Ashton Gillotte returns as a South Florida star as Louisville takes on Miami

LOUISVILLE, Ky.(WDRB) - When you think of South Florida, some of the things that come to mind are obvious.

Sunshine. Beaches. Palm trees. 

But as much as the area is known as a producer of paradise, in sports, it has an earned reputation for producing something else: some of the best football players in the country.

The list is established with Hall of Famers like Ray Lewis and grows with current superstars like Lamar Jackson. We don't have enough space here to go over all of them.

So, as No. 10 Louisville prepares to try and leave the area with a road victory over the University of Miami, it is a good thing U of L defensive star and South Florida native Ashton Gillotte grew up idolizing so many of those greats.

"There's a lot of idols or people on that team, like history wise, I look up to," Gillotte said. "It's very special."

The defensive end has never gotten to come back to South Florida as an opposing player. He is from Boca Raton and continues a Louisville pipeline of players who made a long trip to Kentucky to prove themselves as players outside of Florida.

"I kind of wanted to get away from home, stretch my legs out, get away from the nest and be my own man," Gillotte said.

Coming out of high school, he had offers, but was not a top-tier recruit. According to 247Sports, he was a three-star prospect ranked as the No. 1,280th best player in the country and 164th in Florida for the class of 2021.

The COVID-19 pandemic prevented him from visiting interested schools. But it is a good thing Louisville assistant coach Mark Ivey saw enough from some film to let Gillotte know Louisville was interested anyway.

"Mark Ivey is just a man who cares a lot," Gillotte said. "He showed a lot of belief in me, a lot of vision in me that a lot of other coaches didn't. He kind of saw the potential in me and he really believed in it. And that's how that really stuck with me."

That belief has blossomed for Louisville's benefit. Gillotte's rise did not carry the trademarked South Florida speed so many of the area's players display on a consistent basis. But his potential flashed over his first two seasons, tallying 10 sacks and 15 tackles for loss.

After his mentors in former Louisville stars Yasir Adullah and YaYa Diaby left for the NFL, it was up to Gillotte to not just help replace their production, but step up and be a leader last offseason. He embraced the opportunity in the spring. 

"I think that just kind of gave me an opportunity," Gillotte said. "I do better one on one. I think I've shown that in terms of mentorship and talking to people, just knowing when to call people out. I think that's been a thing.

So, I really felt like that was kind of the cataclysm for change. You realize now all the old heads are gone. So, you kind of got to do what you need to do to step up."

He has gone above and beyond that as a junior. Gillotte ranks sixth in the nation with 10 sacks, leads the ACC with three forced fumbles and has 13 tackles for loss to top all of it off. The Chuck Bednarik Award candidate is close to cracking U of L's all-time top 10 for single-season marks in sacks and tackles for loss.

Part of that success can be attributed to an adjustment in his role to better fit co-defensive coordinator Ron English's system. Showing more versatility, Gillotte now plays more of an edge-rushing role like he did in high school while still occasionally moving inside. 

"It's completely different," Gillotte said. "Being on the edge definitely frees you up. Usually, you only got one guy that you got to beat: a tackle or a tight end. So, I think it gave me a lot of flexibility in terms of how to set the edge or make plays."

“Ashton reminds me a lot of George Karlaftis, who we had at Purdue and who was a first-round pick of the (Kansas City) Chiefs," Louisville head coach Jeff Brohm said. "He can play defensive end, but maybe move inside as well. He has that 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.

"If you want to move him inside and create some mismatches, he can do that very well also. He creates push, he's got quickness and agility, he understands football, he's really strong, doesn't miss practice, doesn’t miss reps. I mean, he's just very durable, and he’s played. He’s already played quite a bit, so he had experience before we got here, and he's proved very valuable to this defense. We rotate guys in there and try to keep him fresh as well, but he's a dominant player for us, and it shows up every week.”

There could not be a better week for it to show again as Louisville tries to clinch its first-ever berth in the ACC Championship Game with a win over the Hurricanes. Gillotte will be playing in front of family and friends, showing how he has become another playmaker from the area pipeline he always keeps in mind.

"The competitiveness, that's what motivates everyone," Gillotte said. "Being able to just compete down there, that's just something special."

And if some of those idols are in attendance to see him potentially wrecking the South Florida school's offensive game plan?

"If some of them are are there, then so be it," Gillotte said with a smile.

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