Louisville heads into Saturday’s trip to NC State carrying more than just the usual road-game baggage. Jeff Brohm’s Monday press conference made that clear. The Cardinals are dealing with a handful of issues at once, and the questions are starting to stack up: penalties, run defense, giving up shots over the top, offensive line consistency, and now the possibility that the starting quarterback situation may not be settled for Carter-Finley Stadium.
Brohm’s team is coming off the kind of result that tends to raise eyebrows. After beating ranked SMU, Louisville turned around and lost to Wake Forest. Brohm said that sort of follow-up has a simple explanation in his view: conference play does not leave much room to exhale.
"I'd say it's consistent because every team is good in our conference, and everywhere I've been before, every team we've gone against the next week is good," Brohm said. "That's college football. As a team, we know that every conference game and Power Four opponent is going to be a tough contest."
He added that Louisville has to bring "hard, tough, and clean football" and cut down on mistakes.
The Cardinals now face their first true road test of the season, and Brohm knows Carter-Finley can make life difficult. Loud surroundings can complicate everything from play-calling to the snap count, and he said his offense has to keep things manageable when communication gets messy.
"You have to be able to run simple things effectively," Brohm said. "When communication gets tough, the simple calls have to come into play.
You have to know it and understand it. The snap count will be to their advantage, so we've got to be able to handle the noise and not have false starts and silly penalties.
We've got to get everything communicated on offense so that we're all on the same page.
That challenge gets bigger if Louisville is operating without its star quarterback. Brohm added another concern on Monday when he was asked about who will start at QB against NC State.
The uncertainty comes on top of a growing list of issues the Cardinals have already been trying to clean up. That includes the 15-yard penalties, trouble stopping the run inside, problems defending the deep ball, and uneven play up front on the offensive line.
Defensively, the safety group is also in a tough spot. Antonio Watts is out for the season, and Koen Entringer missed the Wake Forest game as well. Brohm said both absences have been felt.
"Those two things probably hurt us," Brohm said during his press conference.
Entringer’s status for Saturday is still up in the air, and Brohm said he wasn't "super optimistic" about his availability. That means others in the room may have to absorb more responsibility.
"The other guy's got to be ready to go and step up," Brohm said. "And there's some mistakes that we have to get better at there.
The first goal is to stop the run. We need to make sure we're doing a much better job of stopping the run and doing everything in our power to get that done.
And then we can't give up big plays in the passing game. If you're able to do those two things, you're going to have a chance."
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Louisville Suddenly Has A Troubling QB Question Before A Key Road Test
Louisvilles quarterback picture got a lot murkier heading into a tricky road trip after Jeff Brohm said Lincoln Kienholz is dealing with an unspecified injury. Kienholz was hurt late in the win over Wake Forest, and Brohm now says he will be a game-time decision for the trip to North Carolina State, leaving the Cardinals to sort through an important position on short notice.
If Kienholz cant go, Louisville does at least have some options in Briggs Cherry and Davin Wydner, but the timing is less than ideal for a team trying to keep its momentum intact. Road games can expose any uncertainty under center, and with the status still unsettled, the Cardinals are suddenly waiting on one of the biggest decisions of the week before they even get to kickoff. [Read more 🡒]
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Mitchells stock is only going to keep rising, and Louisville has made sure it stays in the mix by maintaining steady contact and leaning on the appeal of being close to home. He already has multiple offers and a growing list of programs involved, which is why this recruitment feels important even this early - if the Cardinals want to land a headline local prospect, they have to stay aggressive now rather than wait for the battle to fully form later. [Read more 🡒]