ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE FOOTBALL KICKOFF

July 24, 2024

Jeff Brohm

Louisville Cardinals

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Coach Brohm.

Q. Just looking back on your history, Howard Schnellenberger, your head coach that you had when you were at Louisville, those words of wisdom that you can take with you, do you ever reach back to anything in the toolbox that he gave you?

JEFF BROHM: I was fortunate enough to play for Howard Schnellenberger. He had a tremendous history and past of the only undefeated Super Bowl team in Miami Dolphin history. Took Miami to the national championship. Built programs at Louisville, Florida Atlantic.

When I played for him, he was known as a quarterback guru. Coached quarterbacks at Alabama with Bear Bryant. Even the Miami Dolphins.

The thing I took from him the most is he was a master motivator. He got his teams to believe that they could beat anybody with they stepped on the field. He said outlandish to the media like, "We're on a collision course with the national championship. The only variable is time." He wasn't scared to say those things. Because his team believed they could win, and while I may not be as braggadocios as that, we want our team to take the field and expect to win every time they go out there.

Definitely learned a great deal from him, and he achieved a lot. Even though he's not with us now, I'll never forget all those moments.

Q. You made it to the ACC championship last year. What steps in practice and training camp have you and your team taken to get there again?

JEFF BROHM: I think you build a team that likes to compete, that loves football, that loves to work hard and win at a high level. We want to provide that atmosphere and that environment for our guys that they want to come to the building and put the work in.

I think we have a group of guys that do that every day. While we had some good success last year, 10-1 at one point, we lost our last three games. I think because of that, there's a lot of things to learn, a lot of areas to improve. I think it's caused the hunger to get back in right away and understand if you want to be really good, you have to beat big-time opponents and find a way to win close games.

These guys we have with us here today, the entire football team, worked hard, grit off-season. They understand we have good challenges ahead of us this year.

This is a competitive league with a lot of parity and a lot of good football coaches and players. If you don't expect and bring your A game, play your very best, you're not going to win.

We definitely accept that challenge and we're looking forward to getting the season underway. Our guys have worked really hard.

Q. What does 'accomplish greatness' mean to you?

JEFF BROHM: I think it means setting goals and working extremely hard to achieve those. I think simply put, you can't put a level to that. You've got to expect to achieve all your dreams, not be scared to take on that challenge.

Being great in this conference means beating great opponents every week and raising your level of play and stepping up to the challenge. We definitely will have those challenges this year.

Q. Bringing in Tyler at quarterback, what can you say, what you saw from him at Texas Tech, why he was the right fit for your offense?

JEFF BROHM: Well, we're excited about Tyler and what he brings to the table. Any time you can bring in a veteran quarterback that's been there and done that, handled adversity, had ups and downs, been able to experience that, has had great success but also a few failures along the way. He's battle-tested. We're excited about it.

To this point he's come in and been a great leader, put in the work. He's gained the respect of his teammates by working hard with them, studying football with them, arranging that, making sure our other players are doing it.

He's come here with a purpose. He has one year to play college football and he wants to go out with a bang. I think if we can play well around him and continue to improve our football team, he will definitely play at a high level.

We're excited about what he brings to the table. We want him to have the best year he possibly can. It's up to us as coaches to put him in the best position to do that. But we're going to work really hard at it.

Q. You talk about Tyler. You brought in a nice wide receiver in Caullin Lacy as well. What impressed you about him during that recruiting process?

JEFF BROHM: Caullin brings a ton of experience to the table. He's played a lot of football, as well. But he's strong, he's fast, he's tough. He's made great strides even the little bit we've had him. He works really hard.

Without question, putting the ball in his hands, making sure he has touches is important for our success.

He's one of numerous guys that we've added to the mix that have had very good off-seasons that we expect to play well.

Q. You brought in a healthy amount of transfers last year and this off-season.

JEFF BROHM: Our philosophy is we want to win now. We want to win this year. Yes, you can build for the future and get your young players ready to play, which is great. But you want to win now.

Not only do our fans want that, but your own team wants that. Whether it comes to building a roster, we have some really good guys coming back that have done a great job for us.

