Brown: Jeff Brohm shows why he was right person to lead Louisville football in come-from-behind win
ATLANTA — Believe in Brohm.
What else can you take from what happened in Louisville’s 39-34 win over Georgia Tech at Mercedes-Benz Stadium?
Louisville coach Jeff Brohm, the native son in his debut game on the sideline leading his alma mater, watched the Yellow Jackets smash his team to the tune of four second-quarter touchdowns. The Cardinals trailed by 15 at the break. Then halftime happened.
Brohm made the kind of promises that in different context could be construed as a threat. Players would be judged by their effort and if he didn't see enough of it, they wouldn't play the rest of the year.
"I didn't lift a whole lot of spirits at halftime," Brohm said after Friday's season-opening win. "I try to be as positive as I can, but it came down to somebody needed to challenge our players to do more and it's got to come from me."
This is why Brohm’s return home was a dream scenario for the Cardinals. He's got an albatross of expectations weighing on him to put on for the city and it fed into the urgency of his halftime speech. Doesn't matter that the Cards were just 30 minutes into the season.
He let it be known what his standard is.
U of L defensive tackle Dezmond Tell, who made a game-changing play with his forced fumble in the fourth quarter, said Brohm restored the energy for the team with his speech.
"I ain't going to lie, I don't even remember anything, I was just hyped," Tell said. "It was crazy, felt like a dream. I felt like we were going to win, regardless."
After suffering a disastrous quarter and allowing the Georgia Tech crowd motivated by the return of Hall of Fame receiver Calvin "Megatron" Johnson, who was in attendance, Brohm settled his team and made the right adjustments.
U of L quarterback Jack Plummer struggled passing in the first half, so Brohm switched up the play calling in the second half. He used the running game more to help put Plummer in high-percentage throwing situations. But he also gave Plummer a directive as well, noting he'd been too "timid" and wasn't "cutting it loose."
Plummer responded by completing 10 of 14 attempts for 157 yards and two touchdowns in the second half. He was 8-for-17 with an interception and 90 yards in the opening half.
Brohm got his playmakers involved too. Wide receiver Jamari Thrash, a Georgia State transfer who is on the preseason Biletnikoff Award watch list that recognizes the nation's best receiver, was uninvolved in the offense early with just one catch for four yards.
He erupted in the second half with two touchdown receptions, including a 20-yarder to give the Cards their first lead since the first quarter — making it 29-28 in the fourth quarter. Thrash finished with seven catches for 88 yards.
U of L’s defense had allowed Georgia Tech big play after big play — four passes for more than 30 yards and a 23-yard touchdown run. So Brohm had them stop playing so much man coverage and had them mix up the front four to keep them from being predictable.
That helped the Cards add a bookend takeaway to the early interception that led to the first points of the game.
The Jackets reached the U of L 16 and were positioned to retake the lead on the drive with time winding down. Quarterback Haynes King never saw Tell coming from his blindside as he rolled out for a pass and Tell knocked the ball free for Kam Wilson to recover.
When Jawhar Jordan popped a 74-yard touchdown run to give U of L a 36-28 cushion on the next play, it didn’t matter that Georgia Tech remained within one possession of tying it. The game was done.
The Cards had gained too much swagger and the Jackets had fallen into too much doubt.
U of L has plenty to work on after the win, starting with all the finger pointing that occurred during the game — and it had nothing to do with placing blame.
Far too many times, before the ball was snapped on both offense and defense, the Cards were trying to figure out where to line up. Or who they were defending. On a couple of occasions, there was even a question of who was supposed to be on the field.
No matter how many veteran players — 24 to be exact — U of L brought in through the transfer portal, this thing is still going to take some time.
"I just think we have a long ways to go," Brohm said. "I didn't think we were gelled together as a team early on. Yes, there are new pieces, but I thought we'd be gelled together better, but we were not."
The offense is going to have to work on its red zone execution after settling for three field goals inside the 20. The Cards also failed to convert their first nine third-down attempts.
Thrash had a 23-yard reception in the fourth quarter for their lone conversion in 11 third downs.
But all of that will come in time. For now, the Cards' victory confirmed their confidence Brohm — and that's all the comfort they need.
Reach sports columnist C.L. Brown at clbrown1@gannett.com, follow him on Twitter at @CLBrownHoops and subscribe to his newsletter at profile.courier-journal.com/newsletters/cl-browns-latest to make sure you never miss one of his column.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Louisville vs Georgia Tech football score: Jeff Brohm wins debut 39-34
