Jeff Brohm High on Louisville's Potential, Eager to See More Improvement Moving Forward

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - We're one month into the 2025 college football season, and so far, Louisville still has an unblemished record.

With wins over Eastern Kentucky, James Madison and Bowling Green, the Cardinals are one of 30 teams in the FBS to still have a perfect record. In fact, it's the first time in program history that UofL has started a season 3-0 in three straight years.

However, anyone who has actually watched Louisville play this season - especially in their last two games - knows that they have played far from perfect football up to this point in the season. If the Cardinals hadn't played an FCS school and two Group of Five teams to start the season, therein lies the chance that their perfect record would have a number in the loss column.

Head coach Jeff Brohm likes the potential of his team through the first four weeks of the season, but also believes that their true ceiling is "to be determined," and that there are still a bevy of things that they need to work on moving forward.

"I like our team," he said. "I think we worked hard, we prepared hard. I think we have a good plan. We've shown good signs, and we've showed some signs where we need to improve. It's still yet to be determined. Playing good competition, as we're getting ready to, will determine where we're at and what else we need to improve and get better at. But I'm always, deep down, until I get to the game, fearful of losing. So you gotta prepare, and you've got to work on the things that you need to, to try to be precise. Then you go cut it loose on game day, and you believe in yourself, and you play confident. But we got to play well.

For starters, is one of the most penalized teams in the entire nation. Of the 136 teams in the FBS, their 7.67 penalties per game is 106th, while 70.00 penalty yards per game is 111th. In their game agains James Madison alone, Louisville was slapped with an astounding 12 penalties.

Additionally, and somewhat surprisingly, the Cardinals' offense has not been super efficient to start the year. This is primarily due to the fact that their offensive line has struggled big time so far this season. Their 5.00 tackles for loss allowed per game is 63rd nationally, their 2.0 sacks allowed per game is 80th, and their 52.6 run blocking grade on Pro Football Focus is 116th.

As a result, Louisville's stout rushing attack has shown flashes of explosiveness, but their 156.0 rushing yards per game is just 76th in the nation. USC transfer quarterback Miller Moss also hasn't been firing on all cylinders at times (partially due to the pressure he had faced), resulting in his 230.0 passing yards per game ranking 55th in the FBS, and 141.95 QBR ranking 68th.

"We've got to use these three games and improve on some of the things that we have not been as sharp on, and make sure that we don't repeat the same mistakes," Brohm said. "That's going to be important as we proceed forward, and definitely going on the road is always a challenge. You've got to be mentally ready, for everyone on the team to know that they have to play their best. They have to be ready to go, and they have to play as hard as they can no matter what until the game's over, and then we'll see what the score is."

That being said, while the sample size isn't large, there has been some team-wide progress over the last two games. Against JMU three weeks ago, Louisville had to score 22 unanswered to be able to mount a comeback and escape with a 28-14 win. The offense had a shaky first half, the defense bent (but didn't break), and penalty markers were flying all over the place.

This past weekend against Bowling Green, Louisville looked much more put together. They were able to move the chains on a more regular basis, while Moss looked efficient and the ground game made due with Isaac Brown and Duke Watson banged up. Defensively, the Cardinals looked immaculate, continuing to set the tone in the trenches while also having their best coverage game. Then on special teams, they added four field goals and a punt return touchdown.

Louisville might not have shown as much week-to-week progress as one would have liked, but there was progress nonetheless, and it resulted in them earning a 40-17 win over BGSU.

“I thought we came ready to play," Brohm said of the game against Bowling Green after getting a chance to watch film. "I thought Miller Moss executed well, threw the ball accurately and did a good job there. There were a couple of things here and there that he could do better, but we’ve recognized that. Like get the ball out of his hands versus the blitz and doing things like that, maybe we could do that a little bit better.

"We got better on the offensive line, recognizing and playing overall. There’s still some elements we have to clean up without question. There were too many penalties that hurt us on some big plays that brought us back. We have to clean that up. That can really stall some drives and stall momentum. But overall I thought we did better."

While Louisville did showcase improvement from the James Madison game to the Bowling Green matchup, they're going to have to showcase an increased amount of week-to-week improvement.

Moving forward, the Cardinals have nothing but power conference teams left on their schedule for the 2025 season. Not only that, but their first road game of the season is on tap this weekend, as they will head to the Steel City to face Pitt this Saturday at noon.

While the Panthers are certainly not a perfect team either, as they lost to a down West Virginia squad in their last time out, they certainly provide a much stiffer challenge than any of Louisville's first three opponents. Eli Holstein is one of the more underrated quarterbacks in the ACC, Desmond Reid is the second-best running back in the league, head coach Pat Narduzzi has that defense operating with a physical and aggressive edge.

Brohm is hoping that, with the uptick in competition faced, his squad takes the jump in efficiency that he knows they are capable of making.

"I hope it happens this week. It's going to have to," he said. "Every year is different. Sometimes you have some good early competition that kind of sees where you're at, and you make adjustments, which is what I like. Other times you you ease into it, so to speak, with the level of competition, and now you get into conference play.

"We've got to just understand that it's going to be a four quarter game. Every possession matters. How we execute, how we play, the cleanliness of it, and the ability to be crisp in what we're doing is important. Yes, you have to be efficient. Even the last couple years here, when we played really efficient football, we can play really good. But the other teams trying to do the same thing, so it's not always going to happen. You've got to be able to snap out of it when they get the momentum. ... It's always going to be a battle in every conference game, unless you're just playing lights out.

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