Louisville impresses Walls

Cleveland (Ohio) Rhodes three-star athlete Lakeith Walls took his second official visit of the recruiting process this weekend to Louisville. He returned home on Sunday, and talked about his experience with the Cardinals.

"Louisville was a nice place and a nice city," Walls said. "It's a real positive atmosphere and I think it is an up and coming program because Coach [Charlie] Strong really hasn't had a chance to get all his guys being that it is only his second year."

The first official visit Walls took was the NC State back in September. After seeing Louisville and getting a chance to compare and contrast with the programs he has visited in the past, Walls felt the Cardinals stacked up well.

"It definitely drew some interest," he said. "I liked spending time with the players and the game. Even when they were down, they kept playing and there was never a point where they gave up."

Walls was able to get a sense of the student-athlete experience at Louisville from his player-host, sophomore wide receiver Damian Copeland.

"He was just telling me how there is no pro team in the state, so they get treated well wherever they go because they are the pro team," Walls said.

A 6-3, 185-pound prospect who stars on both offense and defense for his high school team, Walls could project to several positions in college. He had the opportunity to discuss with the Louisville coaches where they see him fitting in their program.

"They really told me in order for me to play early, if I were to come in at linebacker that would be better," Walls said. "I think their defense is pretty much what I'm looking for right now. My role would basically be to make sure nothing gets outside of me and check the No. 2 or No. 3 receiver. They blitz a lot off the edge, so that would give me the chance to get in the backfield as well, so it's a nice fit."

Walls is still in the process of planning out his three remaining official visits, but he has a good idea of where two of those trips will go.

"I know I am going to go to Cincinnati in December and Toledo in December. The options are Dec. 9 and Dec. 2, but I can't say for sure which one I will go to [which weekend]."

Duke, Northwestern, Ohio University and Pitt were some of the schools Walls mentioned last week as contenders for his fifth and final official visit.