How offensive coordinator Brian Brohm can help Jack Plummer and Louisville football QBs

Brian Brohm was just a month removed from being cut by the Canadian Football League's Winnipeg Blue Bombers when, on Feb. 8, 2016, the backup quarterback was hired to his brother Jeff Brohm’s staff as Western Kentucky’s quarterbacks coach.

Now Louisville's offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, Brian Brohm has had plenty of success working with QBs.

Over the last seven years, the second-round pick in the 2008 NFL Draft has helped three quarterbacks from his time coaching at WKU and the Purdue develop into NFL prospects. Aidan O’Connell, who walked on at Purdue and was taken by the Las Vegas Raiders in the fourth round of the 2023 NFL Draft, was the latest.

Former Purdue QB Jack Plummer, who reunited with his former coach at U of L this offseason, could be next. Plummer is not a current NFL prospect ahead of the 2024 draft, but the fifth-year senior had two of his best collegiate seasons with Brohm at Purdue — completing 69.7% of his passes for 1,802 yards, 15 touchdowns and two interceptions in 10 games as a sophomore and junior — before transferring to California ahead of the 2022 season.

“My goal is to win games, win championships,” Brohm said, “but it's also to set these guys up for the future so they can be successful and achieve their dreams. … I believe we should have our room set up to where if you're the starting quarterback for our football team, you're going to the NFL.”

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Brohm, who starred at Louisville from 2004-07 and led the Cards to a 2007 Orange Bowl win, leads a U of L quarterback room that includes presumptive starter Plummer and four-star prospect Pierce Clarkson, who enrolled early in January and projects to be the Cardinals' future starter. The depth chart also includes recent transfers Brady Allen (Purdue) and Harrison Bailey (UNLV), both former four-star recruits as well; and Brock Domann, an unranked high school recruit who started multiple games for the Cardinals in 2022.

Brohm's previous starters have been pro-style pocket passers who are about Plummer's size (6-5, 215). While Clarkson (6-foot, 190) is a dual-threat QB, there's reason to believe Brohm can get the most out of Plummer, in his last year of eligibility, and groom Clarkson to one day take over the starting job.

"It's a process," Brohm said of working with his new group of quarterbacks. "We want to try and build that type of culture where we're all trying to get each other better and we're all trying to be the best player we can be. I think we've started to develop that culture."

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History of helping QBs improve efficiency

There were times during Western Kentucky’s fall training camp in 2016 that Mike White felt the drills he was doing were monotonous.

But Brohm, in his first year on the job, leaned on his experience as a backup quarterback in the NFL and CFL to make sure his new players had a strong foundation.

“I really felt like from that (backup) position, I was kind of a mentor,” Brohm said. “Really, helping the starting quarterback week in and week out.

"I think the way we do it is more NFL style than some other places and it's able to develop those guys to when they go to the NFL, it's not new. They know what to expect."

White, a fifth-round pick in the 2018 NFL Draft who signed with the Miami Dolphins in March, quickly saw the difference in his game after working with Brohm. After throwing for 2,722 yards (completing 51.5% of his passes), 11 touchdowns and 16 interceptions in 17 games over two seasons at South Florida, White threw for 4,363 yards (completing 67.3% of his passes), 37 touchdowns and seven interceptions in 14 games during his first season at WKU.

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“There's just so many different nuances that, unless you have a really good coach, you don't really know about," White said. "(Jeff and Brian Brohm) taught me those and helped develop my game and identified the strengths that I needed to use and the weaknesses I need to get better in.”

Under Brohm's guidance, quarterbacks have cut down on turnovers and made better decisions. Plummer threw nine interceptions in 12 games at Cal, one year after recording zero in seven games under Brohm. Former Purdue quarterback David Blough, who is now with the Arizona Cardinals, is also among those who was more efficient under Brohm's leadership.

“They (Brian and Jeff Brohm) taught us where to go with the football, which sounds so elementary," said Blough, who completed 65.7% of his passes for 34 touchdowns and 14 interceptions in 22 games under the Brohms at Purdue following a 2016 season where he completed 57% of his passes for 25 TDs and 21 interceptions in 12 games, "but it's somewhat overlooked in the coaching world."

Reach Louisville football, women's basketball and baseball beat writer Alexis Cubit at acubit@gannett.com and follow her on Twitter at @Alexis_Cubit.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Louisville football's Brian Brohm: How he's helped QBs at Purdue, WKU