Georgia Tech has yet to lose to Louisville. It would behoove the 2023 Yellow Jackets to keep that statement true.
Coach Brent Key and his team will begin studying the Cardinals in earnest Wednesday as the countdown to the season-opener for both teams continues to shrink. The Jackets finished fall camp Saturday, had meetings Sunday and will then continue to have meetings scheduled around workouts Monday before resuming practice Tuesday.
But after three weeks of grueling training, it will finally be time for Tech to focus on a different color jersey.
Key has eight games under his belt as the program’s interim coach, but the opener against Louisville, Sept. 1 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, will have more officiality to it as far as Key’s tenure is concerned. He insisted Saturday that his entire focus this month has been on his team and not on looking to get a leg up on the first opponent of the year.
“The last three weeks, if they’re not wearing white, gold or blue I have not looked at it one bit,” Key said. “We’ll get into that next week. We have a lot of housecleaning to do coming off this final scrimmage over the next two or three days. Probably Tuesday afternoon, Tuesday night I’ll start to really get into that and I know the coaches will as well.”
Louisville has a first-year coach of its own in Jeff Brohm, but the Cardinals are in no way rebuilding.
An 8-5 2022 season for Louisville included a 24-7 win over Cincinnati in the Fenway Bowl. Six defensive starters return from that team and Brohm brought in more than two dozen transfers, including former California quarterback Jack Plummer, to jumpstart the roster.
Brohm, who led Western Kentucky to two Conference USA championships and Purdue to a Big Ten West Division title, is known for innovative and high-scoring offensive attacks. So-called trick plays are often a feature of his entertaining brand of ball as well.
The Cardinals relied more on the ground game in 2022 under former coach Scott Satterfield – they ranked 23rd nationally at 201 rushing yards per game. Purdue, conversely, had the nation’s 33rd-best passing offense in 2021 and 12th-best passing offense in 2019.
Key said he and his staff will not only have to study Louisville tape, but also Purdue film. Louisville offensive coordinator Brian Brohm, Jeff Brohm’s brother, and defensive coordinator Mark Hagen also came from Purdue.
But if the Jackets are going to run their record to 3-0 against the Cardinals, Key said they’ll have to know the tendencies of the Louisville players just as well as they know the schemes.
“(Louisville has) 26 transfers that have come in to play there. It’s a player-driven game. Those schemes that people run are going to be driven and dictated by what players are out there,” Key said. “Being able to look at a lot of different places to see what type of players are and what the strengths and weaknesses of each individual player are, there’s a lot of film that will be watched over the next two weeks.”
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