What Jeff Brohm had to say after Louisville football snapped its losing streak to Kentucky

For the first time since 2017, Louisville football has scored a victory over Kentucky.

The Cardinals thoroughly dominated the Cats on Saturday afternoon at Kroger Field in Lexington, winning by a decisive 41-14 score.

U of L led 20-0 at halftime, and even that score didn’t do justice to how dominant the visiting Cardinals were to begin the game. The second half brought more of the same, as the Cardinals finished with 358 total rushing yards.

Louisville’s defense had five takeaways against the Kentucky offense — two fumble recoveries and three interceptions — and only allowed 13 total first downs to UK.

The headline performers for the visiting Cardinals were running backs Isaac Brown (26 carries for 178 rushing yards and two touchdowns) and Duke Watson (six carries for 104 rushing yards and two touchdowns).

Louisville (8-4 overall and 5-3 in ACC games) snapped a five-game losing streak to Kentucky (4-8 overall and 1-7 in the SEC) with Saturday’s lopsided result.

Afterward, Louisville head coach Jeff Brohm met with media members at Kroger Field and spoke about U of L’s big victory, what securing control of the Governor’s Cup means and more ahead of the Cardinals’ postseason bowl trip.

Here’s everything that Brohm said.

Opening statement:

… Proud of our guys, we’ve worked through a little adversity during the season, without question, but that’s part of it. It’s going to be part of it every year. You try to be as clean as you possibly can, but football is football, you play good teams and things are going to happen.

So our guys hung together, they stuck together, they worked hard. Our coaches continue to work through things and we had a solid finish today to finally get the Governor’s Cup back and represent our university and bring it back to our fans. It’s really a great day for us and we’re really happy to get this victory.

Question about what it means to win the Governor’s Cup over UK.

Well, it’s huge. I’m fully aware of this rivalry and what it means to the fan base and to the university. It’s two really good programs and we came ready to play. I thought that our guys wanted it. We worked really hard, we knew the importance of finishing the season. We talked about finishing as strong as we could and that every game matters.

To come through on the road in a pretty convincing fashion, it was a really good win.

Question about Louisville’s success running the ball on Kentucky.

Well, watching them on film, it’s a really good defense. For a team that try and throw the ball at them, they’re really good. They defend things, they walk out over your slot receivers. In my opinion, you’re going to have to run the ball to keep them honest.

A lot of teams haven’t done well when they try to throw a little bit. We wanted to establish the run. We’ve got good runners. Our quarterback got us in the right plays when we needed to check here and there. Then, we got huge plays. When you can take some pressure off the passing game … It really makes the team, things go much better.

So, just a great rushing attack today. Credit to our running backs. Without question Isaac’s tremendous and Duke’s a tremendous young running back. Our other guys run hard. The O-line really works hard. Our tight ends have done a great job blocking. So we’re really proud of coming out with a rushing total like that for sure.

Question about continuing the strong start to the game into the second half.

I think this team is very mature. We’ve handled some close losses the right way. It’s no fun, but they’re going to happen. Everybody, pretty much every year, loses games. You have to be able to handle it and bounce back as fast as you can. I think our guys work really hard.

I’d love to have some of the close losses back, but at the same time we won some close games as well. So that happens. You’ve got to continue to fight through.

But to finish the season with two really convincing wins where all three segments played well and we were much cleaner, really feels rewarding and it’s a really good way to go out.

Question about freshman running back Isaac Brown.

Well, he’s a special player without question. His future is unbelievably bright. The best thing about him is he works. The guy hasn’t missed a rep of practice, runs hard, he never complains. There’s nothing ever wrong. He just comes to work.

For a freshman running back to do that, it’s more than impressive. I wanted to start him off slow this year, I didn’t want to throw a lot at him. I didn’t want to ruin his confidence picking up blitzes, picking up linebackers and safeties. Protecting the ball and being good in the passing game is not easy. There’s a lot of things that go into that, and this guy just continues to shine every week. It’s just impressive to watch and I’m proud of him and he represents he and his family very well.

Just a tremendous young man. Duke Watson is another young running back that ran well also. He just runs really hard. He’s got a bright future. So, two really great young men that work their butt off all year to get to this point.

Question about how Louisville stayed within itself play calling wise against UK.

Passing the ball is what we love to do, but at the same time you want to take what they’re giving you. I think being able to do both when you need to is very important, and when you have a lead and you can work the clock and you can take some pressure off the defense, you don’t want to get too pass happy.

