One of the many intriguing facets to Friday’s season-opener between Georgia Tech and Louisville at Mercedes-Benz Stadium is just how productive Louisville’s offense will be – and can Tech do anything to stop it?
First-year coach Jeff Brohm has created a name for himself in his decade of being a head coach for his creative, high-scoring offenses. Previously at both Western Kentucky and Purdue, respectively, the former Louisville quarterback had a knack for developing entertaining attacks that wowed crowds and devastated defensive coordinators.
But the Cardinals’ offense may not put up as big of numbers in its debut as it is expected to in the near future. Brohm and his staff are installing a new system with new personnel. Much of the Louisville offensive roster was built for former coach Scott Satterfield’s rushing attack.
“(Brohm’s) coached a lot of football and called a lot of plays in his career. It’s no secret what he’s going to do and what type of offense they’re going to run, whether it’s what they were the last couple years at Purdue or going back to Western Kentucky,” Tech coach Brent Key said. “He’s come up in a system, it’s a system he believes in and it’s a system that works. It’s a system that has answers and he knows what the answers are. He does a tremendous job calling plays.
“Like any good football coach, he’s going to also tailor that to the personnel that he has. You’re not going to try to put a square peg in a round hole if it doesn’t fit.”
Louisville had the nation’s 23rd-best rushing offense in 2022. The team’s 200.6 yards per game ranked second in the ACC. Six times in 13 games the Cardinals totaled more than 200 yards on the ground.
Conversely, U of L had one of the nation’s poorer passing games.
That style of football won’t be completely turned on its head this season, but Brohm and offensive coordinator Brian Brohm, Jeff Brohm’s brother, have more of propensity to put the ball in the air to a myriad of playmakers both out of the backfield and down the field.
Quarterback Jack Plummer played for Brohm at Purdue, then transferred to California, then transferred to Louisville to play for Brohm again. Plummer was 10-for-13 passing for 130 yards and a score in the team’s spring game in April. He threw for more than 3,000 yards last season at Cal.
Leading rusher Jawhar Jordan is back and Jamari Thrash, a former Georgia State and Troup County High star, is part of a restocked wideouts group that also includes former Central Florida standout Joey Gatewood (who will play some tight end), former Cincinnati standout Jadon Thompson and former SWAC freshman of the year Kevin Coleman.
Louisville also dipped into the transfer portal in the offseason to build up its offensive line.
Key said that not only do he and his staff have to study schemes and systems from Brohm’s previous tenures at Purdue and Western Kentucky, but they also have to cut up film of all the different offensive weapons from their respective former schools and diagnose how those players may fit into Brohm’s scheme.
Tech began to game plan for Louisville on Wednesday and continued practicing over the weekend as it inches ever closer to playing against a different color jersey and formulating a way to slow down the Louisville attack.
“The guys are tired of going against each other right now,” Key said.
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