Points of Emphasis: Louisville vs. Georgia Tech
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The 2023 college football season is finally here. Louisville will kick off the season under the lights, traveling to the Peach State for a showdown with ACC foe Georgia Tech in the Aflac Kickoff Classic.
Here are some of the more notable storylines heading into Saturday's game:
Welcome Home, Coach!
The season-opening matchup between Louisville and Georgia Tech will feature a lot of newness for both programs. That all starts with the men at the top.
As Louisville fans know by now, their new head coach in Jeff Brohm has a plethora of ties to both the school and community. He was a standout quarterback at Trinity High School, played for Howard Schnellenberger at Louisville from 1989 to 1993, and was on the Cardinals' coaching staff from 2003 to 2008 under both Bobby Petrino and Steve Kragthorpe.
He's also proven to be a good head coach. Inheriting a Purdue program that had gone 9-39 under the previous regime, Brohm guided the Boilermakers to a 36-34 overall record and 26-25 record in Big Ten play during his six years at the helm, including 8-5 with a Big Ten West title in 2022.
As for Georgia Tech, their new head coach in Brent also has plenty of ties to the program. He played for the Yellow Jackets under George O'Leary from 1996 to 2001, and was a four year starter at offensive guard. After coaching stints at UCF and Alabama, he returned to GT in 2019 as their offensive line coach.
Key was elevated to interim head coach last season following the midseason firing of Geoff Collins after a 1-3 start. While Key certainly has less head coaching experience than Brohm, he looked good as an interim. Key guided the Jackets to a 4-4 mark after Collins went 1-3, which included a stunning road win over Pitt in his first game, and a top-25 victory against North Carolina in Chapel Hill.
2023 Opener Carrying More Pressure Than Normal for Louisville
Season-openers always carry a little bit of pressure with them considering they are the first showing, but this one carries a little more weight for Brohm than the others have. As a Louisville native and UofL alum who also has his jersey number in the Cardinals' Ring of Honor, he feels the pressure to perform at a high level for his alma mater, while also expressing a desire to try and take them to new heights.
"I mean, without question, my nerves will be going," Brohm said. "You want to do well, you want to try to win the football game, please a lot of people, and you want to get off to a good start. That’s always going to be the goal. You have to go back and go through things and make sure you’re as ready as you can be. But then you’ve just got to go out there and play and coach. Be positive with your players, build their confidence, and help them achieve their best."
There's also the added pressure of opening up the season not only with a conference foe, but doing so away from your home stadium. It's commonplace for most college football programs to open up the season with non-conference home game, but Louisville is doing the exact opposite by playing an ACC team in a venue that is just a couple miles away from the opposing team's campus.
"It’s very important," Brohm said. "Every conference game matters, and every game matters really, but you have to be prepared to go on the road, always. You have to be able to overcome things along the way. This will be the first time for a lot of guys playing together, so you have to keep your focus, you have to trust your confidence, and trust your preparation. You have to be confident when you take the field, and you have to go out there and execute."
Brohm Drawing From Lessons By Howard Schnellenberger
In terms of what makes Brohm the coach he is today, like most coaches in any sport, he draws a lot of inspiration from his own head coach during his playing days. On top of playing for Schnellenberger during all five of his year at Louisville, Brohm got to coach under Schnellenberger for a year as well, serving as his quarterbacks coach at Florida Atlantic in 2009.
"I think Coach was great at preparing his teams to take on anybody," Brohm said. "We practiced hard, we practiced long. We got after it in practice, so that when we got to the game, it would come easy to us."
With Brohm about to follow Schnellenberger's footsteps and guide the Cardinals himself, he was asked if he still carries lessons from his old head coach into his own coaching style. While Brohm joked that "could talk for a long time about that," he followed that up with: playing harder, playing tougher and playing smarter.
"In the end, we narrow it down to just three things as we take the field, and that's three things that we think are visible to the common fan, and we have to win these three things no matter what else happens to have a chance," Brohm said.
New Men Under Center For Both Teams
The head coach is without a doubt the most important person on any football team, but arguably the second-most important is the starting quarterback. Well, not only do both Louisville and Georgia Tech have new head coaches, their starting quarterbacks are also newcomers.
For Louisville, they will be going with Jack Plummer. The 6-foot-5, 215-pound signal caller spent last season at Cal and was a starter in all 12 games, completing 62.5 percent of his passes for 3,095 yards, 21 touchdown passes and nine interceptions. His yardage mark was good for sixth-most in Cal history for a single season, and ranked No. 22 in FBS through the end of the regular season.
