From MIA to the 'Ville: I Think the Cards May Have Found Ja'Corey Brooks 2.0 🤫
I put my team first, we never rehearsed. We the best franchise cause we squeeze first…
- Ace Hood, musician
Former five star receiver Ja’Corey Brooks out of Miami, FL was labelled a bust during his first three seasons with the Alabama Crimson Tide. He wasn’t exactly set up for success. Indeed, to say expectations were immense when he and his classmates joined the club would be an understatement. And Alabama had already begun their fall from grace by that time, without anyone knowing it.
Regarded on signing day as the greatest WR class of all time (by recruiting services), the C/O 2021 Alabama receivers turned out to be, well, probably the most disappointing group of all time.
Neither Jojo Earle, Agiye Hall, or Christian Leary (all rated top 150 prospects nationally) made a significant mark in college football. And the lone bright spot, Brooks, only did so with another club and in his fourth year.
Personally, my memory of these players is mostly limited to them dropping dimes from Bryce Young in the 2021 national championship game vs. UGA (thank you lads!).
But anyways, I think I’ve twisted the knife into the hearts of this publication’s Alabama readers enough (is it ever really enough, though?). The topic of today’s article is another Miami based receiver who has found his way to Louisville late in his career—Mr. LaWayne McCoy, formerly of FSU.
“LaWayne” is sonically close to “Lil Wayne”, who’s obviously a legend in the hip-hop game and perhaps an inspiration for McCoy’s given name (I’m merely speculating here); either way, we’re off to a good start in my opinion. And that’s not even mentioning the obvious +1 to the profile due to McCoy coming from Florida. Long story short, there’s a lot of positive juju here.
Furthermore—the suspected #1 receiver this offseason for the Cards—Vandy transfer Tre Richardson, has been out all spring and could potentially miss more time than originally anticipated. Here’s my man Nate Marchese in his latest “Stock Up/Down” article for WRs:
The Vandy transfer missed all of spring with an injury that Jeff Brohm described as “more involved than we anticipated”. While he is still expected to be back in the fall, he missed valuable reps with Lincoln Kienholz, who didn’t exactly look great passing the ball. Additionally, indications are that Richardson will man the slot role, which has only once been the leading WR spot under Brohm. And that one player was the late, great Rondale Moore. RIP.
Not great, Bob! Additionally, while Nate is correct that reports out of camp have not exactly been glowing regarding QB transfer Lincoln Kienholz, there’s a very real reality where he isn’t the one throwing passes this season. In fact, chemistry between McCoy and QB Davin Wydner has been building throughout the spring, and they connected in the spring game on a long score. From the spring game notes:
Wydner found Florida State transfer Lawayne McCoy for a 40-yard touchdown along the sideline.
Normally, we take these spring game standouts with a grain of salt, but McCoy has reportedly been a positive presence on the field all spring long. Here is a another note out of camp:
Transfer wide receiver Lawayne McCoy has been among the many standouts throughout spring. The 6-foot-1, 175-pound newcomer from Florida State has proven effective in varying opportunities.
“He’s doing a real good job,” UofL wide receivers coach Deion Branch said. “I’m very pleased with where he’s at now. I’ve added way more on his plate, which is a plus, and he’s actually digesting everything the right way. So we’re pretty satisfied with where we are. There’s more to be done though. There’s way more to be done.”
McCoy was Florida State’s third-leading wide receiver in 2025 with 27 receptions for 396 yards and three touchdowns over 10 games. Slowed by an injury early in the season, McCoy came on and made seven starts down the stretch.
While the aggregate numbers of McCoy’s 2025 season certainly won’t wow the reader, it should be noted that he played some of his best ball at the end of the season. He finished this past season with a six catch, 110 yard and one score performance vs. SEC program Florida. He also had a four catch, 46 yard and one score game vs. Clemson a few weeks prior.
In fact, I would say that when he was targeted he generally did quite well. The problem was that he wasn’t heavily targeted very often. Keep in mind this FSU team he played on kind of sucked, and the QB play definitely sucked.
Anyways, here is some more info on McCoy’s progress this offseason and what he needs to work on for 2026 and beyond:
While he has made impressive strides in learning the complex Jeff Brohm offense since arriving, both McCoy and Branch agree that there is still progress to be made ahead of the 2026 season.
“It’s not an easy offense to learn, but you know, with coaches like Coach Branch and Coach Mason [Petrino], who helped me since day one, since I came in, just meeting with Mason, me and him just together, just going over plays, helped me get a better understanding of the offense and then going out here and walkthroughs and practices. So everything is starting to slow down for me.”
McCoy is seeking to become an even more elusive receiver.
“I feel like I just need to sharpen the small details and then run after the catch,” McCoy said. “That’s really my main thing. After catching the ball, getting yards after the catch and making explosive plays for this offense.”
Louisville wide receivers coach Deion Branch has been impressed.
“He’s a slippery receiver,” Branch said, adding that McCoy is a “very good route runner. That’ll be something that you guys will see Friday. Get him in space, get him single matchups and then let him do his thing.”
While I find the quotes encouraging, ultimately the reason CFFers should be interested in this room is because of the pedigree of head coach Jeff Brohm at the WR position. The aforementioned Ja’Corey Brooks had a career year in his sole season with Louisville (1000+ yards, nine scores). Before him was Georgia State transfer Jamari Thrash. And before Brohm made his own way to Louisville, he had several productive pass-catchers at Purdue (e.g., Charlie Jones, David Bell, Rondale Moore).
And of course, this past season there was Chris Bell (of no relation to David, as far as I know). Suffice it to say, the boundary receiver position in this system is typically a lucrative asset to hold in CFF. Let’s take a closer look at the numbers for completeness.
