Jeff Brohm, Louisville Aiming to Carry Momentum Through Bye Week Into Final Month

The Cardinals won back-to-back games before heading into their final bye of the 2024 season.

Sep 28, 2024; South Bend, Indiana, USA; Louisville Cardinals head coach Jeff Brohm talks to quarterback Tyler Shough (9) in the second quarter against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish at Notre Dame Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matt Cashore-Imagn Images / Matt Cashore-Imagn Images

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - After a week off to watch the rest of the ACC and college football as a whole, it's right back to work for the Louisville football program.

The Cardinals recently came off of their second bye week of the season, and are back to prepping for an actual opponent this weekend. Louisville will be hitting the road for a showdown against ACC newcomer Stanford, with kickoff set for 3:30 p.m. EST on Saturday, Nov. 16.

"The bye week came at a time where we've got some guys nicked up, and they need to get refreshed, and get healthy, and be ready for this last stretch of three football games," head coach Jeff Brohm said. "That was important that we did that. I felt, for the most part, we got that done."

"We continue to get at least a little bit of work in, and preparation for Stanford. We got some young guys some repetitions as well this past week, and then we got a bonus practice yesterday that I thought was beneficial."

Over the last few weeks, Louisville has seemingly turned a corner and has been trending in the right direction. The Cardinals were able to pull themselves out of a 20-point deficit at Boston College for a 31-27 win on Oct 25, then most recently before the bye, they earned their first ever win over Clemson, taking down the then-ranked No. 11 Tigers 33-21 in Death Valley.

Brohm hasn't been shy in the past about how he isn't a huge fan of bye weeks and would rather keep playing, especially with the momentum that Louisville has generated in that two-game span. That being said, he got to work making sure the Cardinals were able to keep up the aforementioned momentum through the bye.

On top of resting players and getting more reps to younger or inexperienced players, Brohm and his staff used the additional off time to continue making adjustments to issues that have come up over the course of the season.

"I do think that the last six quarters, we've made improvements since the second half of the Boston College game," he said. "We got to build on that. It's important that all three segments continue to push themselves to perform their best.

"We've identified numerous things that have happened throughout the year, that have not gone our way, and we've tried to rationalize why it happened from a coaching standpoint. Then also, how can we get our players to perform at the optimal level, and the best level they can. I think we've made some improvements there. We've got to continue to do that and make sure that the plan is precise, is easily understandable, and we can go out there and execute and play fast."

Making sure Louisville comes out of the bye week still firing on all cylinders like they were before it will be critical, because the possiblity of finishing strong is very much on the table.

For starters, Stanford is just 2-7 on the year and arguably the worst powers conference team in college football. Pitt after that is 7-2 and in the thick of the ACC title race, but have dropped back-to-back games and have shown considerable vulnerability. Their finale against Kentucky is on the road, but the Wildcats are just 3-6 and very likely will not be heading to a bowl game. While highly unlikely, a berth to the ACC Championship Game is still mathematically possible as well.

Despite the rocky midseason, there still exists the possibility of Louisville finishing with what many fans would qualify as a "good" season. They just have to make sure they capitalize on the hot streak they are on and finish.

"In the middle of the year, we made sure our team understood that every game is a new challenge," Brohm said. "You want to try to win every week, and move on to the next one. But in the end, the real judgment is made at the end of the year of how your football team does.

"We've got a lot of season left. There's three regular season games that we've got to prove that you're a good football team. Then at the end of the year, you look at the record and you hope you're where you'd like to be - or somewhere close. We've found a way to improve this past week. It was good to see, it was fun to watch them play that way, it was fun to watch them excel in certain areas. But we can improve more, and we've got to continue to build on that."

(Photo of Tyler Shough, Jeff Brohm: Matt Cashore - Imagn Images)

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