals’ offense:

College football’s top performers in the ACC during Week 4

A pair of Louisville Cardinals stood out among their peers in the ACC this week. See who else shined in the conference’s Week 4 games.

Florida State survived a second straight upset scare, this time in Death Valley as they took down Clemson in overtime. The conference’s other premier teams, North Carolina, Duke, and Miami, all ripped unranked opponents to shreds. And a few surprise undefeated squads, Syracuse and Louisville, kept pace in their efforts to be taken seriously in the ACC race.

With some of the biggest names in the conference residing in the ACC, could Drake Maye and Jordan Travis defend their status as the conference’s top passers? Which defenders gave their draft stock a healthy boost?

Here are the ACC’s best of the best for Week 4.

Cal’s offense prone to air it out with a heavy dose of Jaydn Ott

California true freshman Jaydn Ott is proving himself to be the real deal in Berkeley.

With the vast majority of the opponent offensive previews, the quarterback is highlighted and we will get to California’s senior transfer from Purdue in Jack Plummer. But with the California Golden Bears, it’s true freshman Jaydn Ott that has been the engine that runs the offense in Berkeley.

There aren’t many running backs in the country that can rush for 274 yards as Ott did in the game against Arizona. That’s a high bar to set and obviously, the Golden Bear tailback hasn’t had quite the same performance since, but he showed the explosiveness that he’s capable of and the Ducks will try to make sure Ott doesn’t reach the century mark or score.

[lawrence-related id=32113]

According to Oregon coach Dan Lanning, Ott’s talents jump out of the television screen when watching the video.

“(It’s) just how hard he runs. I think he’s been freshman player of the week for three weeks,” Lanning said. “He does a good job running the ball. He runs with great physicality and effort and that shows up.”

Overall, the 6-foot, 205-pounder from Chino, Calif. averages nearly 90 yards a game and has found the end zone five times.

At quarterback, Plummer left Purdue in search of more consistent playing time and he’s found that in the Bay Area. Plummer didn’t exactly blow up the stat sheet with the Boilermakers. He averaged 162 yards in the air in the 21 games (13 starts) in his four seasons in West Lafayette, Ind. where he threw for 26 touchdowns, but he was picked off 10 times.

[lawrence-related id=32454]

His career has taken a big upswing in the Bay Area, however. All of his numbers have gone up with the Bears. In their seven games so far, Plummer is completing 61 percent of his passes while averaging 251 yards, thrown for 12 touchdowns, and just three interceptions.

“I think he’s a really accurate quarterback. He does a good job of getting the ball downfield and I don’t think there aren’t a lot of throws that he can’t make,” Lanning said. “He does a good job of that. Probably more elusive than people give him credit for. He does a good job in the pocket but he’s got good wideouts and he’s done a good job delivering the ball accurately.”

Plummer’s favorite target has been Michael Sturdivant, a 6-3, 205-pound redshirt freshman. He has 36 receptions and averages 64 yards a game and has scored five touchdowns.

There have been some changes along the Cal offensive line since Game 4. Prior to the Arizona game, coach Justin Wilcox benched four out of the five linemen with Ben Coleman the only player staying in the lineup.

Whether is was due to the changes or Arizona’s porous defense, it paid dividends with the Golden Bears scoring seven touchdowns, 49 points, 354 yards rushing, and 599 yards of total offense against the Wildcats.

[mm-video type=playlist id=01f27mq9z7hjgk6vc6 player_id=none image=https://duckswire.usatoday.com/wp-content/plugins/mm-video/images/playlist-icon.png]