Despite Injury History, Louisville Comfortable with Tyler Shough at QB

On the heels of a successful year one under head coach Jeff Brohm, the Louisville football program is once again utilizing the portal to maintain that success. The Cardinals currently possess the No. 1 transfer class in college football, according to On3, highlighted by multiple four-star transfers.

While transfers such running back Peny Boone, wide receiver Caullin Lacy and defensive tackle Thor Griffith generate the most buzz in the class, arguably the most impactful portal pickup will be quarterback Tyler Shough. With incumbent signal caller Jack Plummer exhausting his eligibility, Louisville wanted to dive back into the portal to grab another experienced quarterback.

Despite a bit of an injury history, Brohm likes what he has seen out of the former Texas Tech and Oregon quarterback up to this point.

"I think you can still add value by gaining experience, especially the quarterback position, which we feel like we did with Tyler. I think bringing him in, it's his seventh year, he's coming here with a true purpose to prove himself. To prove that he can stay healthy, to prove that he can play an entire year and help this football team win, and he wants to play at the next level. We like all the dynamics that go behind that.

"Now does he need to prove that he can stay healthy? Sure he does. Is he fully healthy now? No, he's actually not. He's continuing to get back fully healthy, but we have time. But we like what we've see to this point."

Shough's aforementioned injury history is a bit of a lengthy one, as he was unable to play a full season during his all three of his years with the Red Raiders. He suffered a broken collarbone in both the 2021 and 2022 seasons, then a broken fibula this past season, and injury which he is still in the process of recovering from.

Because of this, Brohm and the rest of Louisville's staff - both coaching and support - made sure they did their due diligence during Shough's recruitment process. They "analyzed everything" regarding his injury, and even conducted a physical during his official visit.

His current fibula injury is one that Brohm drew comparisons to injuries suffered by Plummer and fellow QB David Blough while he was the head coach at Purdue. In the end, Louisville determined that Shough's injury rap sheet was more so a byproduct of sheer bad luck than being injury prone, and that he will be able to fully recover.

"Yes, he's had some injuries," Brohm said. "We studied exactly what they were, we've had him in for a physical, we analyzed everything he had. We went through it in great detail. He's had some unlucky injuries that happened actually during the season that has caused him some missed some action. That sometimes happens, and sometimes it doesn't, but we've all had injuries throughout our time. ... I just think that there's always going to be a risk for injury, and he's going to work hard to get his body ready to play, and we're gonna work hard to put him in a great position, and surround him with great talent."

Another reason that Brohm is willing to deal with the perceived risk of re-injury is that, when Shough is healthy, he has more than proven that he is a capable quarterback. In 15 games with Texas Tech, the 6-foot-5, 230-pound quarterback completed 62.4 percent of his passes for 2,922 yards and 20 touchdowns to 11 interceptions, while rushing for 432 yards and eight touchdowns.

The Chandler Ariz. native spent the first three seasons of his collegiate career with Oregon. He redshirted as a true freshman, serving as the backup in 2019, then was named the starter in 2020. In seven games during that COVID-shortened season, which remains his lone full season played as a starter, he completed 63.5 percent of his passes for 1,559 yards and 13 touchdowns to six interceptions, while also rushing for 271 yards and a pair of scores. He helped guide the Ducks to a 31-24 win over USC in the Pac-12 Championship, and a berth in the Fiesta Bowl against Iowa State, where they fell 34-17.

"I do think, from a talent standpoint, he has a great deal of talent," Brohm said. "He's very skilled, he can throw the football, he can see the field. He's 6-4.5, 6-5, and he's played a lot of football. When he's played, he's played well. Those are all great elements to add to your football team."

Of course, Brohm is also making sure Louisville has all their bases covered in case the injury bug does decide to bite Shough again. The program has continued to develop the guys behind Shough on the depth chart, such as Pierce Clarkson, Brady Allen and walk-on Harrison Bailey.

"At the same time, we want to develop the other quarterbacks on our roster, which we feel good about, but it doesn't happen overnight. We used the (Holiday) Bowl prep to kind of get a glimpse of where we thought they were at, and they have made progress, but we want to see more. I think with Pierce and Brady, even Harrison Bailey, those are three three guys that just want to continue to progress as fast as we can."