Ashton Gillotte addresses origin of 'beware of the hair' motto

Louisville Cardinals edge rusher Ashton Gillotte addressed the origin of his “beware of the hair” motto while at ACC Media Days.

As Gillotte explained, he always wants to be around the ball and play a tenacious brand of football. His long hair is a part of who he is trying to be as a player and the motto comes from that point.

“I just try to play as tenaciously as I can,” Ashton Gillotte said. “I try to be around the ball as much as I can, try to harass quarterbacks. Obviously, my hair comes out of the back of the helmet, that’s kind of where the hair come from.”

Ashton Gillotte is one of the most experienced players on the defensive side of the ball for Louisville. Throughout his career, he’s seen his impact and his stats quickly grow and in 2023 he had a career season, with 45 total tackles, 14.5 tackles for a loss, and 11 sacks. With that, he was selected to the First-Team All-ACC and earned Second-Team All-American honors by USA Today.

Now, Gillotte is hoping to build on that effort once again in 2024. Certainly, there are massive expectations on his shoulders to succeed in this upcoming season, with Phil Steele naming Gillotte to his Preseason All-ACC First Team. He’s the only Cardinals player on the First Team defense from Steele, meaning he’s going to be the one Louisville turns to all season long.

“I just try to give my best effort every play,” Gillotte said. “Try to be around the ball, be disruptive, do what I can for my teammates.”

2024 will be Ashton Gillotte’s senior season at Louisville. After, he’s expected to take the next step to the NFL, where Steele has him ranked as the 10th best available edge rusher in the 2025 NFL Draft ahead of the season.

Given all of the talent that he has, it’s no surprise that his head coach, Jeff Brohm, has compared him to George Karlaftis in the past.

“Well, Ashton reminds me a lot of George Karlaftis, who we had at Purdue, who was a first round pick of the Chiefs. Kind of can play defensive end but maybe move inside as well. He has the dual threat ability to do both where he’s a strong end that can, in our opinion, play on the edge of the defense, set the edge, come off the line of scrimmage with power and pop, yet has some speed and quickness as well,” Brohm said.

“You want to move him inside and create some mismatches and he can do that very, very good also. He creates push, he’s got quickness and agility, he understands football, he is really strong, doesn’t miss a practice, doesn’t miss reps. I mean, he’s just very durable.”

With those expectations on Ashton Gillotte, he’ll need to continue to embrace his hair and make opponents beware him.