Breaking down Jairus Brents decision to sign with Louisville

Louisville pulled off a late surprise on Signing Day, landing hometown prospect Jairus Brents in a recruitment that went all the way down to the wire. Brents elected to stay home with the Cardinals after they found a spot for him in the class, spurning programs like Pittsburgh and Cincinnati, which as late as last week both thought they had a serious chance to land his commitment. With his decision on Wednesday, Brents became the lone prospect from the state of Kentucky to sign with the Cardinals in the 2018 class.

Louisville had initially shown a lot of interest in Brents before backing off him over the past six months. After programs like Wisconsin, Pittsburgh and others started to show serious interest, the Louisville staff became re-engaged with Brents and worked to find him a spot in the 2018 class. The speedy cornerback was right under their nose the entire time and after taking a second look the Cardinals staff not only found a spot, but convinced Brents to take it. Cornerback is a position of need in the class for Louisville and landing a hometown prospect will also help with goodwill in the city and in the state as a whole going forward.

After hosting Brents for an official visit in mid-January it was believed to be a matter of when, not if, he would make his commitment to Pittsburgh public. But as the days went along and no news came out, things started to look worse for the Panthers. Ultimately it was the lure of staying close to home that caused Pitt to miss, but that doesn't make the loss sting any less. Pittsburgh doesn't regularly recruit the Louisville area so it will be worth watching to see if they make more of an effort going forward. Other schools like Cincinnati and Wisconsin thought they had a shot at Brents as well, but moved on prior to Signing Day.