Brown: In Jeff Brohm, U of L football finally has a coach it can believe in for the future

Jeff Brohm officially ushered in a new era of Louisville football Tuesday as fall camp started with him opening up practice to the public. The Cardinals will continue that for eight times over the next two weeks.

Fans who attend might not even recognize all that’s missing with Brohm as head coach.

Fear. Anxiety. Insecurities.

Think of it like this — when’s the last time a U of L football coach started his career and fans did not have to think about the coach leaving if he’s successful?

Brohm doesn’t view U of L as Stepping Stone U, which means the Cards finally have a coach they can believe in. When he talks of his vision for what the program can be, when he talks about building something the city at large can be proud of, it’s not just lip service. Brohm is fully invested in making it happen.

“The great part about winning here is it can be, not only just a family affair, but a full, city affair,” Brohm said Tuesday at the team’s media day. “This town wants to see sports succeed. They want to do great things. They want to challenge themselves against any city across the country, any program, and we want to help try to put a great product on the field.”

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Since Howard Schnellenberger (Brohm's coach at Louisville) led the Cards from 1985-94, the program hasn’t had one coach stay longer than five straight seasons.

There have been some embarrassing greatest hits along the way.

Remember the 2002 GMAC Bowl against Marshall? Anyone watching the game could see in real time something was abuzz on the sidelines. That’s when players, who weren’t dressed out to play, began being alerted on their cell phones in the first quarter of the game that coach John L. Smith had accepted the Michigan State job.

Or how about ‘Jetgate’ in 2003? That's when then-Courier Journal reporters Eric Crawford and Pat Forde broke the story of Petrino’s clandestine meeting on an airplane with Auburn officials looking to oust Tommy Tuberville. Petrino, who hadn’t even completed his first season at U of L at the time, tried to deny his involvement until Auburn fessed up.

Most recently, Scott Satterfield’s tenure was doomed the moment in December 2020 that he flirted with South Carolina and had an informal interview a week after publicly saying he had no interest in the opening.

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Brohm isn’t thinking about setting up his next job or using L&N Stadium on Floyd Street as a bus stop on his route to a bigger location. Now that he’s here, he’s got one job.

“What coach Brohm is trying to come do is exactly not start on ground zero,” said defensive lineman Stephen Herron, a graduate transfer from Stanford who once starred at Trinity High School. “He’s trying to elevate us as quickly as possible.”

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Brohm could try his best and fail. U of L is certainly not a job with no limits to its resources and an endless supply of four- and five-star recruits being produced in-state annually. There are certainly challenges and many reasons why his success isn’t guaranteed.

But if this thing hits? If Brohm wins at a high enough rate to make U of L a perennial contender in the ACC, a mainstay in the national polls and makes postseason bowl games an annual event, he could bring long-awaited stability to the program not seen since Schnellenberger’s tenure ended nearly 30 years ago.

So when Brohm talks of what he wants to create at U of L, it’s OK to believe him. It’s not a sell. It’s coming from his soul.

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 football: Jeff Brohm brings stability entering first season