Jeff Brohm, Louisville Determined to Reverse Trends in Rivalry With Kentucky

At long last, it's finally rivalry week in The Ville. College football's 2023 regular season has just one game left on the docket, and for the Louisville football program, the last home game for a highly successful first year under head coach Jeff Brohm will have them facing off against in-state arch rival Kentucky.

Of course, as most Cardinals fans know by now, the annual Battle for the Governor's Cup hasn't exactly been a fun and exciting rivalry as of late. The Wildcats will be entering Saturday's matchup riding a four-game win streak in the series, all coming via blowout fashion.

In fact, Kentucky has won their last four game over Louisville by an average margin of victory of 30.5 points per game. Scott Satterfield, who went 0-3 against UK in his time as the head coach at UofL before leaving for Cincinnati, lost by an average of 22.0 points per game.

In his first rivalry game as the head coach at Louisville, Brohm is determined to reverse the Cardinals' recent trends in their rivalry with Kentucky.

"It’s a one game season and I think we all know what's coming up," he said. "It's a rivalry game against a really good, talented opponent that's well coached and that's won a lot of games against our program over the last four years. So we've got to get back to work and really understand what this game means. It means a lot to not only our team, but to our fan base and to our program, and we've got to find a way to have a great week of practice and work really hard to try to come out with a win."

On a laundry list of complaints that the Louisville fanbase had with Satterfield, arguably their biggest one was how the former Cardinals head coach viewed and approached the rivalry with Kentucky. Satterfield never truly seemed to embrace the rivalry in his four years at the helm, or at the very least, fully understand its magnitude despite repeated attempts.

Brohm, on the other hand, is not one that needs to be briefed on what the Louisville-Kentucky rivalry means to the fanbase. Brohm was born and raised here in Louisville, was a star quarterback for Trinity High School, chose to stay home an play his college football at Louisville under head coach Howard Schnellenberger, and was an assistant for the Cardinals under both Bobby Petrino and Steve Kragthorpe during the 2000's. If there is anyone who understands the magnitude of the rivalry, it's Brohm.

“I think rivalries are great to play in, even dating back to my high school days," he said. "I understand the Trinity vs. St. Xavier rivalry and what that's all about. Not only does it mean a lot to your school, but to the fan base and to the city. And I think when it comes to in-state rivalries in college football and basketball, they're a lot of fun. It’s fun for everybody to be a part of and everybody wants to come to the game to watch it and cheer on their team and try to have bragging rights."

Just how important is the Kentucky game to Brohm? Here's some perspective. Louisville still has two more games to go after their showdown with Kentucky: their first ever ACC Championship appearance against Florida State, and, in all likelihood, a New Year's Six bowl in the postseason - most likely the Orange Bowl.

Even with those two massive games to end the season, Brohm still calls the Kentucky game the "most important game" out of the three.

“After we let the last win (at Miami) sink in, we had to explain to our team yesterday in a lot of different ways that that needs to be erased for a full week and the full focus needs to be on this game, because in my opinion, this is the most important game of the rest of the season," he said. "So we can talk about it all we want, this is the most important game, and our guys need to understand that preparing and trying to win this game needs to be the complete focus. If we want to make our fans happy, and give them a good Thanksgiving, we've got to go win the game." 

This rhetoric is not just hollow talk put together to hype up the fanbase after four years of Satterfield and four straight beatdowns. While Brohm has yet to face Kentucky as a head coach, he's already proven that he takes rivalry games seriously.

During his six years as the head man at Purdue, the Boilermakers went 4-1 against arch rival Indiana, playing every year but the COVID-shortened 2020 season. Purdue's four victories in the Battle for the Old Oaken Bucket were won by an average margin of 16.3 points, with their lone loss to the Hoosiers under Brohm coming in 2019, falling 44-41 in West Lafayette.

“I can't speak for anyone else. But I know, I take it seriously," Brohm said. "Rivalry games mean a whole lot to me. Like I said, I've been a part of it. Going back all the way to high school days and even in college. And I understand that it's more about our team playing the other team. It's about the entire city, community, state and the fan bases wanting to go out there and compete and hope that their team wins. So this can make a lot of people happy or can make a lot of people sad. As a player, you don't want to make your fans sad and mad."

This type of mindset from the head coach regarding the game is a breath of fresh air for Louisville fans, but it's all for naught if the rest of his staff and the players don't carry that same attitude. Fortunately, when you have a staff where over half of the position assistant have ties to the university or city of Louisville, couple with a multitude of returning players who are tired of getting stomped by their rival, it makes it much easier to communicate the importance of this game.

"There's no doubt about it, this is a Super Bowl," running backs coach Chris Barclay said. "I think we're well aware of the ramifications of the game, and I think our kids are chomping at the bit, because they understand how important the game is as well. ... I told the guys, 'It might be a little different if you guys go to Walmart wearing your stuff, and suddenly you lose the game. Then they might not let you in Walmart.'"

Of course, in rivalry games, where emotions run high and can sometimes spill onto the field, maintaining focus is of the utmost importance. While the players are fully embracing what the rivalry means to the Louisville fanbase, they're also balancing that with staying emotionally grounded.

"Coach (Ron) English always tells us to play with passion, not with ego," cornerback Quincy Riley said. "Don't let your ego get too big, where you get penalized and cost us the game or something like that. It just fuels us to just play harder for real, just knowing how big the game is, and come out there with a passion to win."

Kickoff against the Wildcats is set for Saturday, Nov. 25 at 12:00 p.m. EST from L&N Stadium