Former Louisville linebacker Ben Perry to rejoin Cardinals in 2026
Louisville football isn’t done adding (or re-adding) pieces to its defense in 2026.
Former Cardinals linebacker and safety Ben Perry will finish his collegiate football career where it started, he announced.
The Chicago native has played in 43 career games across five years of college football.
The redshirt senior spent the first four years of his career with the Cardinals, playing in four games as a true freshman and collecting two solo tackles. The next three seasons, the 6-foot-3, 210-pound linebacker was a daily fixture in Louisville’s defense. Perry has totaled 132 total tackles, 74 solo, 11.0 tackles for loss, eight passes defended, two sacks, and has forced one fumble in his collegiate career.
Perry went on to enter the transfer portal following the 2024 season, where he would ultimately end up at UCLA, but he only made the field for one game, the season opener against Utah. He did not record a statistic. Perry was then shut down due to injury. And, yes, this is another transfer portal commitment, the 17th of the cycle for Jeff Brohm and company.
Originally recruited under former head coach Scott Satterfield, Perry was a former four-star recruit out of Mount Carmel HS. On3 ranked Perry as a top-10 safety in the 2021 class and the class’s 111th-ranked player overall.
Perry is now the fifth addition to Louisville’s front-seven out of the transfer portal. He joins Miami defensive lineman Daylen Russell, Purdue run stopper Demeco Kennedy, and brothers from Kentucky, Jacob and Jerod Smith. the However, Perry plays a similar role as the Cards’ All-ACC caliber LB/S Antonio Watts, frequently dropping back in coverage.
This story will be updated.
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