Louisville has hired Jeff Brohm as its next coach, the university announced Thursday. Brohm, a Louisville native who was also a quarterback for the Cardinals in the 1990s, is leaving Purdue after six successful seasons to return to his alma mater. The Louisville board of trustees officially approved Brohm’s contract in a meeting Thursday.
Brohm led the Boilermakers to a 36-34 record in those six campaigns, with a 17-9 mark the last two seasons and an appearance in the Big Ten Championship Game after the 2022 campaign. Before joining Purdue, he coached Western Kentucky to a 30-10 mark in three years with a Sterling record of 22-5 in the last two.
“We are excited to welcome Head Coach Jeff Brohm and his family to the University of Louisville,” said athletic director Josh Heird. “The Brohms are synonymous with Louisville, and Jeff made a lasting impact on our city as a high school star, college quarterback, professional athlete and coach. But aside from his connection to the city, what excites me most about Jeff is that he’s had “success at the highest level of college football. To put it simply, Jeff is a proven winner. Along the way, he’s dealt with one exciting brand of football that remains innovative and fun, and he did it by making the right decisions with the best interests of his student-athletes on the front lines.I knew we needed to find an outstanding leader for our program “who understood the history of Louisville football and who would make a long-term commitment to this school and this community. There’s no other coach in America who ticks those boxes like Jeff Brohm.”
In addition to being quarterback for the Cardinals, Brohm was an assistant at Louisville for six seasons under Bobby Petrino and Steve Kragthorpe. He was quarterbacks coach (2003-06) and assistant head coach (2007-08), with stints as passing game coordinator (2007) and offensive coordinator (2008).
A return to Louisville always seemed like a possibility for Brohm, though he turned down an offer to coach the Cardinals in November 2018 to remain at Purdue after the program fired Petrino (in his second stint with the team). Louisville eventually hired Scott Satterfield, who left earlier this week after four seasons to coach Cincinnati.
“My family and I are honored to return home to the University of Louisville, a place we love and that has shaped me so much as a player, as a coach and as a man,” Brohm said. “I am extremely grateful and humbled that Dr. Gonzalez, Dr. Schatzel, Josh Heird and the ULAA Board of Directors believe I am the right person to lead this football program. I pledge relentless energy, effort, and hard work every single day on behalf of all of our coaches, staff, and student-athletes. Our goal is to compete for championships while developing our student-athletes into true leaders on and off the field. These young men will make our university, our community, and our fan base proud to be Louisville Cardinals. This city means a lot to me and my family. Louisville is who we are. Thank you for welcoming us home.”
Brohm is expected to land a six-season deal averaging around $6 million, according to ESPN. His departure leaves the Boilermakers in search of a new coach as the program wins its first-ever Big Ten West title. With Brohm’s departure, the division will have three new coaches for the 2023 season as Matt Rhule takes over at Nebraska and Luke Fickell at Wisconsin.
A career high-flyer
After a professional playing career, Brohm spent six years as an assistant with the Cardinals before joining the coaching staff at FAU, Illinois and UAB. In 2013, he landed in western Kentucky as offensive coordinator for Petrino. When Petrino returned to Louisville after just one season with the Hilltoppers, Brohm landed the head coaching job and took WKU to new heights. The program’s 12-win season in 2015 and 11-win season in 2016 under Brohm are still WKU’s only seasons with double-digit wins in 14 years as an FBS program.
His quick success landed him the Purdue job at a time when the Boilermakers were desperate, lagging to a 9-39 mark over the past four seasons. Brohm led them to a bowl win in his freshman season, which quickly earned him the attention of even more well-known Jobs. At one point, he was heavily involved with Tennessee during the Volunteers’ search for Butch Jones’ replacement in 2017. But Brohm stayed where he was, leading the program to another Bowl appearance in 2018.
Though the Boilermakers finished the 2019 and 2020 seasons only 6-12, back-to-back 6-3 marks in Big Ten play over the past two seasons marked the best two-year run of conference play for the Boilermakers since 1997 and 1998 as the program finished 6-2 in the Big Ten in consecutive seasons under Joe Tiller.
Brohm’s style suits Cardinals
The hiring continues Louisville’s legacy of offense-oriented coaches who have made the program a steady producer of statistically impressive quarterbacks. Aside from Charlie Strong’s successful four-year run from 2010-13 as a manager from a defensive background, Louisville has occupied offensive heads in Petrino, Kragthorpe and Satterfield for most of the 21st century.
But even under Strong, offense became Louisville’s calling card when Teddy Bridgewater played for the Cardinals in a 12-1 season with nearly 4,000 yards and 31 touchdowns and just four interceptions in 2013. Then came Lamar Jackson during Petrino’s second stint. The current Baltimore Ravens star quarterback won the Heisman Trophy in 2016 before Malik Cunningham came into the picture in 2018. Cunningham has been a mainstay at the position for the past five seasons but is ineligible to play.
That means Brohm will likely be on the hunt for a quarterback for the 2023 season, and it stands to reason that many players at the position will be drawn to his system. In the last two seasons, former walk-on Aidan O’Connell has threw more than 7,000 yards for the Boilermakers, who are among the most passing teams in the country. Purdue ranked second in the Big Ten this season behind Ohio State, and the Boilermakers’ 541 pass attempts rank fourth in the country this season.