We were able to sustain some long drives. We were able to get some turnovers. And that equals wins. There will be some games where we’re down and the game’s close and we’ve got to air the thing out. I just think you’ve got to be good at both in order to win at the highest level. We’re continuing to work to be as good as we can be.

But to establish a run game like that against a solid defense, very, very proud of our team.

Question about Louisville’s defense forcing five Kentucky turnovers, and Ramon Puryear scoring another defensive touchdown.

Well, Ramon has been outstanding from day one with us. He just works well, wants to win, is a great teammate, we can move him around. He’s played multiple positions. He can play it all.

He’s always opportunistic, at the right place at the right time. Our defense is really starting to put things together. And I think we kind of just got them in the right position, maybe simplified a few things and made less adjustments. When they’re doing what they’re doing, when the ball’s snapped and in position, I think we can make more plays than not.

I just think we’ve got to continue to tweak that and make sure we become as dominant as we can, but it’s important, if you want to be a championship team, playing great defense and running the ball is very important. If you have the passing game and all the extra stuff, it’s even better.

Question about the impact of Louisville defensive back Tamarion McDonald in the game.

Well, he brings a lot of experience. He transferred to us. He’s been a great teammate, plays really hard, in the beginning we were rotating safeties so he wasn’t playing the entire game, trying to keep guys fresh.

Then as the season went on, we didn’t have many guys to rotate so (he would play) the entire game. But, I think he’s a guy that can play at the next level. He understands football, he’s played a lot of it. He’s very smart. I just think joining a new team isn’t always easy, but he fit in and jelled right away. He’s been a great teammate.

Question about what Jeff Brohm’s message was to his defense during moments in the game.

Well, the main things we talked about was getting lined up and being set and being in position. (We talked about) not giving up any Go routes, just giving a little cushion on the outside, because that’s what they’re going to do, they’re going to throw it over our heads.

We talked about tackling and everybody tackling, with your eyes, with your shoulders, with your arms, with you body. Not tackling too low and going for the ankles, but tackle solid, and find and swarm to the ball.

I think when you do that, that’s when you get extra arms and hands on the ball and you can knock things out and we did a good job of keeping the ball inside and trying not to let it get to the outside much, and then when it gets inside that’s when you get multiple people that can get it and knock it out. I thought for the most part we did a good job of that.

Question about Tyler Shough’s legacy at Louisville.

Well, he’s a veteran and a great leader and (will be) remembered as somebody who led us to a lot of great victories. He did his part, very unselfish, he wanted to prove he could last the whole season being healthy. And I think when you put a good running game around him and a solid defense, you don’t ask him to throw it every play, you don’t ask him to do quarterback runs 10 times a game, you can keep him healthy.

That’s what he’s going to have to do at the next level. And they’ll do that for him as well in the same type of system. So I think he fits it well. He understands defenses, gets us in the right play when something maybe needs to be changed. He doesn’t do anything silly. He takes care of the football, he can throw the football accurately.

So I just think he’s a big-time player that really has run our offense very well. He’s done everything we’ve asked, whether that’s throw the ball a lot or hand the ball off, he’s been great. Very good at both.

Question about what the upcoming weeks will be like for Louisville before its bowl game.

Well, we’re going to take a little break first. I know I’m tired, I’m sure our players are. You know what, when you grind through the season and you have some adversity and some things, which will happen every year, you know it wears on you. You fight through it, you’ve got to work at it.

I told the family on Thanksgiving, ‘I’m staying at home. I’ve got work to do.’ I’ll enjoy your company for Christmas.’ You know what, that’s what you’ve got to do, and it’s important that you put in everything you can to win. It means something to you, your players, your coaches.

We wanted to win this game, it meant a lot to us. We wanted to put the work in, we wanted to make sure when the game’s over we can look in the mirror and say ‘We’ve done everything we’ve could.’

Question about Isaac Brown’s future at Louisville and if Jeff Brohm expects an NIL bidding war for Brown.

I think we’re positioned very good. He’s a great player, he’s done a tremendous job. I know he wants to be back and I definitely foresee him being back, being a great player for us next year for sure.

This story was originally published November 30, 2024 at 5:21 PM.

Cameron Drummond

Lexington Herald-Leader

859-242-5257

Cameron Drummond works as a sports reporter for the Lexington Herald-Leader with a focus on Kentucky men’s basketball recruiting and the UK men’s basketball team, horse racing, soccer and other sports in Central Kentucky. Drummond is a second-generation American who was born and raised in Texas, before graduating from Indiana University. He is a fluent Spanish speaker who previously worked as a community news reporter in Austin, Texas. Support my work with a digital subscription