"Marshon's been my assistant coach. He's been helping out with the guys, and he's getting back. He's actually doing quite a bit, he's way ahead."

"He was a captain last year, and he's trying his best to grow as a leader. In some ways it's probably helped him. He's been forced to speak what he sees. It's been great for him."

That's great news for Louisville as Ford will be back in time for fall camp.

Even though Ford has been out, Stu Holt thinks it's been beneficial for the younger players:

"You hate that he can't go, but at the same time you get some young guys a lot of reps. That's been fun to see. We got five guys going. They're playing hard and improving every day."

Out of the youngsters, who is standing out?

"Dez Melton and Francis Sherman have improved every day and have gotten better and better."

"Honestly I haven't meddled too much with either one of those guys in terms of preparing them because they're both playing. In Illinois and California, their season got pushed to the spring. I just felt like they needed to concentrate on helping their team."

Holt added that they do communicate with Mullen and Pedersen, and they are on the text chains, but they haven't been able to get into the playbook because of their senior seasons going on during the spring.

"We were really excited that Mitch Hall decided to come back and play another year. He's consistent and very talented. It was huge to get him back."

What is Holt focusing on during spring as far as special team goes?

"We spend a lot of time on protection - our punt protection, our field goal protection. All the other phases were working on technique. Were trying to lessen the learning curve."