Jeff Brohm, Louisville Take Full Advantage of Second Bye Week

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - We might be approaching the halfway point of the 2025 season, but the Louisville football program is already coming off of the final bye week of the year.

Game No. 6 - a massive primetime showdown at No. 2 Miami - is on tap for this Friday at 7:00 p.m., and Louisville has had some extra time to get ready for it. Their second bye week of the season was this past weekend, exactly one month removed from their first bye week - which was just three weeks into the season.

While Louisville will have to play in seven consecutive weeks to end the regular season, and have had to sit in their 30-27 overtime home loss to Virginia for an extra week, getting their second bye week this early is probably for the best. And it's not simply because it gives them more time to prepare for the best team in the ACC.

The Cardinals might have just one blemish on their overall record at 4-1, but anyone who's watched Louisville this season knows that they haven't played their cleanest football up to this point. Like they did during the first bye week, head coach Jeff Brohm and his team took full advantage of the second off week to try and correct issues that continue to arise.

Primarily, Brohm and Co. spent the off week continuing to try and iron out the various problems on the offensive side of the ball. Through the first five games of the year, while Louisville's 36.0 points per game ranks 29th in the FBS, their 404.0 yards per game is 61st.

“I think on offense we have got to clean a lot of things up," Brohm said. "We want to make sure we’re not giving the other team points. You can’t make silly turnovers and silly mistakes, which we’ve had. I think we have to have less negative plays, which unfortunately has happened a little too much this year. That’s a combination of a lot of things. ... We just have to play much more efficient in our play without giving the team points, to a certain degree."

The single-biggest issue on this side of the line of scrimmage has undoubtedly been the offensive line. Their 2.60 sacks allowed per game ranks 111th in the FBS, while their 6.40 tackles for loss allowed is 115th. The advanced stats paint a similarly bleak picture, as Louisville's 57.0 pass block team grade on Pro Football Focus is 105th, and their 51.7 run blocking grade is 117th.

There is some good news here. Trevonte Sylvester, who missed the first three games of the year due to illness, has started to get his weight back up and slowly get ingrained back into the rotation. But Brohm knows that getting Sylvester back isn't going to fix the O-Line's issues, and this unit needs to keep making progress.

"We’ve got to be able to block movement and blitzes to a certain degree, and be able to handle that and not panic and whiff so to speak at times," he said. "I think that we’ve adjusted a few things up front that I think if we have to do, we’ll try to do, but at the same time we have to play better.

"Trevonte [Sylvester] is back. He’s been back. He’s not at the weight he’s played at before so that’s a concern. We’ve got to continue to work through that. All of us need to play better and we have to have the best plan to do that. I think that as long as we play hard, we play physical, we play fast, we’ll have a chance, but we have to make strides there.”

The O-line isn't the only offensive unit that needed to make strides during the bye week, as starting quarterback Miller Moss has certainly had his ups an downs. While he has completed 67.0 percent of his throws for 1,358 yards and seven touchdowns, that has also come with four interceptions and two fumbles.

While Moss has mostly done his job when it comes to keeping the offense on schedule, he also has produced way too many bad decisions that you wouldn't expect from a fifth-year senior. Fortunately, Moss has taken this to heart, and used to off week to improve his decision making.

"I think he's a very resilient guy," offensive coordinator Brian Brohm said of Moss. "Things don't bother him very much. I thought he did a good job of rebounding from a negative play. Obviously, we want to try to eliminate all those negative plays and get those out of there, because aside from the negative plays, I think he's playing some really good football. There's a lot of positive things to point to. The off week's been good, just to settle back down, be able to go through things a little bit slower, talk through some things, and it's been a good week."

As far as defense and special teams goes, Louisville has done a fantastic job on both fronts up to this point in the season. The Cardinals' 262.0 yards allowed per game leads the ACC and is 12th in the nation, while their kickoff and punt return marks - thanks mainly to Caullin Lacy - are both top-20 in the FBS. While these two areas didn't receive as much attention during the bye, Brohm did make sure both front continued to get good work in during practice.

"I think on defense, we have done a lot of really good things. We’ve got to be able to create pressure on the quarterback, we’ve got to get some turnovers, we can’t give up the big scramble, and then we have to be able to execute in key situations," he said. "On special teams, I think that Caullin [Lacy] is a weapon, but we’ve got to find ways to get him space and then we’ve just got to be able to gain an edge in that in some capacity.”

Of course, the off week allowed Louisville to continue healing up. While the offensive line's inability to produce consistent rushing lanes has played a large role in the Cardinals averaging just 115.0 rushing yards per game (112th in FBS), both Isaac Brown and Duke Watson have been dealing with nagging lower body injuries. Not to mention that Keyjuan Brown has missed some time as well.

Additionally, it has allowed the Cardinals' staff to do some extra scouting of future opponents. They've even used this time watching film - in both the college and pro ranks - to jot down some plays and concepts that they might want to try out themselves.

"It's a good opportunity to try to incorporate some new things halfway through the season," Brian Brohm said. "Get a few new wrinkles that you can steal from some people. It's good to be able to sit back and watch some football, and learn from it."

Most importantly, the actual players themselves have been fully dedicated to betting themselves during the past bye week. Not only has the extra time to sit on the Virginia loss provided them with some extra motivation, but they know that there is still plenty to play for this season.

"It sets a fire under you," linebacker Kalib Perry said. "We know that everything's still on the table for us, but it's a reality check. Everybody loses. Someone wins and loses every week. We had a loss, but that doesn't mean that we can't accomplish everything that we want for us this season. We just got to continue to grow every week, bye week or not."

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