Louisville's Jeff Brohm Looking Forward to 'Great Opportunity' to Compete in Boca Raton Bowl

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The Louisville football program might have played their way out of contending for the ACC Championship Game or perhaps a spot in the College Football Playoff, but they still have a solid bowl destination to end their 2025 season.

On Sunday, the Cardinals officially learned their bowl destination, and they will be heading to the Sunshine State for Christmas Eve Eve. Louisville was picked to play in the Boca Raton Bowl, where they will square off with Toledo.

Typically, the Boca Raton Bowl is not an option for ACC schools, as their tie-ins are exclusively with the Group of Five conferences. But with Notre Dame holding up the ACC's bowl selection process (and eventually deciding not to play in a bowl at all), a fight between the ACC's top bowls on who gets Clemson, and a handful of other schools across other conferences opting out of bowls as well, it created a domino effect that eventually ended with Louisville getting a bowl they otherwise wouldn't be in the running for.

But regardless of circumstances, Louisville's Jeff Brohm is excited to head to his third bowl game as the head coach of his alma mater - especially one that resides in South Florida.

"We're excited to go to a great destination," Brohm said Sunday. "We get to play good Toledo football team. I know it'll be a lot of fun. I know you guys will do a great job. We're looking forward to get down there, and just having a great time, and playing some competitive football."

While some might shrug Toledo off simply because they are a MAC school, they are actually one of the better schools in the Group of Five. They rank 3rd and 4th in the FBS in total and scoring defense, respectively, boast a top-40 offense, and had 17 players named as All-MAC selections - including seven to the First-Team.

The game itself figures to be a competitive one, and Brohm certainly looks forward to that aspect. But on top of that, he's also excited for the chance to use this game to get a head start for the 2026 season.

For every team that makes a bowl, the NCAA allots them additional practice sessions. Specifically, a maximum of four hours per day and 20 hours per week in the days leading up to your bowl, which usually equates to around 15 individual practice sessions.

For context, both spring ball and fall camp across the sport also consist of 15 practice sessions. For players that have the ability to return for next season, essentially getting a third camp-style setting can prove to be a valuable developmental aspect.

"I think it'll be a great opportunity to get back to work on football, and practice some of our young guys that will be back next year," Brohm said. "For us, we had two bye weeks early, and then a long stretch of games. We had some injuries, and guys get bumps and bruises, so we gave them a break after our last game. Let them concentrate on getting healed up, and concentrate on school and their finals.

"This week we'll get back at it. I think it'll be exciting time to just get back to work. Hopefully get a lot of work in for some younger players, and get them not only running for the bowl game, but also for next year."

Of course, you can practice all you want, but there are no reps quite like in-game reps. Given how hard Louisville was bitten by the injury biug towards the end of the regular season, on top of the fact that there could be some to-be-announced transfer portal defections, it will give younger and less experiences players a chance to get meaningful run in an actual game.

That being said, Brohm still wants to win and try and earn Louisville's ninth win of the season. He's all for getting younger guys in-game reps, but if he has his go-to playmakers at his disposal as well, he's certainly going to utilize them.

"We're going to definitely take advantage of practice," Brohm said. "It's of a lot of valuable time to give our young players repetitions, and throw them in the fire, so to speak, in practice as much as we can.

"When it gets to the game, we will have some new pieces and some new faces. But in the end, once we get close to the game, the goal will be to win the game. Whoever we have available to play, that can help us win, they will be out there participating. Will there be at least a handful of new faces? Probably so. But we are going to try hard to win the football game."

Kickoff against the Rockets is set for Tuesday, Dec. 23 at 2:00 p.m. EST from Flagler Credit Union Stadium in Boca Raton, Fla.

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