Louisville football coach Jeff Brohm’s tenure at his alma mater will rest on the simple premise of can he get it done at home.
Brohm was hit with questions about the vacancy at Michigan, one of the most coveted coaching jobs in all of college football, shortly after the Cardinals dispatched Toledo 27-22 in the Boca Raton Bowl on Tuesday.
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He gave the usual canned answer coaches give when confronted on openings. One that firmly says he loves his current job. One that says he’s not going to discuss a hypothetical situation. One that simultaneously leaves wiggle room in case he decides to wiggle out of town.
For most of this century, the promising coaches who have come through Louisville would have caused much more consternation among the fan base when confronted with the possibility of leaving.
The fact that Brohm is from the city’s first family of football and not actively trying to pursue every upwardly mobile opportunity has kept the anxiety level low. But that doesn’t mean he won’t ever leave.
The length of Brohm’s tenure will ultimately come down to if he believes UofL can compete at the highest level of college football. He could have found his answer this season. He might be at a point where he needs another season or a few to decide.
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In this era, competing is measured in dollar amounts: how much can be raised to support a program’s name, image and likeness collective and how much money will be devoted to the football program from the university’s revenue-sharing pool.
Ohio State, for example, exceeded $20 million football rosters way before that seemed conceivable. UofL doesn’t have deep pockets like that, and I’m sure Brohm doesn’t expect the Cards to start matching programs like the Buckeyes and Texas and Alabama.
Some coaches at those top-spending programs win simply because they’ve acquired enough talent that won’t let them lose. Most coaches are like Brohm, leading programs that don’t have the depth to coach that way.
UofL just needs to keep Brohm in a competitive neighborhood that puts him close enough so that coaching, talent identification and development can take care of the rest.
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Brohm has proven he can take it from there.
His first season, the Cards played for the ACC championship for the first time and upset No. 10 Notre Dame in the regular season. Last season, they won on the road at No. 11 Clemson for the first time in series history. All four of their losses were in one-score games.
Looking back at this season, their win at No. 2 Miami happened because UofL had the better game plan and execution. It was bigger and better than the win over Notre Dame because it came on the road where UofL had only won once, which was the last trip the Cards made there under Brohm in 2023 that clinched a spot in the ACC championship game.
The Hurricanes reportedly paid Georgia transfer Carson Beck more than $3 million to play this season. Although the payments are not public record, rest assured that no one on Louisville’s roster is among the highest-paid players in college football.
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Brohm’s template for success at UofL is working, even as this season may have felt disappointing at times. He might just need a little more support to get them over the top.
Tuesday’s victory means Brohm has won at least nine games in each of his three seasons at UofL. The Cards have only won nine or more games in three consecutive seasons two other times in program history.
In Bobby Petrino’s first term as head coach from 2003-06, the Cards posted four straight seasons with at least nine wins, culminating with an Orange Bowl victory in his final season.
That’s the reason Brohm’s name will continue to come up with big-time openings. Schools like Michigan — and Penn State before it — figure if he can win consistently at Louisville with a limited budget, imagine what he could do with virtually unlimited resources at his fingertips at those programs.
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As much as he loves Louisville, hometown heartstrings can only be stroked so many times before that tune is played out. Brohm staying or moving on will come down to how much UofL shows financially it is committed to competing in football.
Reach sports columnist C.L. Brown at clbrown1@gannett.com, follow him on X at @CLBrownHoops and subscribe to his newsletter at profile.courier-journal.com/newsletters/cl-browns-latest to make sure you never miss one of his columns.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Jeff Brohm, Louisville football future together will come down to this
