Backup Quarterback Competition Heating Up in Louisville's Fall Camp

At this point in time, it's well established that Jack Plummer is going to be the starting quarterback for the Louisville football program in year one of the Jeff Brohm era. He has four years of prior system knowledge stemming from his time at Purdue, showed what he was able to do at Cal when given a full season to start, and has been a standout for the Cardinals in both spring ball and fall camp.

That being said, his status as the starter is not because of a lack of competition from the others in the quarterback room. In fact, the competition as to who will even be the backup quarterback for Louisville has been incredibly fierce throughout the duration of their fall camp.

"The competition at quarterback is tremendous," offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Brian Brohm said. "A lot of different guys are vying for reps and fighting to get time. It's been a little bit of a challenge to make sure we get everybody the work that we need, but we've been able to do that. Competition has been good. These guys have been kind of feeding off of each other, and I think the more competition you have, the better it's going to make your room."

Heading into the 2023 season, when taking into account both scholarship players and walk-ons, Louisville has a whopping nine quarterbacks on their roster. Brohm says that, over the course of fall camp, six of them have gotten meaningful practice reps.

That might seem like overkill from the outside looking in, but there's a method to the madness. His brother and head coach, Jeff, has always subscribed to the notion that you need to have a full quarterback room. This mainly comes from his time as a player at Louisville under then-head coach Howard Schnellenberger, whenever he himself personally had to go up against a deep quarterback room.

The Brohm brothers have also seen firsthand at Purdue the importance of having a deep QB room. Because of injuries, there were years where they had to go all the way down to their third or even fourth option on the depth chart.

Plus, you might find a diamond in the rough in the process. Aidan O'Connell, who threw for 9,219 yards and 65 touchdowns in his career and is currently standing out in the preseason with the Las Vegas Raiders, was a former walk-on who started his career at eighth on the Boilermakers' depth chart.

"You got to try to develop a whole room," Brian Brohm said. "Some guys mature at different paces, some guys do better at different times in their careers. We like to carry a lot of guys, and let them compete to make each other better."

Behind Plummer, the battle for QB2 rages on. The top option for this spot is incumbent backup Brock Domann. As a result of various injuries to Malik Cunningham, Domann had to make four starts last season, guiding UofL to a 3-1 record in those games. Making ten appearances overall, he completed 54.9 percent of his passes for 998 yards and four touchdowns to six interceptions last season.

Over both spring ball and fall camp, Domann has looked incredibly comfortable in the new pass-heavy system, even going 9-for-14 for 71 yards in the spring game. While he might not be known for the highlight play, Brohm has been impressed with Domann's fundamentals.

"That's kind of what you see with him," Brian Brohm said. "He's probably not the flashiest guy, where you're gonna make a bunch of plays and say, 'wow, wow, wow.' But as you accumulate those plays over time, he's just consistently doing the right thing: making accurate throws, making the right decisions.

"Obviously, he's led the football team to wins and that's probably a lot of the reason why. But you see that out on the field. He's good at making decisions, he's accurate with the football, has a good, quick release. He does a lot of things that maybe aren't necessarily, 'oh wow!' plays, but a lot of the really good things that keep you on track as an offense."

That being said, when fall camp started, a challenger stepped into the ring in Pierce Clarkson. He was ranked as high as the No. 193 prospect in the Class of 2023, was an Elite 11 finalist, and led Bellflower (Calif.) St. John Bosco to a CIF Southern Section D-I state championship. Despite being an early enrollee, he had to miss all of spring ball with the Cardinals due to a broken toe. He used this time to really get in the playbook and get a head start when he could return to the fiel.

Fall camp gave Clarkson his first chance to the coaches what he can do, and he seized the opportunity. While he has had freshman moments, during the open practices, he demonstrated his poise, confidence and accuracy on multiple occasions. And he's only getting better with time and reps.

"He's doing exactly what you want him to do," Brian Brohm said. "Every day, he's just getting better and better, stacking the days, and getting better each and every time he's out there. Really for him, it's just more reps, more experience. A lot of times, there's plays out there he's running for the first time. It's just getting the more experience, but he's he's progressed at an upward trajectory very well."

Even the next three quarterbacks on the depth chart in Harrison Bailey, Evan Conley and Brady Allen - though not necessarily in that order - have shown flashes of what they can do during camp.

Bailey is a former five-star prospect who played last season at UNLV and joined the Cardinals over the summer as a walk-on, but has made strides during fall camp. While Conley hasn't seen significant action since his freshman year in 2019, he is still entering his fifth season of college football. Allen was a former top-150 prospect in the Class of 2022, who spent his first season at Purdue with Brohm and redshirted.

"Harrison, obviously, just got here in the summer, but he's played some football. ... He has football experience, now it's just making sure he knows our lingo," Brian Brohm said. "Evan Conley's played some ball here, and he was here with us this spring so he's picked it up. Brady Allen was at Purdue, so had a little step up and has been through a year of the system. But with him, he's still young, so just gotta get him reps and get him feel comfortable as we go through practice.

Louisville is currently in the homestretch of their third week and final week of fall camp. The Cardinals will kick off their 2023 season against Georgia Tech in the Aflac Kickoff Game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Ga. on Friday, Sept. 1.