BOZICH | Louisville football is a home Jeff Brohm has always believed in

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — Nothing brings out the best — and the worst — in a fan base like a college football coaching search.

Everybody has the guy they must have — and the guys they can’t stand.

Some people want the defensive guru. Others want the offensive wizard. You can try to identify the up and comer. Unless you’re one of those people who insist you need a veteran who has proven he can win.

The message boards open with screaming and escalate into a roaring crossfire. In the end, the best thing an athletic director can do is make his call and cover his ears.

Who is this John L. Smith character? Never heard of him.

Hasn’t Charlie Strong been a career assistant?

Then there is the surgical hiring of Jeff Brohm from Purdue that University of Louisville athletic director Josh Heird executed in 81 hours this week.

Louisville fans wanted Brohm yesterday. They want him today. And they will want him tomorrow.

“I’ve been in the AD role now for 366 days,” Heird said Thursday. “Jeff, you’ve made my job harder for 365 of them.”

Heird can write one liners — and recruit. He delivered a coach with a higher approval rating than Santa Claus. Even before Brohm made his introductory remarks he had people believing the Cardinals can achieve things they haven’t achieved in years.

What other candidate could enter saying this?

“I’ve coached at many different places, some near, some far. I never really left Louisville. My heart is always here.”

That’s a wrap.

There hasn’t been any sniping or talk show debate. There have been more than 400 calls to the U of L ticket office by people eager to purchase 2023 season tickets.

Cardinal Stadium facilities people estimated nearly 1,000 fans crowded into the Angel’s Envy Stadium Club simply to give Brohm a standing ovation Thursday.

There were plenty of graduates of Trinity High School, Brohm’s alma mater. But I also saw faces from St. Xavier, DeSales, Male, Manual, Ballard and other schools across the area.

They heard Brohm say Purdue athletic director Mike Bobinski asked him how much money he wanted and how many years he wanted added to his contract to stay at the Big Ten program in West Lafayette, Indiana.

They heard Brohm say this was not about money or job security or better facilities or any other perks.

It was about coming home.

“This is not a job to me,” Brohm said. “This has been a way of life for me since I was born.”

Ball game over.

This isn’t the hiring. This is a love affair. It’s a call to pack Cardinal Stadium again. Only 268 days until the Cards open the 2023 season in Atlanta against Georgia Tech.

Louisville has not been as gaga about the arrival of a new football coach since Howard Schnellenberger brought his national championship and Super Bowl rings here from Miami on Dec. 2, 1984.

With Brohm, Louisville will get everything it wanted and needs in a football coach.

They get a coach with a career winning percentage of 60% while putting seven of his nine teams in bowl games.

They get a coach whose teams entertain with a thoroughly modern passing attack. Quarterbacks thrive under Brohm.

They get a coach who won’t be heading for the exit door the first time Michigan State (Smith), the Atlanta Falcons (Bobby Petrino), Texas (Strong) or South Carolina/Cincinnati (Scott Satterfield) call.

They have a Louisville man with a Louisville pedigree in charge and invested in trying to fulfill Schnellenberger’s original dream of pursuing a national championship.

When Schnellenberger said it, it was reasonable to roll your eyes. Louisville played in a fading minor league baseball stadium. It had just considered dropping down from Division I-A to I-AA. It operated in a conference (The Metro) that didn’t include football.

Brohm believed in Schnellenberger’s vision when it was merely a vision, playing quarterback for the Cards from 1989-1993. He believes in it more now, especially with a sparkling 60,000-seat stadium, a Heisman Trophy winner alum (Lamar Jackson) starring in the NFL and a prime spot in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

He gave up more money and more security and a job in a league with more football prestige.

On Monday morning Brohm dropped his son, Brady, at high school in Lafayette, Indiana. He started a drive to the Purdue football office. In two hours, he had a press conference schedule to discuss Purdue’s invitation to the Citrus Bowl and then he was driving to visit recruits in Indianapolis.

Hold on. Brady texted his father and asked him if he checked Twitter.

No, Brohm had not checked Twitter. There was recruiting work to do.

“You might want to check Twitter,” Brady Brohm said. Brady also sent a text to his grandfather, Oscar, in Louisville with the same suggestion.

1:40:41

WATCH LIVE | Jeff Brohm introduced as Louisville's new head football coach

Uh-oh.

There it was — the news that Satterfield decided to leave Louisville for Cincinnati.

Brohm’s agent, Shawn Freibert, was in Los Angeles, his first stop in a week-long visit to California that was supposed to include two NFL games and plenty of golf.

By late Monday afternoon, Brohm and Heird spoke outside Indianapolis. By Tuesday evening Freibert was back in Louisville, working out a deal with Heird. By late Wednesday morning the deal was done.

By Thursday afternoon an entire fan base celebrated.

“I know where this program began, the path it has driven, what it has overcome and accomplished and where it wants to go,” Brohm said.

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