College Football

Louisville Football: Getting To Know The Cards' New D-Coordinator

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 4:59 p.m. ET

Fansided, Derek Snyder/FanSided via Big Red Louie

We take a look at Louisville football’s new defensive coordinator Peter Sirmon, who will also be replacing Todd Grantham.

For every Louisville football fan that wanted to see Todd Grantham leave the program, it looks like the college football universe has granted your request. Grantham is heading off to Mississippi State to be their defensive coordinator and the Cards will be hiring the Bulldogs’ defensive coordinator for the same position.

While it’s a pretty weird situation, Sirmon has been able to recruit some big-time talent and develop them into great football players.

Take a look at some of Sirmon’s achievements over the past few seasons, according to Mississippi State’s athletic website:

“In 2015, Sirmon’s guidance propelled outside linebacker Su’a Cravens to All-Pac-12 first-team honors. Cravens was taken in the second round of the 2016 NFL Draft by the Washington Redskins. Inside linebacker Cameron Smith was selected as the Pac-12 Defensive Freshman of the Year in addition to being named a freshman All-American by USA Today. Smith was second nationally in interceptions by freshmen linebackers with three – all of which came in a 42-24 rout of No. 3 Utah on Oct. 25.

Sirmon’s leadership in his two seasons as recruiting coordinator in Los Angeles helped the Trojans bring in the nation’s top signing class in 2015 according to Scout.com and the No. 10 signing class in 2014. USC inked 12 top-100 recruits in the winter of 2015.

Prior to his stint at USC, Sirmon was the linebackers coach at Washington (2012-13), including recruiting coordinator in his final season of 2013. The Wenatchee, Washington, native coached eventual NFL first round draft choice Shaq Thompson during his All-Pac-12 honorable mention season as a sophomore. Thompson is now a starting linebacker for the Carolina Panthers.”

While it is concerning how bad the Bulldogs’ defense was this season, it’s unfair to to Sirmon to judge his coaching job after only one season with a program.

What I hope you noticed above was that Sirmon has the ability to take good defensive football players to another level. That will be extremely important for Louisville since they have players like Russ Yeast and CJ Avery entering the program as freshman.

If Sirmon can develop the Cards’ young defensive talent into first round caliber players, then this football program just might have what it takes to make the College Football Playoff over the next few seasons.

Louisville Football: Getting To Know The Cards' New D-Coordinator

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