Brown: With a lot on line, it's time for Louisville football to play stress-free road game
To get where no other Louisville football team has been, the Cardinals have to win where no other U of L team has won.
A spot in the ACC championship game awaits U of L if it can win on Saturday at Miami, where it holds an 0-6-1 series record.
“I didn’t know that we hadn’t won a game down there in history,” U of L coach Jeff Brohm said. “So we got to find a way to break that streak.”
Louisville hasn’t played a stress-free road game all season.
The Cards had to rally from down 15 at Georgia Tech and from down 10 at N.C. State. They needed a goal-line stand in the fourth quarter to preserve a lead against Indiana. They got shutout in the second half of their loss at Pitt.
With a chance to make the ACC title game for the first time since joining the league in 2014, now would be a good time to start playing on the road like they have played at home.
Winning a big game at home, like the their 33-20 win over then-No. 10 Notre Dame, proved the Cards don’t shrink in the spotlight. But the light shines a bit harsher in road games with high stakes.
Brohm called Miami the most talented team athletically and physically that they’ve played to date.
“So we have to match that and just figure out a way to do something that hasn’t been done here before,” Brohm said.
The path to the title game worked out well for Brohm in his first season as head coach at U of L just as it did for him last year in his last season at Purdue.
Playing in the Big Ten West Division made it easier for the Boilermakers to reach the league’s championship, although Ohio State was clearly the second best team in the conference.
The ACC did away with divisions this season, which meant U of L no longer had annual games against Florida State and Clemson as a potential setback. The Cards have taken advantage of their schedule and with one game left to play, could solidify a spot in a New Year’s Six bowl game.
(Louisville wouldn’t likely jump into the top four of the College Football Playoff by beating Florida State in the league title game. But if it lost and the Seminoles are chosen for the CFP, the Cards would still get to fill the ACC’s slot in the Orange Bowl.)
Even Brohm, who is painstakingly careful not to look ahead, would have gladly taken that scenario back in August.
Winning would take an already great inaugural season from Brohm and put it in the special category. And the possibilities exist that the Cards could make it the best in program history. That’s not just conjecture either, they could surpass the 12 wins by the 2006 Orange Bowl title team and the 2013 team that won the American Athletic Conference.
They’ll have to get past a Miami team that hasn’t lived up to expectations but still hasn’t quit on its season. The Hurricanes could have folded after their Georgia Tech fiasco. But they showed in their comeback win over Clemson in overtime, they’re capable of winning big games.
Losing to the Hurricanes would not necessarily mean U of L lost out on a chance to play Florida State for the conference championship on Dec. 2. It would mean North Carolina would have to lose or a bunch of other scenarios that would cause a headache trying to hypothetically figure out.
“Probably everybody’s looked at the Internet and looked over scenarios, but I've tried to looking and I can’t figure it out,” Brohm said. “So the only way I know of, is if we win, good things will happen.”
Hey, Louisville, it's time to keep things simple.
Column from win over Virginia: U of L can't afford to have any more lackluster showings
Reach sports columnist C.L. Brown at clbrown1@gannett.com, follow him on X at @CLBrownHoops and subscribe to his newsletter atprofile.courier-journal.com/newsletters/cl-browns-latest to make sure you never miss one of his columns.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: ACC title game: Miami next hurdle for Louisville football, Jeff Brohm
