LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- This is the stuff that Jeff Brohm and his University of Louisville coaching staff does not want his team to read before the Cards host Boston College at L&N Cardinal Stadium on Saturday afternoon:
That Louisville is a solid 14-point favorite to stretch its record to 4-0 against the Eagles, who have lost twice in three games.
That BC lost an overtime game to Northern Illinois, which lost a home game to Southern Illinois, a middling FCS program, the following week.
That Holy Cross, another FCS program, was driving for a game-winning touchdown, or game-tying field goal, before BC survived the upset by knocking loose a fumble in the final 70 seconds of an unimpressive 31-28 victory.
That Boston College has lost five of its last six Atlantic Coast Conference games and eight of its last 10 overall games, placing BC coach Jeff Hafley No. 4 on one coaching Hot Seat list.
That if Louisville can win with gusto Saturday, the Cardinals will be positioned to make a move into the Top 25 with upcoming games against North Carolina State, Notre Dame and Pittsburgh. They drew their first vote in the Associated Press poll Sunday.
N.C. State isn't a top-40 team. Pitt has lost back-to-back games. The adrenaline should be flowing in the Louisville fan base. People are already wondering if the Notre Dame game will be a sellout.
Motivation comes in many forms. There are encouraging words. There are words of warning. There are coaches who try to be uplifting. There are coaches who prefer fear.
Jeff Brohm has a different preference. He prefers consistency. The same message of performing your job as well as it can be performed.
Doesn't matter if you're playing Boston College or Murray State or Notre Dame.
That is always the ideal. But human nature can push back furiously against that, especially when Louisville is 3-0 for the first time since 2016.
I asked Brohm what lessons he learned about motivation in more than 9 seasons as a head coach.
Rick Pitino had his "One-Day Contract." Brohm has his "One-Game Season."
"Well, I actually think that's one of our strengths," Brohm said. "We try to coach the same every week, whether you win or lose.
"We treat everything as a one-game season. I know that sounds dull and boring. But you have to think that way. Because you can't really look down the road too much as a player.
"I know fans do, which is great and fine and fun. We love it.
"But for a player, you can't look down the road. You're gonna get distracted.
"You're going to either feel too good about where you could be going because you played a good game or you're going to feel really bad about, 'My gosh, we have such a long hill to climb up here.'
"It can really affect your work ethic. So because of that, you just have to erase the last game and the previous games. Obviously, you make corrections, but you've got to work hard to win.
"You got to say, 'Hey, we gotta go figure out a way to win this game — period.
"Give it everything you've got. Coaches, players. You lay it on the line and you play to the end and you stay in the moment and you stay as aggressive as you can.
"Then you hope at the end of the game that you have more points than they do. When that's over, whether you win or lose, you're gonna have a few people pat you on the back or a few people tell you that you're not very good and you should have done this better.
"You've got to just block it out. And you got to understand every week it's a new challenge.
"Every team you play is competitive. Every team you play has a chance to win. If we don't play our best or we're not improving every week, we're not going to get to where we want to go.
"So I just think it's us coming to work every day, working with our guys, having a smile on our face at times. Knowing when to push, to motivate is always important, and you just kind of have to stay locked in on that.
"I've been on numerous teams where we've started not the way you wanted. We found a way to move back up the ladder. Last year we started 1-2 at Purdue and found a way to get to the Big 10 championship game.
"That happens all the time. I was at University of Illinois as an assistant, we started 6-0 in the top 20. We lost our next six.
"So that's how the season can go. If you're not treating it as a one-game season, as a player internally, the games probably won't go in your favor. — if you can't keep that that mindset."
Linebackers coach Mark Ivey thrives on motivational twists and turns. I asked him about what a coach must do to flush satisfaction and contentment out of the locker room.
"If you start winning at a high level or just consistently at all, you always have that fear as a coach of some type of complacency setting in," Ivey said.
"You do not want that. That's the ultimate sin of, 'Hey, we've arrived, we've done everything we need to do.'
"Which by no means have we done that. We're not even close to that. But it can feel good when people are saying, 'Hey, nice job,' and all that kind of stuff.
"But you absolutely have to battle against that. You have to fight that and understand that the only reason you got anything at this point is because you were very hungry, and you were very excited to go out and prove yourself.
"Rep in and rep out, not just day in and day out, but every rep out there. So if you keep that mentality, then it makes it a whole lot easier to keep playing on."
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