Louisville's Mental Toughness on Full Display Early in 2025 Season

Most fans of the Louisville football program will be quick to tell you that, while the Cardinals may be 4-0, they have yet to play to their full potential. But even with that in mind, so far this season, they still do a handful of things incredibly well.

The defensive side of the ball has gotten off to an unexpectedly hot start, with their 268.3 yards per game ranking second in the ACC and 18th in the FBS. While the offense as a whole still has some things to iron out, QB Miller Moss still leads a passing attack that is 29th nationally at 279.0 passing yards per game. Not to mention that the Cardinals' collective special teams efforts have been excellent.

However, there's a case to be made that the strongest aspect of this Louisville team through the first month of the season is something they do on the gridiron itself. Instead, if you ask head coach Jeff Brohm, he's inclined to believe that the true strength of this Cardinals squad has been their mental toughness and overall grit.

"I do think that, right now, is the strength of our team and has been," he said earlier this week. "We talk about it, it’s communicated quite a bit about what we believe the game is about, and how it’s supposed to be played. You’re going to get the ball 10 to 12 times a game, and what you do with it will determine if you win or lose. You're going to have some good moments, and some that aren't as good, especially when you're playing good teams.

"You like to say that we’re going to dominate, and win every rep, and out coach and out play them, but they got good coaches and good players too. You just have to find a way to do it a little bit more than they do and realize that there will be a little bit of a back and forth, there will be some momentum swings. But you can't give in, and you got to play to the end. You got to compete and play hard, stick together, you can't point fingers. You just got to play till the end and hope, like I said, at the end the scoreboard is in our favor."

This enhanced team-wide mental acuity was on full display this past weekend up in the Steel City.

In what was both their ACC opener and first road game of the season, Louisville dug themselves into a massive hole very early on in their matchup at Pitt. Just over 12 minutes into the game, the Cardinals found themselves staring at a 17-0 deficit, with the Panthers in full control of the game's momentum.

Given how the game played out, a handful of teams would have very easily just thrown in the towel and given up. Louisville instead just kept rolling withe punches and waited for their chance to strike.

"I just kind of told myself, 'it's nothing you haven't stared down before,' and I tried to impart that message to the team," quarterback Miller Moss said in regards to falling into a 17-0 hole. "I've been through a couple of these. I remember being down double digits at Michigan before, and coming out and fighting, even though we didn't win that game. That was the biggest thing: telling myself 'you've stared down worse.' You just go out there and play one play at a time, and the team deserves a ton of credit in their ability to do that."

Once the first quarter was in the books, Louisville slowly started to swing that pendulum of momentum in their favor. They were able to trim the deficit, but still trailed 27-17 at halftime, with Pitt having a 239-to-183 yardage advantage. While the deficit was far from insurmountable at that point, the players knew they had step up their game in the second half.

And that's exactly what they did.

After going 18-of-31 for 170 yards, a touchdown and a pick-six inthe first half, Moss had a much better second half, throwing 15-of-20 for 169 yards adn two scores. The defense, which allowed 239 yards in the first half, allowed just 100 yards and forced three turnovers after halftime. This would eventually springboard Louisville to a 34-27 fourth quarter comeback win over Pitt.

"We all knew we had to just step up, and just make plays, and just continue doing what we're doing," safety D'Angelo Hutchinson said earlier this week. "Nobody pointed fingers. We were all just holding each other accountable, just sticking together basically, and just talking through it and sticking together."

This wasn't even the first time this season that Louisville was able to showcase their mental fortitude. Earlier in the season against James Madison, they surrendered a touchdown on the opening drive of the second half to go down 14-6. The Cardinals then responded with 22 unanswered points to win 28-14.

"As soon as you give in, or second guess, or doubt, or start to get angry and upset too much, instead of locking in and focusing in, you're not going to win the game," Brohm said. "I credit our team and our coaches. We definitely had the mental toughness to just keep playing.

"We've shown it before last year in a couple games. We've had multiple games in the history here that we've been down, and you just got to play till the end. I think our guys understand that pretty well, and you hope we continue to have that same mental toughness."

With a freshly-ranked Virginia team marching into L&N Stadium this weekend, one who is coming off one of their best wins in recent memory, Brohm knows that his guys need to keep displaying that aforementioned mental toughness on a down-in and down-out basis.

"As we say behind closed doors, we’re going to have to do that every game, especially in conference games, if you want to find a way to win," he said. "That’s just how football works. We have to continue to improve on some things, but show toughness every game until the very end and hope that we’re winning when the game is over.”