COACHING & SYSTEM
WR1 PPG AVERAGE — HC: 17.8 (half ppr)
As mentioned above, not only is this system a honey pot for productive wide receivers, we also have the benefit of noticing a clear trend in which WR role typically receives the majority of targets in this system.
Clearly the outside guys have been getting most of the love. And it took a freakazoid like Moore during the 2018 season to buck the trend.
Typical WR1s in this system will see over 20% target share, with a high of 31% during the 2018 season with the aforementioned late great Rondale Moore.
Other characteristics of the system include a pass-skewed but overall fairly balanced play calling distribution (54% pass to 46% run), and a moderately fast pace of play calling (~24-25 seconds per play, 70 plays run per game).
Chris Bell this past season was one of only two WR1s dating back to 2018 that finished a full season with less than 1000 yards receiving. To be fair, Bell still had a good year and he was pretty close (917 yards) while missing one regular season game (11 appearances).
I don’t think any CFF manager regretted rostering Bell last season either, so I think it’s safe to say Brohm’s CFF relevant WR1 streak remains intact for yet another year.
So naturally, many of us are wondering: who’s next?
LaWayne McCoy (6’1, 175)
2025 RECEIVING STATS: 27-396-3 (8.7 PPG in full PPR scoring)
As alluded to earlier, the list of comparisons between McCoy and the former Cardinal WR1, Brooks, are quite lengthy.
For one, they are both transferring later in their careers (Brooks’ fourth, McCoy’s third season). They both come from Miami, though McCoy played at a better program (Brooks eventually transferred to IMG Academy). They are similarly sized boundary receivers (Brooks is listed 6’2, 180 pounds, McCoy is 6’1, 175). They even wear the same fucking number for Christ’s sake. They’re going to look very similar on the field.
And speaking of backgrounds, I knew I recognized the name before and thus set course through the archives to unveil what it was that might have lingered in my memory. There, I eventually tracked down what was likely the post that first brought McCoy onto my radar many years ago:
Miami Central is a big-time program in the 305 area code and their list of CFB/NFL football alumni is lengthy. Any time someone stands out at a program like that it is noteworthy.
Furthermore, it sounds like the decision to bring his talents away from South Beach and up north to Louisville was a deliberate one based on the system track record (you love to see it):
The decision to make the move from Tallahassee to Louisville was due in part to the program’s recent history of receivers and to work with Deion Branch.
“I feel like the production of receivers throughout the past years, like Jamari Thrash, then you had Ja’Corey Brooks come here, then Chris Bell,” McCoy said. “I feel like the production of receivers and the coach who was coaching the receivers, Deion Branch made a pretty good relationship and that’s what led me to come into Louisville.”
While he has made impressive strides in learning the complex Jeff Brohm offense since arriving, both McCoy and Branch agree that there is still progress to be made ahead of the 2026 season.
“It’s not an easy offense to learn, but you know, with coaches like Coach Branch and Coach Mason [Petrino], who helped me since day one, since I came in, just meeting with Mason, me and him just together, just going over plays, helped me get a better understanding of the offense and then going out here and walkthroughs and practices. So everything is starting to slow down for me.”
Beyond the slot receiver Tre Richardson, there is also once-CFF darling Treyshaun Hurry, who transferred from SJSU last offseason. His impact at Louisville has been limited thus far.
While selfishly (I have a share in Nate’s dynasty league) I hope that Hurry emerges as a CFF monster, it’s also fair to say that we just don’t know if he can he even play at the P4 level with the current info we have available.
So, Richardson is on a milk carton, Hurry is a huge question mark even when healthy, and then we have the big dog from Miami who’s already proven he can play at the P4 level via FSU and he has a pretty sick high school pedigree. I don’t know, man, you do the math. Am I going crazy over here?
Here’s what 247’s Andrew Ivins had to say about McCoy coming out of high school:
A two-way playmaker that made a difference on both sides of the ball as an 11th grader for a Miami Central program that captured a Sunshine State 2M state title.
Viewed by most scouts and coaches as a wide receiver long term, but has the size/length that everyone covets in the secondary (believed to be hovering right around 6-foot, 170 pounds) and can cover a ton of ground on the backend.
Came up big for the Rockets in an upset of IMG Academy as he jumped an out route from his corner posting in the fourth quarter and strolled into the endzone for the go-ahead score. Could probably defend the perimeter on Saturdays, but ceiling might ultimately be highest on defense as a single-high safety given how he takes angles and gets to the catch point.
When it comes to his prowess on offense, should be viewed as a deep threat that can move the chains with post and go routes. Does a nice job of getting vertical and not giving up on a play. Will eventually need to settle on a position, but looks like one of the top talents down in the 305 for 2024 cycle. Likely to need some time to get acclimated to the speed and demands of Power Five football, but has impressed in pretty much every setting since he first emerged on the scene as a sophomore.
That’s another good note that Andrew makes in that write up—this is a player who cross-trained throughout high school and so it is unlikely that he’s even scratched the surface of his potential at WR even now in his third season of collegiate football.
To conclude, I would say that there is just something about McCoy that keeps me coming back for more. I’ve drafted him a few times already in bestball leagues (generally towards the end of drafts).
At one point I felt good about Hurry, but then the lack of production last year and hype this offseason was not overwhelmingly encouraging. I recently started to come around on Richardson but I’m once again cooling on him as things stand due to his health.
Of course, there are other receivers on the team besides the three we’ve covered today and the Brohm WR1 could just as easily end up being one of those players. But these guys seem to be the top three that CFFers have honed in on (right or wrong), so I’ve focused my attention there for the purposes of this article.
I think as things currently stand McCoy is a no-brainer at an ADP of round 20+. He might start to creep up after the news of Richardson’s injury and, dare I say, the proliferation of this article, but I don’t think it will be a dramatic increase. ◾
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