2021 North Carolina-based RB Trevion Cooley picks Louisville over Florida

Louisville finally has its running back for the 2021 class in the form of Knightdale High three-star running back Trevion Cooley. A few weeks ago it looked like Cooley was headed to Gainesville to be a Gator but thanks to a strong push from Norv McKenzie and Dwayne Ledford, the Cards were able to reroute him to Louisville. The last time the Cards beat the Gators for a prospect things turned out pretty well but Florida wasn't the only team in the mix for Cooley. For a long time, Duke was the favorite but there was also noise about NC State, Mississippi State, and Virginia Tech being very much in the game.

ROSTER/POSITION OUTLOOK

With the addition of Cooley Louisville is most likely done at the running back position.

On offense, there is now one open spot for a quarterback, three for offensive linemen, two, possibly three, left for wide receivers, and one remaining spot for a tight end on the offensive side of the ball.

Lousiville will return Javian Hawkins as a redshirt-junior in 2021 if he doesn't enter the NFL draft. Hassan Hall will be a senior in 2021 and will take over the starting role if Hawkins leaves. Jalen Mitchell and Aiden Robbins will be red-shirt sophomores.

EVALUATION

At Knightdale, Cooley rushed for nearly 2,000-yards and scored 21 touchdowns as a over two seasons. He's got the prototypical combat stout frame for a running back and shows good explosion through the whole. He runs a little too upright and will have to work on getting lower to deliver impact rather than absorbing it. He has very good straight-line speed which allows him to outpace trail defenders. He also has good vision and takes precise angles. He's not the most twitchy back but he does show good footwork and uses a jump cut effectively. He has the potential to be a starter sooner rather than later and should compete for a spot in the rotation as a freshman.