Jeff Brohm, Louisville Staying Focused Amidst Increased Success

This past Saturday night, the Louisville football program officially put themselves back on the map.

Their convincing upset win over No. 10 Notre Dame was not only their biggest win since Lamar Jackson was on campus, considering it played out in front of a national audience, the Cardinals' perception amongst the college football world skyrocketed. They went from a team who some viewed was simply a beneficiary of an easy schedule, to one that is starting to gain serious traction as a player not only in the ACC race, but one who could find themselves in a New Year's Six bowl.

Louisville, with their win over the Fighting Irish, has their first taste of high-level success under head coach Jeff Brohm. That being said, while the fan base is still very much celebrating the Cardinals' massive win, Brohm knows that he and his program have to stay focused on their upcoming task at hand - a road matchup at Pitt - and not get too caught up in the moment.

"We’ve got to get back to reality and get back to work and understand that if we don’t put the work in, we’re not going to win. That’s just how it works," he said. "If we don’t understand that, it’ll bite us in the rear. ... We just have to concentrate on one game at a time and Pittsburgh is a great challenge ahead of us.”

Brohm knows the importance of staying grounded, because it was something that his teams had a tendency to struggle with while at Purdue. Everyone knows by now, if this past Saturday wasn't proof enough, that Brohm-led teams get up for the big games games. However, they have also been prone to immediate disappointments.

Brohm captured three wins against top-five opponents during his six years with the Boilermakers, and in the games proceeding them, Brohm lost all three. After taking down No. 2 Ohio State 49-20 in 2017 at home, Purdue immediately lost 23-13 at Michigan State. A 24-7 win at No. 2 Iowa in 2021 was immediately followed up with a 30-12 loss at home to Wisconsin. Later that season, they took down No. 5 Michigan State 40-29, only to then lose 59-31 at No. 6 Ohio State. Overall at Purdue, Brohm was 3-3 in games immediately played after a ranked opponent.

Fast forward to this season, and so far, the Cardinals are sitting at 6-0 and ranked at No. 14 in the AP Top 25. The win over Notre Dame not only marked an important win, but in Brohm's eyes, it also elevated expectations. If Louisville is going to continually meet and then exceed said expectations, they can't let this first taste of success get to their heads.

"We've raised the bar here a little bit with this past win," he said. "If you want to be good, you've got to back it up every week. If you can’t back it up every week, then you're really not that good.”

It also doesn't help that their upcoming matchup at Pitt has the potential makings of a trap game. On the surface, most fans see the abysmal 1-4 record and ghastly offense, and see this as a team that Louisville should roll past. Especially considering both the Cardinals' performance on defense against Notre Dame, and the fact that the Panthers recently benched starting quarterback Phil Jurkovec.

However, even with the season they have had up to this points, Pat Narduzzi's squad still has an upper tier defense. At 301.6 yards allowed per game, Pitt has the No. 20 total defense in college football. Their 173.2 passing yards allowed per game comes in at No. 17 nationally, while their 3.20 sacks and 7.0 tackles for loss per game rank 14th and 23rd in the FBS, respectively.

"They're just solid," tight ends coach Ryan Wallace said. "You can tell that they play fast. They're big up front. They're physical players. They get to the ball well. Their safeties and their their DB's, they trigger well on the run. They get in their run fits right. They're gonna present a challenge, and we've got to be ready for it."

Fortunately, Louisville has been preaching focus long before they whipped Notre Dame. In fact, they've put on display their mental fortitude several times already this season. The Cardinals have already developed a reputation of finishing strong and making plays when they matter most, mounting second half comebacks against Georgia Tech and NC State, while holding on just long enough to stave off Indiana.

Like they have all season up to this point, the players are continuing to adopt a "one-game season" mentality. Even with the victory over Notre Dame vaulting Louisville into the national spotlight, the Cardinals themselves haven't changed their M.O.: celebrate the win for 24 hours, and then move on.

"We just take it week-by-week," running back Jawhar Jordan said. "It's a one-game season. We got a 24 hour-rule: celebrate the win and then move on and get ready for the next opponent, and that's Pitt. So right now, we're just worried about Pitt."

"We've been doing that the whole year," defensive end Ashton Gillotte added. "Celebrate your wins, but at the end of the day, you've gotta keep going. It's a long season, so we're going to continue to push and focus on the next opponent."