You know what? I think they want to win. It's up to us as coaches to build the best team and surround them with the best teammates. Football is a team sport, it takes 11 guys and special teams to get it done. It doesn't matter strictly how good you are, but you have to have good guys around you.

We're not scared to change the roster, improve our football team, whether they're starters or they provide great competition, they play a role.

Everybody we brought in has been with a purpose, quite a bit. Sometimes they're older, veteran guys that have played at any level of football, but have definitely stepped on the field and shown on video what they can do.

To this point, we've liked what we've seen. All spring and all summer... I think all of our veterans on our team have liked what they've seen as well. They know if we continue to improve and work really hard and do the small things right, we're going to have a chance to win.

That's what we believe in. Sure, we're always going to take high school prospects and continue to do that. With this transfer portal, having two different portals, people can leave and go when they want. There's nothing wrong with that. Some guys leave to get more playing time, other guys leave for other reasons. You have to be able to adapt and adjust. I think we've done a pretty good job of that.

Q. How do you instill culture given the number of transfers every year?

JEFF BROHM: Well, I think instilling culture is providing an atmosphere and environment where your guys want to work hard at football. They feel comfortable putting in work, extra work. They understand the importance of getting that done.

We want to make sure our players are there for the players at any point during the day, early morning, late at night, whenever they want help to get better.

I think if you want to be a great football team, a great player, you've got to put in the extra work. In order to be great, in my opinion, you've got to do more when people aren't watching. That's important that all of our guys and coaches do that. When you have free time, have the ability to improve yourself, you got to do it.

I just think we try to do that. Whether you've had a great day of practice or great game or maybe you struggled a little bit, we want to make sure the next day you can come over and do the same thing, get right back at it and work.

We've got a great group of coaches on our staff that are really good people, that do things for the right reason, in my opinion. They're willing to help our players to work hard to achieve success. We have a lot of guys on our team that put extra time in. The more guys you have doing that, the more they put into it, the better chance you're going to have to win.

Q. This off-season I saw a clip of you from the XFL days. Do I or do I not have a pulse, let's play football. How often do you see that clip and has the locker room given you any flack for that one?

JEFF BROHM: Well, years ago it got on the Internet there. Believe it or not, you just can't take it off. It's always going to be there. Back when life was really fun, I enjoyed playing the game...

In the end it's about do you really love to play the game? I think our players do. I think they know I love competing. While I can't play anymore, I love coaching and trying to help our team win.

But you also want to make the game fun for 'em. That was a day when the game was fun. You could talk a little bit more than you probably should. You had a little fun with it.

Our players have fun, too. All our guys, they have different personalities, makeups, but we want them to play with that personality. In order to play at a high level in football, you have to be competitive on the game field. If that means you got to talk a little bit more so than others, that's fine. If that means you're quiet and competitive that way, that's fine, too.

It is a physical, tough, demanding sport that you got to allow your players to take on the persona that they need in order to play at a high level.

Q. Both this off-season last you placed a really heavy emphasis on the transfer portal. For this upcoming season, how crucial would you say it is to show people that placing a heavy reliance on the portal as a means to build up your team is something that can be relied upon, and last year's success wasn't an outlier?

JEFF BROHM: I don't think we set a number on, hey, we need to bring in this many transfer portal young men and add them to our team. Every year is going to be different. Every year is going to be unique.

Can't really predict it now. It's a different time and a different era where rosters are going to change. If one year a roster didn't change much, I'm fine with that, if that works. Sometimes it just doesn't fit.

In order to be prepared, I think you just have to prepare to have answers when things come about so you can improve your football team. If a lot of guys didn't leave, we wouldn't bring as many guys in. If we have guys that graduate, others that want to transfer, you have to be ready. You've got to go out and find a way to get it done.

The best players on your team are going to want, they're going to want you to find the best teammates for them that are going to help them play at a high level and win. I think we've done a pretty decent job at this point. Obviously you have to prove it every year.

Just like everyone at this time of year, we think we've prepared really hard and really well. We think we have a chance.