Five recruiting misses that helped doom Bobby Petrino at Louisville
LOUISVILLE FIRES BOBBY PETRINO: Five realistic candidates | Fans react to Petrino's dismissal | Five programs that benefit | Louisville AD reacts | All eyes on Jeff Brohm | Will Brohm take the job?
There were plenty of factors that went into Louisville’s decision to fire Bobby Petrino, including the team’s 2-8 record in 2018 as well as the recent exodus of several committed recruits. But perhaps things wouldn’t have spiraled this badly if it weren’t for a few major misses in recruiting over the last few years. Today, we take a look back at five prospects that got away from the Cardinals and helped doom Petrino’s final season in Louisville.
*****
An in-state prospect who was only lightly recruited by the Cardinals, Daniel burst onto the scene during the spring camp circuit in 2015. A native of rural Paintsville, Ky., it’s not like Daniel was in the Cardinals' backyard, but he was interested when they offered him that spring. In fact, he was offered by his eventual finalists, Kentucky and South Carolina, the same week as the Cardinals entered the picture.
The year Daniel signed with Kentucky, the Cardinals landed just two of the state’s top 10 players, while the rival Wildcats landed Daniel along with the state’s other top four players. As a junior this season, Daniel is a key playmaker on a very good Kentucky defense and would have surely helped the Cardinals had he headed north to Louisville.
*****
This is a pretty glaring one for most to see as Moore has emerged as a bona fide star in his first season at Purdue. Moore played the last two seasons of his high school career at Trinity High School in Louisville but never really saw his relationship with the Cardinals take off. Moore originally committed to Texas before backing off that pledge and landing at Purdue, but even before that the Cardinals didn’t make his top six, falling behind Pitt, Penn State and Ohio State.
The fact that he left the city to head to Purdue without really even considering the Cardinals falls on Petrino. Had he been on this year’s Cardinals' team, he would be the leader in pretty much every statistical category.
*****
It’s hard to fault the Cardinals and Petrino for missing out on Mullen, considering he landed at Clemson, but at the time the two programs were going head-to-head to land his commitment, they were also competing for the ACC crown. Mullen took an official visit to Louisville following his senior season in 2015 and the Cardinals headed into the dead period with a lot of momentum.
But Clemson closed strongly and ended up landing his commitment day on National Signing Day in 2016. Mullen would have been an instant impact guy for the Cardinals and is in his second season as a starter for the No. 2 Tigers.
*****
The ultra-talented Richards saw his career come to an end thanks to an injury earlier this year but he was still very productive during his brief college career. The Cardinals had to go to bat against several other programs in their efforts to woo Richards, hosting him for a December official visit before ultimately losing out on him to Miami.
Richards had 74 catches for 1,382 yards and six touchdowns during his two seasons as a Hurricane and would have been the type of playmaker that Louisville lacked at receiver.
*****
Louisville was in the mix for Vaughn until the very end, and seemed to be poised to land his commitment heading into National Signing Day 2015. But Vaughn surprised and elected to commit to Illinois instead. His career with the Illini got off to a good start before he eventually left the program and transferred to Vanderbilt.
After sitting out a season, Vaughn has hit the ground running with the Commodores in 2018, rushing for 849 yards and catching nine passes for 145 yards in nine games this season. Had he signed and stayed with Louisville all four years, Vaughn would be a senior this season and his rushing yards would more than double the Cardinals' leading running back rusher.
