Jeff Brohm Noncommittal on Starting Quarterback Entering Louisville's Matchup at SMU

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Not too long ago, the Louisville football program was still in the mix for both the ACC Championship and College Football Playoff. A two-game losing streak later, and a truly special season for the Cardinals is now off the table.

While a lot of factors are at play at to why Louisville now currently sits at 7-3, arguably the biggest one has been the recent play of quarterback Miller Moss. During head coach Jeff Brohm's weekly press conference on Monday, Louisville Cardinals On SI once again asked if there was a chance that someone other than Moss would take over as the starter for their upcoming game at SMU.

Brohm has developed a reputation of being a master at coach speak, so unsurprisingly, he was noncommittal regarding who would start against the Mustangs.

"Every week we're going to prepare to win the game, and whatever gives us the best chance to win, that's what we're going to do," he said. "We have no other goal other than beating SMU. We'll have packages for all of our quarterbacks. We'll put the best guy out there that will help us win, and then we'll have, hopefully, some creativity to do some different things. But without question, the goal is to win the next football game."

Joining Louisville as a transfer from USC, Moss has had and up-and-down season. While the 6-foot-2, 210-pound signal caller has completed 64.3 percent of his passes and thrown for 2,344 yards, that has come with only 11 touchdowns and seven interceptions. His QB rating of 129.52 ranks just 84 in the FBS among qualified players (75 percent of games played, 15.0 pass attempts per games).

In recent weeks, Moss' play has taken a sharp downturn. Over the last four games, he has completed only 60.8 percent of his attempts, averaged 184.5 yards per game, and had more interceptions (3) than touchdown passes (2). During the first six games, Moss completed 66.2 percent of his attempts and averaged 267.7 passing yards per game, while having nine touchdowns against four interceptions

Last week following a 29-29 overtime loss to Cal, Brohm was asked Brohm if there was a world in which he would go in a different direction at quarterback if Moss continued to struggle. While he expressed his belief in Moss, he admitted that there are contingency plans in place at the quarterback spot should the need to implement them arise.

"We believe in Miller, and we believe in all of our quarterbacks," he said. "We'll always have a plan ready for all of them, at some point in different aspects, which we've done before. At the same time, we just got to continue to work through these things, and be as effective as we can. Without question, there's always a plan to help us win. So we'll have that ready to go."

In that game against the Golden Bears, Moss went 20-of-38 for 203 yards and an interception. It was evident as the game went on that Brohm didn't have trust in Moss to stretch the ball vertically down the field. The same tendencies occurred this past weekend in a 20-19 loss to Clemson, and Moss finished going 19-of-27 for 212 yards.

After that game against the Tigers, Moss raised some eyebrows in the postgame press conference when asked about the 10 penalties committed by the Cardinals, saying it was a "cultural" issue.

"That's obviously something that we have to work on," he said. "I don't think something like that gets fixed week to week. I think that's that's a cultural thing and an offseason thing that that's going to need to be addressed."

If Brohm does opt to bench Moss, he has two options to go with in Brady Allen and Deuce Adams. Both have seen action in four games, and the two are listed as co-backups on the depth chart.

Allen, a redshirt junior, has been the first backup to enter the game when Louisville has gotten to the point where they empty the benches in blowouts. However, Adams, a redshirt freshman who is the most mobile QB on the roster, has been incorporated into a handful of read option and wildcat looks. Allen has gone 6-of-9 for 69 yards and a touchdown this season, while Adams is 3-of-4 for 18 yards - but also has five rushes for 11 yards.

Kickoff between Louisville and SMU is set for 12:00 p.m. EST on Saturday, Nov. 22 from Gerald J. Ford Stadium in Dallas, Texas.

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