Clev Lubin generated 64 quarterback pressures — fifth-most in the country and the most by a Louisville player in a decade. He bypassed the NFL to run it back as the Cardinals' headliner off the edge.
Lubin's first ACC season after transferring from Coastal Carolina was a pressure clinic: 61 tackles, 13.5 tackles for loss, 8.5 sacks, three forced fumbles and five pass breakups, plus 64 quarterback pressures that ranked fifth in FBS and were the most by a Cardinal in ten years. He earned All-ACC honors and chose to return rather than declare. The forward stakes are conversion: the pressure volume says he's constantly in the backfield, so 2026 is about turning more of those hurries into sacks — and a bigger sack number into a higher draft slot. He's a relentless, high-motor rusher who simply doesn't stop coming.
How he plays
Lubin is a high-motor, high-volume pressure rusher — the defining trait is relentlessness. The 64 pressures (fifth in FBS) tell the story: he wins reps over and over across a game, wearing tackles down even when the sack doesn't show up on the box score. He converts that into real production (8.5 sacks, 13.5 TFL) and adds a finishing element with three forced fumbles and five batted passes — a rusher who affects the play even when he doesn't get home. At 6-3, 260 he's a motor-and-effort edge more than a freaky athlete, the kind whose pressure volume usually outpaces his sack total — which is exactly the gap 2026 is about closing.