Prior to his one-year stop in Berkeley, Calif., Plummer spent the first four years of his collegiate career in West Lafayette, Ind. with the Boilermakers. Making 17 total appearances with 13 starts at Purdue, he completed 64.8 percent of his throws for 3,405 yards, 26 touchdowns and 10 interceptions.
On the other sideline, Georgia Tech will be going with Haynes King as their starter. A transfer from Texas A&M, the 6-foot-3, 204-pound quarterback had an up-and-down 2022 campaign, playing in just six games due to both injuries and a benching. He played in just six games, completing 55.6 percent of his passes for 1,220 yards and seven touchdowns to six interceptions.
A former five-star prospect in the Class of 2020, King didn't see a ton of time on the field in three years with the Aggies mainly due to injuries. He made just 10 appearances, and has completed 56.6 of his passes for 1,579 yards with an equal amount of touchdowns and interceptions (10).
Differing Offensive Styles On Tap For Opener
While the offenses for both the Louisville and Georgia Tech will likely not be at their highest efficiencies considering it is the season-opener, it's no surprise as to what each sideline wants to accomplish on that side of the line of scrimmage.
For Louisville, Brohm has an emphasis on having a high-flying passing attack. In 2021 when Purdue went 9-4, which was their most wins since the Joe Tiller era, the Boilermakers had the No. 5 passing attack (355.4 PYPG). Their offense took a slight step back last season with the No. 17 passing offense (287.2 PYPG) through conference championship weekend, but it was still a season in which Purdue went 8-5 and made it to the Big Ten Championship game.
Plus, Brohm certainly has the horses to execute his style of play right out of the gates. On top of having an experienced and proven quarterback, the wide receiver room might be the deepest position on the roster. Louisville brought in seven new receivers through both the portal and high school, including one of the top transfers this cycle in Georgia State's Jamari Thrash.
As for Georgia Tech, while King and some of their pass catchers do have some promise, they will be taking the exact opposite approach and placing the focus on running the ball. During Key's eight games as interim last season, Tech averaged 37.1 rushing attempts to 33.0 passing attempts per game. In three of their four wins, they ran it over 40 times, including 49 times in their road win over No. 13 North Carolina. For the season, they averaged 132.7 rushing yards per game (90th in FBS) compared to 192.2 passing yards per game (108th).
While their offense didn't exactly light up the scoreboard, they have some key returners as it pertains to establishing the run. Georgia Tech returns four of their five starters on the offensive line, which could be the key to improving their chemistry and production on offense overall. Plus, they bring back their top running back in Dontae Smith, who has 1,159 rushing yards and 12 touchdowns to his name. Louisville transfer Trey Cooley should also be a good handcuff for Smith.
Talented Secondaries Anchoring Both Defenses
The offenses might operate in wildly different fashions for both Louisville and Georgia Tech, but their defense share a similar strength: upper tier play by their defensive backs.
Louisville's defense last season was more so known for their play in the front seven after leading all of college football in sacks per game, but their secondary wasn't half bad either. The Cardinals allowed only 197.0 passing yards per game (22nd in FBS) and logged 15 interceptions.
Plus, unlike the front seven, there is a lot more continuity in the secondary for Louisville. The Cardinals bring Jarvis Brownlee Jr. (12 PBUs in 2022) and Quincy Riley (three INTs), cornerbacks who both saw significant time in the starting lineup, as well as starting safety Josh Minkins. Key depth pieces like Trey Franklin and Derrick Edwards III are also back, while transfers Storm Duck, Devin Neal and Cam'Ron Kelly bolster this area of the field.
Georgia Tech also knows a thing or two about defending against the pass. The Yellow Jackets allowed just 212.4 passing yards per game (46th in FBS), and snagged 11 interceptions (51st).
While Tech did lose guys like Zamari Walton and Derrik Allen, they still have talented defensive backs. Arguably their top player on the entire roster is safety LaMiles Brooks, an All-ACC caliber player who logged 52 tackles (34 solo and 2.5 for loss) for the most out of all returners, seven pass breakups and three interceptions. Throw guys like Jaylon King, K.J. Wallace, Myles Sims and Clayton Powell-Lee into the mix (169 tackles, four interceptions and seven PBUs combines), and you have a secondary that commands respect.
(Photo of Jawhar Jordan: Jared Anderson - Louisville Report)
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