Roddy Jones believes Tyler Shough’s ceiling is higher than Jack Plummer if healthy

Louisville will have another transfer quarterback this fall with Tyler Shough taking over for Jack Plummer. However, there’s a possibility that he takes the Cardinals even further than where they went a season ago considering what he brings to the table, both in skillset and experience.

On3’s Andy Staples and Roddy Jones of the ACC Network spoke about Shough’s ceiling on Friday. His addition makes Louisville a fascinating team to him, especially if he can stay healthy throughout the season and be the player that he has shown flashes of in the past during his career.

“I’m looking at Tyler Shough as he comes to Louisville. It feels like, at Oregon and at Texas Tech, it wasn’t like Tyler Shough was ever bad. It was he was good and then he was hurt,” Staples said. “I keep saying and I realize this is probably an unfair comparison. But Michael Penix Jr. at Indiana where he was either good or he was hurt. Then, when you finally saw him be healthy for awhile, he was awesome.”

“Now you got Tyler Shough with a quarterback whisperer in Jeff Brohm. Could he stay healthy? Could he be good for a whole season?” asked Staples. “Like, that intrigues me a lot.”

Jones agreed as, in his opinion, Shough gives the Cardinals a better chance to succeed over what Plummer did. Plummer helped them to win 10 games with 3,204 yards, 21 touchdowns, and 64.8% completion. Still, with what Shough can add, it might be an insertion that takes Louisville up another level so long as the offense comes together.

“It intrigues me too because the flashes of Tyler Shough that we’ve seen give them a higher ceiling than what Jack Plummer gave them,” Jones stated. “Towards the end of the year, that offense was so up and down. It seemed like, early in the year, they couldn’t great big plays, they weren’t scoring. Then, late in the year when it sort of dried up and Isaac Guerendo took over until they hit Florida State? They were able to just sort of manage the game, hold the ball. I think Tyler Shough gives them a higher ceiling than what Jack Plummer did a year ago.”

“The questions to me? That offense was able to congeal pretty quickly,” recalled Jones. “Jack Plummer had played in the offense. Again, they got the big plays from Jawhar Jordan early on and Jamari Thrash. Can it congeal as quickly this season? I think that’s sort of the question that we always have with the transfer portal.”

Jones continued by adding on how Shough’s age only further aids him in the fitting the mold of successful quarterbacks under Brohm.

“As you said, Jeff Brohm has had success with all of his quarterbacks. It feels like the most success that he has comes with older quarterbacks. Aidan O’Connell in his last couple seasons, obviously Jack Plummer was an older guy,” Jones said. “Tyler Shough is, what, 25? So you’re going to have an older quarterback that’s going to take what Jeff Brohm designs, isn’t going to get tired with completions which is all you need.”

In five seasons in Eugene and Lubbock, Shough has thrown for 4,625 yards. He has done so on 63.2% completion for 36 touchdowns and 17 interceptions. However, his career has only included 27 appearances in that span with most of it being due to injury.

Health will be a cliffhanger when it comes to Shough’s upcoming, graduate season at Louisville this fall. If he can manage to stay on the field, though, even better things may be in store for the Cardinals in 2024 than what they experienced in 2023.