Jack Plummer Shows Improvement, Needs to Work on Conviction with Throws

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - One of the biggest storylines from the Louisville football program's season-opener against Georgia Tech was their inconsistency in the passing game. Quarterback Jack Plummer had a heightened case of first game nerves and jitters, leading him to be offline on several throws in the first half.

In the first half of that matchup, Plummer completed just three of his first 10 attempts, and went only 8-of-17 for 90 yards with a touchdown and an interception. He did finish the game going 18-of-31 for 247 yards and three touchdowns plus an interception, and Louisville did take down the Yellow Jackets 39-34, but his incredibly shaky first half played a large role in the Cardinals going down 28-13 at the half.

When Plummer took the field for Louisville's second game of the season and home opener against Murray State, the 6-foot-5, 215-pound signal caller looked much more comfortable than he had the previous week.

"I thought Jack made improvement from week one to week two," head coach Jeff Brohm said. "I thought he had a tremendous week of practice. We've worked on a lot of small things that I think helped him."

Granted, the Cardinals were facing an FCS squad, so it's easy to get out any nerves or jitters one may have, but Plummer did take a noticeable step forward with his efficiency in the 56-0 win over the Racers. He completed 16 of his 22 attempts for a 73.0 percent completion rate, throwing for 247 yards and a touchdown to Jamari Thrash.

But as anyone who watched the game knows, while the final stat line suggests that Plummer also took a big step forward in terms of his accuracy, that wasn't necessarily the case. While his actual decision making seemed to improve, his decisiveness in said throws left some to be desired.

Plummer had a handful of throws in his nine drives of work that were either delivered a tick too late, or had way too much air under them. This was the case on his first of two interceptions (second was an end-of-half Hail Mary jump ball), which was a long shot up the left sideline to Kevin Coleman Jr. that, if delivered with more conviction, should have been a touchdown. If this version of Plummer has been facing a Power Five team, he might have thrown more than two picks.

With how much the running game has thrived over the first two games of the season, getting Plummer to throw with more conviction and decisiveness - while still continuing to make the correct reads - will be tantamount for the offense moving forward.

"As you look back on this game, between a few coaching errors and things that we can get cleaned up, we're continuing to work on throwing on time and driving the football and trusting what he sees," Brohm said. "That's what we got to do. We’ve shown the ability that we can run the football, we have good running backs. We have a couple of weapons that we like on offense and some others that are continuing to improve.

"He's got to be the leader and the general of it. We need him to be efficient and to play with conviction, and to play with confidence, and trust what he sees and drive the football in there. We'll work again, specifically on a couple of things this week to make sure that we're continuing to improve there."

With another neutral-site matchup against a Power Five opponent in their own backyard on the horizon, Brohm is confident that Plummer will be able to do what his coach wants of him. Plummer's work ethic this season, and in previous seasons under Brohm, has shown him that he's willing to put the work in to get the job done.

"He's a great kid," Brohm said. "He works really hard and he wants to do well. We just have to put as much pressure on him in practice to make all these throws on time. Standing there, keeping his feet on balance and carrying that over to the game.

Louisville is set to take on Indiana at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Ind. this Saturday, Sept. 16 at 12:00 p.m. EST.

(Photo of Jack Plummer: Scott Utterback - Courier Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK)

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