Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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34 OCT. 7, 2023 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED GAME PREVIEW: LOUISVILLE BY JACK SOBLE A t first glance, Purdue wasn't a team to be feared from 2017 to 2022. The Boilermakers made four bowl games in six years, reached nine wins once and made the Big Ten Championship Game in 2022. Typical, run-of-the-mill good-but- not-great Midwest, Power Five football program. Under the surface, though, the best teams in the Big Ten had a good reason to be wary of Jeff Brohm. Brohm, now the coach at his alma mater and in his hometown of Louis- ville, Ky., had a knack for taking down top-three teams during his time at Purdue. He did it three times: once in 2018 against No. 2 Ohio State and twice in 2021 against No. 2 Iowa and No. 3 Michigan State. On four more occa- sions, Brohm beat ranked opponents outside the top three with unranked Boilermaker squads. He'll have his first shot at a premier program with his new team when Lou- isville hosts Notre Dame on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. ET. The Cardinals are excited about what Brohm brings to the table in an improving ACC. "All the positivity now is because we haven't lost a game yet," Brohm told ES- PN's David Hale in August. "I've been around some good days here, and there's been tremendous fan support at all lev- els when you're doing great things. We want to get that going as fast as we can." COACHING WITH NOTHING TO LOSE With a victory over Duke in Week 5, Notre Dame would enter Louisville week with College Football Playoff hopes intact. The Irish would not be the first team whose championship aspira- tions Brohm destroyed. In his second year as the head coach in West Lafayette, Brohm started 0-3 but picked up his first ranked win over No. 23 Boston College in Week 4. Two more wins followed, and on Oct. 21, 2018 — backed by the inspiring story of 20-year-old cancer patient and de- voted Purdue fan Tyler Trent, who sadly passed away in 2019 — Purdue ran an undefeated Ohio State team out of the building. The Boilermakers scored 28 points in the fourth quarter, defeating the Buck- eyes 49-20. Ohio State ran the table af- terward, but the College Football Playoff Committee couldn't forgive the big loss. "Just a great performance. I tell you what, I don't have anything negative to say," Brohm said after the game, per the Associated Press. "We came in and played aggressive and I think you have to play aggressive against these guys." Ohio State didn't have any answers. The Ringer's Rodger Sherman came out with a headline that night that read, "It's not officially college football sea- son until Ohio State gets wrecked by Purdue." "I'm very surprised. I thought we had a good week of work," then-Buckeyes head coach Urban Meyer said. "The glaring shortcomings we had were ex- posed." Three years later, the "Spoilermak- ers" were at it again. Against a 6-0 Iowa team, Purdue intercepted Iowa quar- terback Spencer Petras 4 times and won 24-7. Four weeks after that, 8-0 Michi- gan State had just beaten No. 6 Michi- gan and had seemingly positioned itself well to fight Ohio State in late Novem- ber for a spot in the Big Ten Champion- ship Game. Not so fast. Purdue quarterback Aidan O'Connell threw for 536 yards, 217 to No. 1 wide receiver David Bell, and held on for a 40-29 win. For this upset, Brohm broke out a trick play. It wasn't his first, but it was his most famous as a coach. O'Connell handed off to wide receiver Jackson Anthrop, who flipped it on the re- verse to fellow wideout Milton Wright. Facts & Figures NOTRE DAME AT LOUISVILLE Date: Oct. 7, 2023 Site: L&N Federal Credit Union Stadium at Louisville, Ky. Kickoff: 7:30 p.m. Television/streaming: ABC/ESPN+ Radio: This game can be heard on Notre Dame IMG affiliates. Series facts: Notre Dame is 2-1 all time against Louisville. The Irish lost the first meeting 31-28 in 2014, but they won 35-17 in 2019 and 12-7 in 2020. Head coaches: Louisville — Jeff Brohm (5-0, first season); Notre Dame — Marcus Freeman (14-6, second season). Noting Louisville: Brohm, now in his 10th season as a college head coach (previously with Western Kentucky and Purdue), has a career record of 71-44 … The Cardinals entered Week 5 ranked No. 9 nationally in scoring offense (43.0 points per game) and tied for 39th in scoring defense (19.0) … Lou- isville beat current Notre Dame quarterback Sam Hartman 48-21 last season when Hartman played for Wake Forest … Louisville is tied for No. 6 in the nation red zone defense, allowing just 5 touchdowns in 9 attempts … The Cardinals had three players taken in 2023 NFL Draft: edge rushers YaYa Diaby (third round) and Yasir Abdullah (fifth), along with defensive back Kei'Trel Clark (sixth) … Louisville has been bowl eligible every year since 2010 except 2018 under Bobby Petrino and 2020 under Scott Satterfield … The Cardinals converted 5 of 6 fourth downs through Week 4, tied with Central Michigan for seventh- best percentage in the country (.833) … Louisville is No. 8 nationally in team yards per rush with 6.01. BEWARE OF BROHM First-year coach Jeff Brohm brings resume of knocking off top teams to Louisville