When Jeff Brohm returned home to Louisville on December 8 after putting Purdue back on the football map not only in the B1G but across the entire country — one thing was noted; his will to win and recruit.
As of Friday evening the Louisville Cardinals are set atop the college football rankings when it comes to transfer portal ahead of Colorado and USC.
Brohm left the Purdue program in a much better place than when he found it as he inherited a program that 9-39 under Darrell Hazell. Upon leaving Purdue, Brohm exited with a 36-34 record and a 26-25 conference record.
Let’s face the truth. And that is the Cardinals have not had bad seasons over the last several years. Since 2010 the Cardinals have a record of 99-65. In that time Charlie Strong went 37-15, Bobby Petrino in his second stint with the Cardinals went 36-26, and Lorenzo Ward who was the brief interim in 2018 went 0-2. In the last three years, the Cardinals went 26-24 under Scott Satterfield who bolted for greener pastures in Cincy, apparently.
In his duration with the Cardinals, Satterfield did something that Strong or Petrino didn’t do in any of their respective seasons as the Louisville head coach. He had back-to-back losing seasons. The Cardinals went 8-5 in 2018 and 4-7 in 2020 and 6-7 in 2021 but turned it around in 2022 with an 8-5 record. But in reality, when you ask most of the Cardinals fans, they will respectfully say that 8-5 two times in four years at Louisville is not acceptable.
And not acceptable is walking into the 2023 season looking at the schedule and wondering how and why the Cardinals cannot be a 10-win or more team this season. Quite frankly if they mess around too much they could find themselves right where the experts are placing Florida State and Clemson; the ACC Championship.
Unfortunately though the Cardinals don’t play either the Seminoles or Tigers this year.
Truth be told, there is nothing really standing in the way of Brohm leading this Cardinals team to an impressive season under his leadership in year one with this schedule where I gave the Cardinals a predicted 10-2 record and a 7-1 in conference record.
Brohm is the guy. And he will make great strides and progress in Louisville as he did at Purdue.
