LOUISVILLE, Ky. – We might be over five months until college football makes its return, but step towards the upcoming 2025 season are already well underway.
For Louisville, they’re at roughly the halfway point of their annual set of spring practices. Of their 15 sessions, which will culminate in the annual spring game on Friday, Apr. 11 at 7:00 p.m. EST from L&N Stadium, seven of them are now in the books.
In the mind of head coach Jeff Brohm, he’s been satisfied with what he has seen so far in the first two weeks of spring ball.
“We’ve had two good weeks of practice,” he said. “I think a lot of our guys coming back have a good understanding of what we’re trying to do, what we’re trying to get accomplished. They’ve done a really good job. Keeping them healthy is important as well, as we continue to push forward.
“There’s our lot of new faces, so we just got to keep pushing the envelope on not only just drill work, but giving them repetitions so that they can understand and hear things, and be able to react accordingly and play fast. So right now, that’s the emphasis. I think our guys are working hard, and we’re seeing improvement every day.”
As Brohm noted, the Cardinals have a plethora of new faces on campus. There are 20 newcomers via the transfer portal, as well as 16 fresh faces out of high school – 11 of which are already on hand for spring ball. Of the transfers, many of them are expected to play significant roles on the team, such USC quarterback Miller Moss.
Fortunately, spring ball is usually pretty heavy on scheme installation, and other things of that nature. So far, Brohm believes that, both the newcomers and returners alike, have done a good job at retaining what the coaches are teaching them.
“I think in general, there’s obviously progress being made there,” Brohm said. “I think we have the capability to make plays. Just understanding exactly all the calls, and all the different things we have going on with them is important, so that we can play fast. But I do think guys are starting to emerge. We got to build depth at all those positions for the entire year, and I think we’ve made progress.”
As the days progress, spring ball has began to shift from heavy on day-one style installs, to extended team periods. This past Saturday, the majority of their practice was a scrimmage-like 11-on-11 period, complete with an officiating crew on hand.
While it is very early, Brohm has been pleased with the scheme retention and execution he has since in these extended team period.
“We wanted to get a lot of situational work in, and running plays, and getting calls in,” he said of Saturday’s practice. “While we weren’t tackling live to the ground, we wanted to make sure that we went through those mechanics. We can watch it on video, we can see where we made the mistakes. We can get things corrected, and we can try to simplify things as coaches if we need to, to be better and more efficient.
“We don’t want to ask the new guys to do too much, but we also want to have enough to ready in the arsenal to perform well. Right now, it’s a fun process. Our guys are enjoying it, they’re working hard, and play makers are making plays for us.
Louisville finished the 2024 season with a 9-4 overall record including a 35-34 win over Washington in the Sun Bowl. The Cardinals have posted back-to-back seasons of nine-plus wins for the first time in a decade.
(Photo of Jeff Brohm: Jamie Rhodes – Imagn Images)
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