Jeff Brohm at news briefing

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Losing to Notre Dame? That happens.

I don't care that the Fighting Irish stumbled against Northern Illinois. Notre Dame is packed with talented players that still aspire to make the college football playoff. It's a challenging venue.

Losing to SMU? Shouldn't happen. Not at home. But it did.

The Mustangs arrived from Dallas and then out-schemed, out-toughed and out-ran Louisville on Saturday. For that, SMU snatched Louisville's spot in the Top 25 and positioned itself on a clear path toward the Atlantic Coast Conference title game.

Losing to Virginia this Saturday? Can't happen. I don't care that the Cavaliers are a surprising 4-1 and playing at home in Charlottesville, where they beat Boston College in front of at least 23,000 empty seats last Saturday.

Can't happen. Not if the Cardinals (3-2 overall, 1-1 in the league) want to achieve the most modest goals on the team's preseason wish list.

A very good season remains possible if U of L regroups for a win Saturday. Legitimate alarms will go off if they do not beat a team that was predicted to finish 16th in the league in July.

I asked head coach Jeff Brohm and receivers coach Garrick McGee what the messaging to the players and staff has been since the puzzling 34-27 loss to SMU last Saturday.

"I think it's all based on what I feel happened in the game," Brohm said. "I do think that you've got to take ownership as coaches, and we've got to talk to our players honestly and then let them know that we need to be better as coaches. Put a better plan together, have a better formula and a better way to practice that (plan) this week, to get it done and change some things up.

"So that'll happen, and then it goes down to the players. There's certain things we talked about that we've got to get better at, and we've addressed it to this point, and now we're going to work on it throughout the week.

"Every year is a little different. Every game's a little different. I get a good feel during the game and of what I sense, and then I watch the video, and I get a better feel of what I sense, as well as our other people.

"And then you have to not avoid it or blame it on something else. You have to blame it here if you ever want to get it fixed, otherwise it'll continue to happen. So that's what has to happen, we've got to do our part from the top to make sure we get it fixed."

Make a note that when Jeff Brohm said the word "here," that Jeff Brohm pointed at Jeff Brohm.

Brohm said that he has directed the defensive staff to get the play calls delivered quicker, to simplify the defensive schemes and to make certain that all 11 players get the same call. That did not happen against SMU. Seems basic. But it was is a failure to communicate.

As for McGee, a veteran coach who has been around other teams that lost games they were supposed to win? What was his message?

"Well, (the response) is to tell them the truth, which coach did yesterday in our team meeting," McGee said.

"Then you get back to work. That's really the only option you have. You don't carry on the conversations, 'Well, this happened last week. We did this.'

"You move on to the next game. And, this generation of kids, they get over these fast. They can move to the next thing, really fast.

"So we had a good practice (Sunday) night. Really good team meeting (Sunday). They understand that we blew an opportunity. We got outplayed on our own field. They get it. You don't get to win if you get outplayed.

"I think the path is to get back to work and not swim around in the mess. Just move forward."

Louisville will have to swim forward without starting left offensive tackle Monroe Mills. He suffered an undisclosed injury in the opening half of the SMU game and missed the second half. Brohm said he expected Mills to return "at some point," but Mills would have to play through the injury.

Brohm said that he expected cornerback Quincy Riley to return "whenever he feels healthy enough to play." He also said that nose tackle Dez Tell suffered an injury to a "lower extremity," and that he was uncertain of his availability. He did not mention first-team halfback Maurice Turner who has missed the last three games with an undisclosed injury.

It's the middle of the season. Everybody deals with significant injuries in October. Play on.

Looking at Brohm's career coaching record, one of his teams has not lost three consecutive regular-season games since his Purdue squad lost 4 in a row during the 2020 COVID year. (Last season's three-game streak started with Kentucky but included the ACC title game and Holiday Bowl.)

After Virginia, No. 6 Miami awaits. The Cards will also face four other teams that currently have winning records. Only sagging Stanford (2-3) looks a sure thing.

"There's a lot of good, solid football teams," Brohm said. "Last year, of our wins, there were a lot of games that we had to pull out at the very end,

"In order to pull out those wins, you've got to be sharp at all the things you're doing, which is coaching, it's setting your guys up to have success, and then going out there and executing and playing to the end. And it has to be a constant thing … because the margin for error is very small."

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