by To say Louisville’s season was “underwhelming” would be insanely foolish. Jeff Brohm led an above average (if that) program to 10 wins in Year 1, highlighted by an ACC runner-up finish. There’s only about a dozen coaches across the country that could pull that off.
However, Louisville’s loss to unranked USC on Wednesday night wrote a rather bad ending to the 2023 UL story as Brohm’s squad went from 10-1 and arguably being a CFP sleeper to completely bottoming out. Last night put the icing on the cake.
As many of you either watched or heard, USC backup QB Miller Moss had the game of his life on national television, slicing up one of the better defenses in college football like it was butter en route to a 42-28 beatdown over the Cardinal. Whether or not a lack of motivation was a key factor, Louisville had nine less opt outs than the Trojans, including just two key guys on defense (Kameron Wilson and Josh Minkins), and was 7.5-point favorites.
QB Jack Plummer, who many Card fans are jumping for joy over his departure, was exposed yet again and this offense actually made USC’s defense look… decent.
This begs the question: how did these guys even make the ACC title game?
While it’s a bad wrinkle for the conference, Louisville really wasn’t good outside of it:
- Beat 3-9 Indiana by 7 pts.
- Lost to 7-5 Kentucky (8th in SEC) by 7 pts. on its home turf
- Lost to USC, who had 20 opt outs, by 14 pts.
I get it, I may be coming off a little harsh, but it’s objective of me to point this out.
UL was a cool story that simply had a sour ending. Everything I said doesn’t negate the fact that Brohm has this team on the come-up, especially with a top five transfer portal class coming in. But it just makes you wonder whether or not the Cards should be labeled as *dare I say* frauds … and perhaps the biggest ones of the 2023 season for that matter.