Jeff Brohm Highlights the Three Areas Where He Most Wants Louisville to Show Improvement

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - We're now a third of the way through the 2025 regular season, and the Louisville football program has yet to suffer their first loss of the year. At 4-0 heading into the month of October, the Cardinals are one of 20 FBS teams that are still undefeated up to this point in the year.

While their win/loss record might be perfect, as fans of the program know, their play on the field has been anything but.

In Louisville's three games against FBS competition, there have been pockets where either the offense or defense has left a lot to be desired. While the Cards have eventually figured out a way to make winning plays in every one of those games, they've also shown a handful of area where they could use some improvement.

During his weekly press conference ahead of Louisville's game vs. Virginia, head coach Jeff Brohm was asked where he wants to see the most improvement out of his team up to this point. Brohm highlighted three areas: one of offense, one on defense, and one encompassing.

On the offensive side of the ball, there are a handful things that certainly need some fine-tuning considering this was the side of the ball that was perceived to be the strength of the team. But the area on offense where Brohm wants to see more progress is on the offensive line.

"I think we can play better up front," he said. "I think we can block better, and I think we've got to be able to react to movement up front and blitzes, and people playing downhill a little bit better. We got to work hard this week to make sure we do that."

Most Louisville fans will wholeheartedly agree that the offensive line is the single biggest area where the team needs to take massive strides forward, and they're not wrong. Through four games, their 2.00 sacks allowed per game is 80th in the FBS, while their 6.25 tackles for loss allowed per game ranks 108th.

The advanced stats paint a much more bleak picture. Per Pro Football Focus, Louisville's 60.5 team pass blocking grade ranks 93rd nationally, while their 50.9 team run blocking grade is just 121st out of the 136 teams in the FBS. They are one of just two power conference teams (Virginia Tech) with a pass block grade under 61.0 and a run block grade under 51.0

Over on defense, Louisville's efforts have been much more promising. Despite being perceived as the much weaker side of the line of scrimmage, the Cardinals have the No. 18 total defense in all of the FBS at just 268.3 yards allowed per game.

But there is one area Brohm wants to continue cleaning up, and that's allowing big passing plays - especially in man coverage.

The Cardinals had done a good job at not allowing chunk plays through the air in their first three game, although EKU, James Madison and Bowling Green were not the stiffest of competition. This past weekend, Pitt found a little bit more success in this department, getting 34-, 38-, 39- and 56-yard passing plays.

Granted, Louisville still did a good overall job against the pass, as they allowed just 61 pass yards on Pitt's 28 other passing attempt. Still, Brohm wants to put a massive focus on not allowing momentum-shifting chunk plays.

"Defensively, I knew we would be tested, and we gave up some big pass plays over our head, really in man-to-man coverage, where we got to do a good job of staying on top," he said. "We talk about all the time, but we just haven't been run by like we were the last game a couple times. But we we improved and did a really good job in the second half."

While each side of the ball has a major emphasis from Brohm, there is one major component that he wants the entire team to work on: penalties.

Through the first four games of the year, Louisville has shown a massive lack of discipline in the penalty department. Their 32 penalties ranks 95th in terms of fewest in the nation, while their 302 penalty yards is the 103rd-fewest. While there weren't any massive gains wiped out by penalties in the Pitt game, there were a handful of positive plays negated in the first few games of the season.

"I think we've got to make sure we try to clean up these penalties that we've been getting, especially 15 yarders on both sides of the ball," Brohm said. "We've got to make sure we're not getting as many holding calls as we've gotten, which has been something that's got to get clean."

If Louisville can fine tune these three areas, their chances of getting back to the ACC Championship Game and potentially contending for a spot in the College Football Playoff will improve dramatically.

But first, it's all about the team directly in front of you.

Virginia will be marching into L&N Stadium with a ton of momentum on their side. Sporting one of the top offenses in the ACC, the Cavaliers recently toppled then-No. 8 Florida State in double overtime last Friday.

While the Cardinals are the clear betting favorite, since joining the ACC, the Hoos have always given them a tough battle. Brohm knows that this Saturday at 3:30 p.m. EST will not be any different.

“I think we’re excited to get back home and play a ranked opponent who is playing really good in Virginia," he said. "Definitely a team that has played really good football through five games. They’re talented. They’ve been battle-tested. They’ve gotten better each and every year. Our last two years against them, we’ve had to come from behind in both games to find a way to win. This team is playing very sharp and very crisp. We’ll have our work cut out for us"

More Cardinals Stories