LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The University of Louisville has not attacked with a top-40 passing attack since Lamar Jackson left town, and he left after the 2017 season.
In four seasons of Scott Satterfield football, the Cardinals' passing attack ranked 65th, 48th, 64th and 99th nationally in passing yards per game.
This will be Jeff Brohm's first season as the Cards' head coach but his 10th with both hands on an offense. The football will be thrown. And thrown. With purpose. And persistence.
Only once in his nine head coaching seasons has a Brohm offense failed to rank in the top 25 nationally in passing yards — and that season was a toss out, 2017, his first year at Purdue after leaving Western Kentucky.
Seven of Brohm's nine teams ranked in the top 16 nationally in passing yards per game, four in the top five.
The football will be thrown. And thrown.
Brohm's teams had a 53-47% pass-to-run ratio in three seasons at Western Kentucky and he took it up a notch in the Big Ten. Purdue's pass-to-run ratio was 57-43% in a half-dozen seasons.
Quarterback rules, especially in the Brohm offense. You can see it in the statistics and you can see it in the shape of the roster. The Cards have nine quarterbacks on the 2023 squad.
Jack Plummer will start the season as Louisville's quarterback when the Cardinals visit Atlanta to play Georgia Tech at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Sept. 1.
But Wednesday Louisville had four reserve quarterbacks and offensive coordinator Brian Brohm available for a post-practice media session. They want everybody to know the backups, too, because chances are the backups will play.
"We've gotten down to third or fourth on the depth chart just because or injuries," Brian Brohm said.
"You never know. Like, at Purdue, we have the story of the guy (Aidan O'Connell) who started out eighth string who became the starter and was a fourth-round pick now playing for the Raiders."
Make no mistake: Plummer is the guy. Jeff Brohm has said that multiple times. Brian Brohm repeated it Tuesday. Three years of playing in the Brohm system at Purdue before he transferred to California gave Plummer experience nobody in the room can match.
"No. 1, he's really smart," Brohm said. "He understands football. He understands coverages, defenses, fronts, blitzes to the point to the point where he can correct (the) coaches sometimes where he sees something.
"We go, 'You know what? You're right, and we were wrong,' quite a bit."
After Plummer?
The four quarterbacks who spoke Wednesday were Brock Domann, who led the Cards to a win over Cincinnati in the Fenway Bowl last December; freshman Pierce Clarkson, a four-star recruit from California; Brady Allen, a backup last season at Purdue, and Harrison Bailey, who threw four touchdown passes in 2020 as a freshman at Tennessee. Let the record show that Bailey and Allen also earned four stars from the recruiting gurus.
Clarkson committed to the Satterfield coaching staff but stuck with Louisville after Brohm flew to Southern California to huddle with his family days after his introductory press conference.
"I think with Coach Brohm and the coaching change, it just took a lot of trust and a lot of belief in his work, him as a person and as a coach, and that he could develop me and be the best person for my future," Clarkson said.
"That was my guy, and I knew that I could trust him, knew that I wanted to be developed by him and I knew that was who I wanted to work for."
Allen played high school football in southwestern Indiana at Gibson Southern High School. He put his name in the portal after Brohm left for UofL but then stayed at Purdue for spring practice. In the end Allen, his connection was with the Brohms.
"It was just a situation of familiarity, knowing how these guys work and how they've developed guys," Allen said.
Bailey played two seasons at Tennessee before playing in a half-dozen games as a reserve at UNLV last season. Competition must not shake Bailey, because he walked into a crowded room with only two seasons of eligibility.
"There's a lot of us," Bailey said. "I would say that I look at it as an opportunity. Rather than, I guess, as everybody else would say a competition.
"Everybody runs their own race every day in life. I'm just running mine right now."
The player with the most proven credentials, of course, is Domann. He started four games for the Cardinals last season, leading them to three victories. He had to wait behind Malik Cunningham to play last season and Domann will have to wait behind Plummer this season. You don't have to remind him of that. He gets it.
"I can't control where I am on the depth chart, but what I can control is making sure that I'm prepared," Domann said.
"So whenever that opportunity does come this season, I'm ready to go and step in and win some games.
"Obviously, you want to be No. 1, and my mindset is always to be No. 1. But the end of the day, you have to accept where you're at, and you have to move forward."
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