Jeff Brohm at U of L would be bad news for UK — and for Jeff Brohm?

If the University of Louisville can woo alumnus Jeff Brohm away from Purdue to replace the fired Bobby Petrino as U of L head football coach, it will be an unmitigated coup for the Cardinals.

With the innovative Brohm, 47, as its football head man to go with capable new U of L men’s basketball coach Chris Mack, Louisville Athletics could — amazingly — emerge from the flames of near-constant turmoil in a better place than where it started.

Brohm at U of L would be bad for the University of Kentucky.

Whether Brohm at U of L would ultimately be good for Brohm is an interesting question.

In-state recruiting has been a slog for UK the past two years, though Mark Stoops moving recruiting ace Vince Marrow into the commonwealth has helped the Cats regain some ground with the class of 2019.

Should Brohm take the Louisville job, UK’s battle for homegrown players would become even more vexing.

First as head coach at Western Kentucky (2014-16) and now at Purdue, Brohm has been a firm believer in the quality of talent produced by Kentucky high school football.

At WKU, Brohm helped make stars of in-state players such as Anthony “Ace” Wales (Central) and Taywan Taylor (Pleasure Ridge Park).

Even after Brohm, Kentucky’s 1988 Mr. Football at Trinity High School, moved to Purdue, he kept his enthusiasm for Kentucky talent.

In his first Boilermakers signing class in 2017, Brohm inked four Kentuckians. There were five products of Kentucky high school football in Purdue’s 2018 class. Last week, Brohm and Purdue received a 2019 verbal commitment from four-star wide receiver Milton Wright of Christian Academy of Louisville.

This season as a Purdue freshman, Trinity alum Rondale Moore (82 catches, 909 yards, eight touchdowns) has become a star at wide receiver. Covington Holy Cross alumnus Derrick Barnes has made 65 tackles for the Boilermakers at linebacker. Purdue’s interceptions leader (three) is safety Kenneth Major, a former standout at Christian County.

There’s no one Louisville can realistically hire who would become the immediate presence that Brohm would be in in-state recruiting.

Whether Brohm should take the Louisville job is a classic “should I follow my head or follow my heart” question.

The Brohm family is almost as much a Louisville sports institution as the Twin Spires. Jeff Brohm’s father, Oscar, played football at U of L. So did Jeff and both his brothers, Greg and Brian.

Jeff Brohm was one of Howard Schnellenberger’s first marquee recruits at U of L. He quarterbacked the 1993 Cardinals to a 9-3 season and a Liberty Bowl win over Michigan State.

As an assistant coach, Brohm was on Petrino’s coaching staff during the 2006 season, which ended with U of L beating Wake Forest in the Orange Bowl.

Famously, even as Brohm’s coaching career has led him to various stops around the nation, he has never sold his Louisville house.

That is why U of L backers believe that, for Brohm, the pull of “coming home” will prove irresistible.

Yet, if the Purdue coach listens to his head, the homecoming could be placed on hold.

Brohm is one of the most creative offensive minds in college football. At Western Kentucky, he went 30-10 and led the Hilltoppers to two Conference USA championships.

Inheriting a dead-in-the-water Purdue program, Brohm took the Boilermakers to a winning season (7-6) and a victory over Arizona in the Foster Farms Bowl in his first season. After an 0-3 start this year, Brohm has rallied Purdue to 5-5, including a stunning 49-20 upset of then-No. 2 Ohio State.

Simply put, Brohm’s career is on an arc where he can reasonably aspire to a better job than Louisville.

Actually, he might already have one.

In August of 2017, Purdue opened a $65 million Football Performance Complex, an indication of administrative determination to return the Boilermakers to national football relevance.

Louisville is in the Atlantic Division of the ACC. To reach the league championship game, U of L must win a division that includes the top current program in the ACC, Clemson, as well as the league program with the most natural advantages, Florida State.

Conversely, Purdue competes in the Big Ten West. Ohio State, Penn State, Michigan and Michigan State all reside in the Big Ten East.

That’s why the Boilermakers’ head coaching job presently offers a more manageable path to a league title game than U of L does.

Bottom line: Jeff Brohm taking the Louisville job would be bad for Kentucky Wildcats football.

I can’t help but think it could be a bad move for Jeff Brohm, too.

Mark Story: (859) 231-3230; Twitter: @markcstory

This story was originally published November 12, 2018 at 5:20 PM.