Jeff Brohm, Louisville Focusing on 'One Game Season' Mentality After 3-0 Start

The Cardinals might be off to an undefeated start to their season, but they are continuing to take it just one game at a time, and aren't getting too high on themselves or looking past any opponent in front of them.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The Louisville football program is already a quarter of the way through their 2023 campaign, and so far, they have yet to receive a blemish on their win/loss record for the season.

While the competition to start the year hasn't exactly been chock-full of world beaters, and there have already been times where victory seemed far from assured, the Cardinals are one of just 38 teams in FBS football - which consists of 133 members - who have yet to suffer a loss through the first three weeks of the 2023 college football season.

For the fans of the program, the dream of a truly special season - whether that involves double digit wins, an ACC Championship berth or something even loftier such as undefeated season and run at the national championship - is still very much alive and well.

However, first year head coach Jeff Brohm is not in this same headspace. Sure, he's happy with the fact that Louisville is currently undefeated with wins over Georgia Tech, Murray State and Indiana, but he isn't dwelling on past success and is operating with a "one game season" mentality.

"Well, we're happy that we found a way to win," Brohm said in his weekly press conference. "That's every week. We try to narrow down to a one game season, and not worry about anything else. Whether you win or lose, you got to come back the next week and find a way to win.

"It's just a matter of, sometimes after a win, are you going to relax too much and pat yourself on the back? Or are you going to be hungry and find a way to get better? After a loss, are you going to hang your head and feel sorry for yourself? Or are you going to work hard to find a way to get better? We have to be hungry this week, and understand that in order to win conference football games, we have to try to play our best football every week and make improvements."

While Louisville is still among the undefeated ranks, improvements in various departments moving forward are certainly in order, particularly with consistency. The offense might be the No. 9 statistical unit in football through the first three weeks of the season with a 528.7 yard average, but there have been times - such as the second half against Indiana - where it can't get going at all. Then on defense, while it is 35th in scoring with only 16.0 points allowed per game, 42 of their 48 points given up have come in just two quarters of play.

But that being said, Louisville has so far not shown a tendency to lie down when the going gets tough. When their backs are against the wall and plays absolutely have to be made to ensure a victory, the Cardinals have gone out in done it.

"I think our guys really work hard," Brohm said. "They're willing to fight and scrap, and find a way to win. They're not afraid to look in the mirror after every game, point the finger at ourselves first, and figure out what we can fix to get better. They play to the end.

"Without question, nothing has been perfect. It normally is not. But these guys understand what it takes to win. When you're playing really good football teams, you can try to have a perfect game, and make all the plays and be clean, but that's really probably not going to happen. The other team is good too, and they're well coached. They're going to make plays as well. We have to find ways to make a few more plays than them, and score a few more points than them."

Brohm partially attributes Louisville's early success to their grounded mindset: one where the Cardinals don't get too fixated on prior games whether it was a win or loss, and don't look past the opponent right in front of them to potentially bigger games. He knows first-hand just how important this aspect is.

During his second and final season as the quarterbacks coach at Illinois in 2011, the Fighting Illini got off to a 6-0 start and ranked as high as the No. 19 team in the country, only to drop their next six games. Last season as the head coach at Purdue, the Boilermakers started with a 1-2 record before winning seven of their next nine to clinch a berth in the Big Ten Championship game.

"For a player, you can't look down the road. You're going to get distracted, you're gonna either feel too good about where you could be going because you played a good game, or you're going to feel really bad and can really affect your work ethic. Because of that, you just have to erase the last game and previous games. Obviously you make corrections, but you got to work hard to win."

The notion of not looking past an opponent is certainly going to get put to the test this week with Boston College coming to town. While the Eagles gave No. 3 Florida State an upset scare this past weekend, BC opened up their season with a home overtime loss to Northern Illinois and a victory over FCS foe Holy Cross that was won by just a field goal.

Fortunately, Brohm's message of staying grounded, having a hunger to improve and maintaining lack of complacency certainly seems to have resonated with the Cardinals ahead of their matchup with Boston College at L&N Stadium.

"For us, especially in our group, it's always one game at a time," offensive tackle Eric Miller said. "We enjoy a win for 24 hours, and then we're on to Boston College, who took a really, really good Florida State team right down to the wire. That grabs everyone's attention real fast, especially in the locker room.

"We have a good group of leaders, who kind of take control the team and say, 'Hey, it's a one game season,' like coach Brohm has been saying this whole season. It's not too hard for us to be focused, and to see that this is a really, really good Boston College team, especially defensively."

Kickoff against the Eagles is set for Saturday, Sept. 23 at 3:30 p.m. EST.

(Photo of Louisville Players: Trevor Ruszkowski - USA TODAY Sports)

You can follow Louisville Report for future coverage by liking us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram:

Facebook - @LouisvilleReport
Twitter - @UofLReport
Instagram - @louisville_report

You can also follow Deputy Editor Matthew McGavic at @Matt_McGavic on Twitter