How Louisville football's Jeff Brohm prioritized winning over play-calling

When it comes to football, the only thing Jeff Brohm loves more than play-calling is winning. 

But so far this season, Louisville’s fourth-year head football coach has done more play-calling than winning. Following the Cards’ loss to NC State, Brohm called on Louisville’s players and coaches to take the Michael Jackson approach and look at the man in the mirror to evaluate why certain mistakes (penalties, giving up big plays, etc.) kept happening. Apparently, it wasn’t just the usual coach speak. Brohm took that to heart and truly started with himself. 

After 14 years of offensive play-calling, Brohm deferred to younger brother and offensive coordinator Brian Brohm and the rest of the team’s offensive staff while turning his attention to the defense. From an execution standpoint, it wasn’t hard to do. Brian has spent his whole coaching career with Jeff. Plus, they’re both former quarterbacks, so Brian knows exactly what to do. Football coaches are often creatures of habit, so what made Jeff’s decision an impressive one had more to do with him relinquishing control of the offense.

Play-calling took a backseat to doing what he felt was necessary to win. And in this case, it meant being more hands-on with the defensive staff. It seemed like co-defensive coordinators Mark Ivey and Steve Ellis got put on what those who work a conventional 9-5 job might consider a performance improvement plan (been there, done that). Perhaps part of Ellis and Ivey — who had never been DCs at the Power Four level before this season — taking accountability was accepting the extra, much-needed help (evidently, it worked for me, too). 

When it wasn’t committing penalties, Louisville’s defense looked passive and unorganized, giving up countless big plays over the first five weeks of the regular season. So Brohm and Mike Cassity, who was the Cards’ defensive coordinator under Bobby Petrino the first time around and is now back on staff, stepped in. In Week 6, Ellis and Ivey went from the field to the press box to join Cassity. Earlier in the week, the former DC had a bigger voice on defense. Brohm, too, spent more time than usual with the group. Being an offensive guru doesn’t just mean studying offense. He knows all facets of football and added another needed set of eyes and feedback. 

“He was in (with) the DBs a lot, just cleaning up little stuff that we've messed up in the past, but it was definitely good,” safety Kaleb Beasley said of Brohm. “He's really intentional and really critical.” 

With communication being an issue, Brohm also broke out the wristbands for the defense. It helped the unit get lined up quicker and gave the Cardinals a different way of signaling in calls without them getting picked up by Florida State. 

“Mark doesn't have a ton of experience calling plays, so we've got to continue to assist him as well as we can,” Brohm said. "I have to assist him, and it's important I do that. ... It was different for me to be that heavily involved in all that. But it was needed. Did I know that it was going to work? I don't know. You never know for sure anything.”

It didn’t look like it was going to work when Florida State got out to a 14-0 lead. But FSU did FSU things, and Louisville capitalized. After the first quarter, the Seminoles only had seven big plays (considered pass plays of 15 or more yards, or run plays of 10 or more yards). Three of those came in the fourth quarter after Louisville had built a 21-point lead. Penalties weren’t a problem, either — the Cardinals only had four for 35 yards. 

All the small changes added up to a big win over Florida State. The 44-20 score was the Cards’ largest margin of victory over an ACC opponent since beating Pitt 37-9 in 2024.