The first quarter had all the makings of a mess for Louisville. Florida State was up 14-0, driving again, and the mood around the stadium had turned sour fast.
Louisville had already watched one drive die after a failed fourth-down try and another end with a missed 54-yard field goal that drifted just right. The reaction was loud and ugly, with fans wondering where the promise of this season had gone.
Then came the turn.
With Florida State threatening to add more points from the 2-yard line, Mike Norvell chose to go for the touchdown instead of the field goal. Louisville stuffed it, and that stop cracked the game open. One play later, Isaac Brown ripped off a 97-yard touchdown run, following a hole created by the left side of the Louisville offensive line and jolting the whole place back to life.
That run didn’t just change the score. It changed the feel of the night, and maybe the feel of Louisville’s season.
Brown had not looked like the same back fans had grown used to seeing in 2024 and 2025. His yardage totals this year had been modest - 36 against Ole Miss, 61 against Villanova, 67 against SMU, 33 against Wake Forest - and even after a big run against NC State, questions still lingered about whether he and the run game were truly back.
Against Florida State, Louisville answered them in a hurry.
Marquise Davis joined the surge on the ground, and Jeff Brohm said after the game, "the offensive line could feel it popping in there." From there, Louisville kept hammering Florida State until the game broke wide open.
Lincoln Kienholz added two rushing touchdowns to open the third quarter and push the Cards ahead 28-14. At the start of the fourth, with "Joker & The Thief" blaring and the stadium fully unhinged, a run-heavy march ended with Braxton Jennings scoring from 44 yards out.
Isaac Brown put the final stamp on it with a 68-yard touchdown run, all on the ground.
By the time Louisville knelt out the clock, it had piled up more than 400 rushing yards before the final three kneel-downs. The program has only topped 400 on the ground eight times in school history, and this finished as the ninth-best rushing performance ever at 397 yards.
The defense did its part, too, especially after a rough start. Louisville had been on the field for 90 snaps against NC State, and Florida State’s first three drives alone consumed 33 plays.
That was a lot of wear and tear, and early on it looked like the Cardinals might never get off the field. But after Florida State failed on fourth down in the second quarter, Louisville flipped the script and strung together five straight punts.
Over the final eight Florida State possessions, the Cardinals produced three three-and-outs and an interception. The Seminoles managed only six points the rest of the way. After those first three drives, Florida State’s offense had just eight plays of 10 or more yards, and none of them ended in the end zone.
Jeff Brohm also made a notable change on the sideline. For the first time in 14 years, he did not call the offensive plays himself.
He turned that job over to his younger brother, Brian Brohm, who is in his 11th season as an offensive coordinator. Jeff said, "It was needed.
When you lose two games it is not fun. I felt like we could play a lot better overall.
I felt like we could play a lot better on defense. They embraced it.
We made a plan and went over and over it and over it and over it."
Jeff Brohm said he handed the offense to Brian so he could spend more time with new defensive coordinator Mark Ivey and be more hands on with the team. Whether that arrangement sticks is still unknown, but on this night it worked. Louisville’s offense still looked like Louisville’s offense, even without Jeff directly on the call sheet.
The result leaves the Cardinals at 3-3 and, for the moment, with a very different feel around the program. The losses are still there, and all of them came by three points, but the noise around them changed after 35 unanswered points against Florida State.
Louisville now heads to Syracuse, then has a bye week before Stanford. The Cardinals should be heavily favored through October, but they can’t control what the rest of college football does around them. What they can control is what they showed against Florida State: a punishing run game, a defense that held firm when it mattered, and a coach willing to try something new.
In Other News...
Louisville Turned One Early Scare Into A Blowout Statement Win
Florida State had Louisville on its heels early, building a 14-0 lead and lining up for a fourth-and-goal from the 2-yard line with a chance to keep the pressure on. Instead, a swing pass lost yardage, the Cardinals escaped the moment, and the game flipped almost immediately.
On the very next play, Isaac Brown broke free for a 97-yard touchdown and Louisville never looked back, rolling to a 44-20 win behind a 35-point unanswered surge. Brown finished with 235 rushing yards on 17 carries, adding another long score as the Cardinals piled up 397 yards on the ground and turned an early scare into the kind of statement victory that can change how a team is viewed. [Read more 🡒]
Louisville Finally Got The Isaac Brown Game It Desperately Needed
Louisville badly needed a jolt, and Isaac Brown delivered one in a way the Cardinals could hardly have drawn up better. In a 44-20 win over Florida State, the running back turned a difficult stretch into a much-needed reset, piling up 235 yards on 17 carries and scoring twice as Louisville clawed back toward relevance in the ACC race.
Browns day was capped by a 97-yard touchdown run, the longest in program history, a burst that matched the kind of game-changing spark Louisville has been waiting for. The victory nudged the Cardinals to 3-3 and kept their conference title hopes from drifting any farther out of view, which made the performance feel like more than just a breakout for one player. [Read more 🡒]
Louisville Just Delivered The Kind Of Win That Changes Everything
Louisvilles latest trip to Florida State was the sort of game that can reset a season. The Cardinals stared down a 21-0 deficit, then flipped the whole afternoon with a 35-14 comeback built on a revived defense and a ground game that finally started to look like the identity Brian Brohm has been pushing since taking over playcalling duties.
The signature moment came on Isaac Browns record-breaking 97-yard rush, a play that captured how sharply the momentum swung once Louisville settled in. After the early scramble, the Cardinals played with more balance and force on both sides of the ball, turning a rough start into a win that felt bigger than one result and more like a turning point. [Read more 🡒]