Louisville football seeks sustained success in Year 2 under Jeff Brohm (2024)

Rattling off one victory after another to begin last season has Louisville seeking this fall to regain and maintain the amped-up energy and excitement that comes along with an unbeaten launch forward.

“The previous years we were going back and forth with wins and losses, so it was definitely great to start that way,” Cardinals defensive end Ashton Gillotte said.

Added cornerback Quincy Riley: “The highs were high.”

Indeed.

Louisville won its first six games in 2023, capped with an upset home victory over Notre Dame, in which former running back Jawhar Jordan rushed for 143 yards and two touchdowns to send a crowd of 59,081 into a frenzy. Riley had an interception.

“It was electric,” said Gillotte, who logged 1.5 sacks to help beat the Irish. “It was great to feel the fans come out, have the full stadium, packed house. To play a ranked-Notre Dame with a sold-out stadium and even over-sold stadium, the Louisville fans were there for you.”

The Cardinals in Coach Jeff Brohm’s first season continued their winning ways to get to 10-1 overall and reach No. 9 in the AP Top 25 after their win at Miami solidified a spot in the ACC title game.

They didn’t win any more games, though, dropping three straight contests to end the campaign. Louisville let a 10-point second-half lead slip away against rival Kentucky, fell to Florida State in the ACC championship bout and then got beat 42-28 by USC in the Holiday Bowl.

“Because of that, there’s a lot of things to learn, a lot of areas to improve,” Brohm said. “I think it’s caused the hunger to get back in right away and understand if you want to be really good, you have to beat big-time opponents and find a way to win close games.”

Riley said: “That’s motivated me a lot because we started out strong. We were a very great team and are a very great team, but losing the last three games it was like, ‘Where did we go wrong at?’”

He said they weren’t as deep on defense as they needed to be at the end of last season, and Gillotte said they failed to execute late in games and that the failure to do so prompted momentum to swing in favor of Kentucky and Florida State.

Both Gillotte and Riley said figuring out how to win those critical matchups has been a focus this offseason, as has making sure their newcomers fit in.

Jordan and fellow standout running back Isaac Guerendo moved onto the NFL, and quarterback Jack Plummer is gone, too. So are four of Louisville’s top five receivers from last year. Brohm brought in Miami transfer running back Donald Chaney as well as South Alabama wide receiver Caullin Lacy and Alabama transfer receiver Ja’Corey Brooks to fill key roles.

But the most important addition Brohm made was former Texas Tech and Oregon quarterback Tyler Shough, a seventh-year signal-caller primed to take over for Plummer.

“They wanted me in a similar role,” Shough said, “in someone who had played some games and been through some adversity, and to come in and help lead the team, continue to have success and that’s exactly what I was looking for.

“I didn’t want to go somewhere where there was, potentially, a rebuild or they were fighting for a bowl game or on the cusp,” Shough continued. “I wanted to go somewhere with really high expectations and I think Jack was a great asset for me and talking to him about coming here, what the team has been like and what the goal is.”

Shough started 13 games over his last three seasons with the Red Raiders and threw for 2,922 and 20 touchdowns with 11 interceptions in those contests. But each of those seasons for Shough were cut short due to injury — a broken collarbone in 2021 and 2022 and a broken fibula last year.

“I was really excited about this opportunity because I’m 100% healthy,” Shough said, “feel better than I ever have been, especially with this offense and the team, so there’s no limit as to what we can do.”

On defense, former Harvard defensive tackle Thor Griffith, who Gillotte called “a muscle ball” as well as former California edge rusher Myles Jernigan are viewed as immediate starters for the Cardinals.

They’ll open their season three straight home games before a trip to Notre Dame on Sept. 28. Louisville will play five of its last seven games away from home, and that stretch begins with a trip to Virginia on Oct. 12.

“We have good challenges ahead of us this year,” Brohm said. “This is a competitive league with a lot of parity and a lot of good football coaches and players. If you don’t bring you’re A-game and play your very best, you’re not going to win. We definitely accept that challenge and we’re looking forward to getting the season underway.”