A Stellar Louisville Homecoming; Cardinals Former Quarterback To Become New Head Coach
The college football coaching carousel is in full effect. An opening appeared on Monday after Scott Satterfield left for Cincinnati. How will this new hire fair for Louisville?
An EKG Program
The Louisville Football program has been an absolute rollercoaster in the past decade. It started fantastically in 2012, being ranked in the top ten at one point in the rankings; that year ended in a Sugar Bowl victory over the third-ranked Florida Gators. Then, a year later, Charlie Strong left for greener pastures (or so he thought) for Texas. Leaving the Cardinals searching for a coach before the 2014 season.
This is where Bobby Petrino enters his second tenure as the Cardinals coach. For the most part, the second tenure was sour (besides being ranked in the top three at one point in the 2016 season); it was nothing like the 2007 Orange Bowl coaching we were used to seeing from Bobby Petrino. Although, he did bring Lamar Jackson to Louisville, and he became an eventually Heisman. After starting the season 2-8 in 2018, he was fired from his position.
Another search ensued, and Scott Satterfield got the job and left Appalachian State. His first year in 2019 was by far his best, leading the Cardinals to an 8-5 season and becoming the ACC Coach of the Year. However, he would be lackluster for the rest of his tenure for the Cardinals having two losing seasons and then having a bounce-back season going 7-5 and eventually getting an offer for the Cincinnati Bearcats job after Fickell headed to Wisconsin.
A Long Time Coming
Now enters another new era. On Wednesday, the Louisville Cardinals announced that they would be hiring Purdue head coach Jeff Brohm as the new head coach of the football team. This is an absolute dream come true for Louisville fans. After Satterfield went 6-7 the year prior, many Louisville media called for his removal and the hiring of Jeff Brohm. Brohm was in the conversation for the head coach at Louisville in 2018 but declined, saying the time was not right for him to return to Louisville.
BREAKING: Jeff Brohm turns down job at his alma mater Louisville. Brohm will continue to coach at Purdue. pic.twitter.com/Dk0r7r7yz6 — CFB Kings (@CFBKings) November 29, 2018
Fast forward to 2022, and the time could not be better for not only Louisville fans but Jeff Brohm as well. Jeff Brohm is walking into a recruiting class ranking top-20 on 247 sports. In addition, Louisville fans get a coach used to winning and coming off an appearance at the Big-Ten Conference Championship this past Saturday. Another critical element for Louisville fans is Jeff Brohm being born and raised in Louisville. If Brohm is successful, being from here could deter him from leaving for another school, which has often happened in the past two decades.
Jeff Brohm’s Resume
Jeff Brohm started his coaching career in Arena Football for the Louisville Fire. After one year, he went on to be the quarterback’s coach at Louisville under Bobby Petrino; he would eventually become the assistant head coach and offensive coordinator at Louisville under Steve Kragthorpe.
He was a quarterbacks coach for Florida Atlantic and Illinois. He would become the UAB offensive coordinator in 2012. In 2013 He went to Western Kentucky, where he was an offensive coordinator under Bobby Petrino again. Then, of course, in 2014, Petrino went to Louisville, which opened the head coaching spot for Western Kentucky. Brohm would eventually take that job and go 30-10 through three seasons as the head coach.
Due to his impressive record at Western Kentucky, the Big Ten came calling. Purdue eventually offered Brohm the job, and he accepted. He was lackluster, going 36-34, but the main selling point was Brohm’s ability to take down the top teams. In 2018 Brohm beat 23rd-ranked Boston College; three weeks later, Brohm took down second-ranked Ohio State, and just two weeks after, he defeated 19th-ranked Iowa.
In the 2020 season, he defeated 12th-ranked Penn State. A year later, in 2021, Brohm and Purdue took down second-ranked Iowa; the most significant news was Purdue was ranked in the top 25 for the first time since 2007 after that victory. Three weeks later, he beat another top-five opponent, the third-ranked Michigan State Spartans.
Jeff Brohm now has 3 wins against teams ranked inside the AP top 5 while at Purdue. — Derek Peterson (@dr_petey) November 6, 2021
The Bottom Line
Being a Louisville fan and following the buzz that surrounds Jeff Brohm is suffocating. This fan base needs dominant football that it has seen glimpses of in recent decades. This hire can not only provide that but also generate the excitement that this fan base has longed for since Lamar Jackson left for the NFL.
It will be interesting to see how many of the recruits committed to Louisville stay. I am a bit nervous about the hire considering he had a close-to-even record while coaching in the power-five. However, the worries will soon fly out the window if Louisville can bring a ranked team to Cardinal Stadium and defeat them. It will be fun to follow this team and see how they will turn out under Coach Brohm.