
Louisville Athletics Photo
Louisville coach Jeff Brohm had his turn Wednesday at the ACC Media Days in Charlotte, N.C., and covered a variety of topics.
Of course, Kentucky closes the regular season at Louisville after getting blistered by the Cardinals in Kroger Field last season.
JEFF BROHM: Good afternoon. It’s exciting to be here for Media Day. Of course that means the season is getting ready to start. I think everyone across the country is looking forward to college football this season. I think it’ll be exciting for everyone. I know our team is looking forward to the challenges ahead. We’ve got a great challenging schedule that we’re looking forward to playing. We’ve got a lot of guys on our team that have worked really hard, put the time in all spring, all summer to get to this point. We’ve got a great collection of young men that — guys on our team last year, additions that we’ve had through the transfer portal, additions through the high school recruiting. They’re all here. They’re working hard, and I think at this point we’ve gelled together very well.
We feel like we’ve got very good components that understand what lies ahead and what it’s going to take to win. So for the last couple years here at the University of Louisville, we’ve had some success. We want to continue to improve upon that and push it forward, correct some of the mistakes we made along the way and have a successful season.
But we’ve got a lot of hungry young players that really want to excel and play well, and we’re looking forward to getting things started.
Q.How do you balance developing talent versus leaning into the transfer portal?
JEFF BROHM: Well, player development is the number one thing we’re going to work on doing, and that’s whether we get young high school prospects or even transfers. We’ve still got to develop and make them the best players they can be.
Our team will consist of both. We want young players that you believe in from the high school ranks that fit and come in and work hard and you hope they get on the field as fast as they can, but if not, you’ve got to continue to work with them and understand that it’s a process sometimes that takes a little bit of time.
But if you spend the right time with your players and you invest in them, you’ll get the most out of them.
When it comes to transfers, whatever is going to make our team better. I think if you ask our good players on our football team every year, they’re going to want more and more of the best players you can to help them succeed and play well and win football games. I think even when you get those guys in, you’ve got to continue to develop their talent and sharpen some things along the way and study film and put a lot of work in to help them succeed.
Our team will consist of both, and whatever we think we’ve got to do at the end of the year to improve, we will do that. We don’t have a number and figure on it, but we will work hard to make sure we analyze every position and do the best job we can to put the best product on the field.
Q.Coach, you’ve been dubbed by many as the quarterback whisperer of college football. What is it about your coaching style that allows you to mold guys into such quality talent?
JEFF BROHM: Well, I think that playing the position was important. I’ve been able to do that a little bit. Coaching the position for a long time, being around a lot of great players and coaches along the way. Really, football has been my life ever since I was a young boy. So you just learn things along the way.
I think in order to win at a high level, a lot of things have to take place, but you have to have great quarterback play, and it’s important that that’s a big component of winning football games.
For us, we have a process. We want guys that want to work hard and want to be a leader and play at a high level. Every one of them has different talents, and I think we’re able to adapt maybe as well as anybody to what they do well and have a system that allows us to succeed at the things that they’re really good at.
But all these players, in my opinion, and young men on teams, they work really hard now, and if you’re willing to put in the work with them and invest in them, you’re going to get great dividends out of them, and they’re going to have great success.
For us, building the roster with a quarterback doesn’t have to do everything. You have a good running game, you’ve got a good play action game, you’ve got a good defense, got a good offensive line. All those things matter to great quarterback play, and we hope for Miller to have a great year, and we are definitely optimistic that with the weapons that we have and the team we have that he will excel and play extremely well for us.
Q.Coach, with both your byes being done by mid October, what are some things you’re going to do to keep your team fresh for the last seven games?
JEFF BROHM: I think every head coach is different in their philosophy. For us, we’re probably just naturally more cautious than others. We definitely understand the length of the season, the toll it takes on the body, and we adjust, really, our training throughout the year, but definitely in fall camp to make sure that while we get in a ton of good work, we get to the first game healthy.
It’s important that our best players are healthy and that they’re healthy as long as we can keep them that way, and if we happen to lose a few, we’ve got to be able to respond and the others have to step up. But we want to do our part as coaches and have a plan. We just don’t coach a certain way and if we’ve got a lot of injuries one year and less the others, not adjust. We’re going to adjust, and we’re going to make sure that everything is being done to get our guys healthy, to keep them healthy throughout the entire year. Obviously there will be a few things here and there that will happen, but I think we’re very strategic in planning and making sure that practices are set up to get the work in but to get to the game healthy.
Q.Coach, obviously playing at Louisville from ’89 to ’93 at the quarterback position, you know what the culture was like back then and you know the culture that you have now. What are some of those parallels that you wanted to include from your time there, what you felt was most valuable about being at Louisville as a student-athlete? And what are some of those pieces that you brought into your own program here at Louisville?
JEFF BROHM: Well, there are a lot of things. I think I was fortunate enough to play at the University of Louisville when Howard Schnellenberger was our coach. I believe in a lot of things that he’s believed in and taught. One of them was we took on all challenges, we played all tough teams we could. We believed in a tough schedule. We knew that that was going to make us better in the long run.
We also probably knew that players wanted to play those games, coaches wanted to coach them and fans wanted to see it. So that’s our scheduling philosophy; as much as we can, we’re going to try to play as many good teams as we can every year. We’ve tried to schedule teams here in the past and haven’t been as successful getting it done to keep improving our schedule, but it’s important, in my opinion, that you play the best to be the best.
Our guys enjoy doing that, and it’s important that our guys work hard every week and not take one team lightly. But it is fun when you play quality football teams and you put it all out there on the field and you find a way to win and you win some special games.
Beating Notre Dame at home two years ago, beating Clemson this past year, were good wins for our program, and we’ve just got to continue to build on that and find ways to win as many as we can and see if we can get to the prize at the end.
One Response
I do not like Louisville one bit, never have, and I was born and raised in Louisville. That said, I believe UK is in big trouble now in this rivalry, especially with this man at the helm of Louisville football. Coach Stoops seems to struggle in rivalry games, always has, i.e. UT, even USC of late. UK must rise to the occasion against this Louisville football team in 2025 or it will get ugly quick for Kentucky football in the years to follow if Coach Stoops survives beyond this the season as the head coach. I remember the Corso era, the Petrino era. I really do hope I'm wrong.