Louisville’s Week 1 showdown with Ole Miss didn’t just happen to land on the schedule. It took a chain of changes, a few moving parts and, as Jeff Brohm put it, an opening that finally let the Cardinals lock in one of college football’s biggest early games.
The matchup will air nationally on ABC on Sunday at 7:30 p.m. ET, but before Louisville ever got to this point, the Cardinals were lined up for a different opponent entirely. Brohm explained on the Coach Brohm Radio Show on Wednesday night that Charlotte had been the original game, before the schedule shifted again and Georgia entered the picture.
“I don't know if we've ever really talked about that. Believe it or not, and some people may say I'm not real smart, but we had Charlotte,” Brohm said.
“Charlotte was the team we were supposed to play. We had been trying to add Ole Miss for a few years.
We had been trying to add Tennessee at one point. We've been trying to add some tough, powerful opponents.”
Georgia was one of those opponents, and Brohm was blunt when the conversation turned to why that game never came together.
“We had Georgia this year and last year on our schedule. I'm supposed to say it was a mutual agreement, but uh,” Brohm said. “This is what college football is all about: playing tough competition, and fans want to see that; players want to play in it.”
The path to Ole Miss opened after the Rebels played the first game of a home-and-home series against Wake Forest, then Wake Forest dropped the return game. That left Ole Miss with a hole to fill, and Louisville stepped in.
“They were stuck. We were able to get in this game,” Brohm said.
“It's something we added. So, now it gives us 11 Power Four opponents.
I think we're only one of five teams in the country to do that. It's just one of those games that you dream about playing in, and you hope that you come ready to go, and you put your best foot forward.
It'll be a lot of fun.”
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