The RISE & REBIRTH of LOUISVILLE Football (How Did This Happen?)

every single year there is a team that comes out of nowhere in college football when it comes to first year head coaches many probably think that coach Prime is doing the best job at Colorado and while I definitely think he is doing a great job in my opinion the best year one performance has been from Jeff brah at Louisville so far the Cardinals are currently undefeated have a couple of really good players have beaten multiple power five teams and hoping to have over 10 wins in year 1 the last time the Cardinals Felt This Good was 2016 at the time there led by their Superstar quarterback Lamar Jackson Bobby Patrina was the head coach and they would climb all the way to number three in the country before losing to Clemson well they did have a tremendous year they did fall flat by the end of it but what if I told you that the last time the Cardinals were this good you have to go back a decade in 2013 the Cardinals were under head coach Charlie Strong and they got off to a 6-0 start led by their star quarterback Teddy Bridgewater the cards ended up having a tremendous season in which they went 12- one and Charlie Strong would take the Texas job as we all know Bobby patrino came in and fixed things for Louisville but he would leave a huge mess after the 2017 season and Scott safield would have to come in and pick that up after a very odd tenure saterfield decided to take the Cincinnati job and from there that would open up the door for the hometown hero of Jeff Braum to come back and save the day in today's video we're going to be talking about the rise of Louisville football we're going to go through how they got to this point talk about how the players and coaches got to this point go through this season so far why they've been special and what I think the Outlook in the future will be for them before we get started quickly be sure to leave a like subscribe if you're new let me know what topic I should cover next and turn on post notifications so you never miss when I upload now let's get started and talk about the rise of Louisville football Louisville football is a very proud and historic program since the turn of the century the Cardinals have won nine or more games 10 times and have produced some pretty big names at the quarterback position they've had guys such as Brian Braum Teddy Bridgewater Lamar Jackson and most recently Malik Cunningham and they've been one of the of the more consistent programs in all of college football the Cardinals have gone off to a terrific start this year but no one on the Cardinals Grant roster was on the team the last time the cards were ranked this high that came in September of 2017 but before the cards could rise they sort of had to fall when you think of the name Bobby patrino you probably think of some of those famous images or some of the scandals that he has been involved in besides all that off the field stuff Patrina was actually a pretty solid football coach and had two different tenur at Louisville he was credited for their awes 2015 and 16 Seasons but by the end of the 2018 campaign he was done after a 2 and8 start Louisville decided to move on from Petrino and with two games left they would start to find their next head coach who would that guy be well it would be Scott safield when you think of Appalachian State football most probably think of the 2007 upset against Michigan but towards the middle of the 2010s the Mountaineers had quickly become one of the most respectable group of five programs they almost beat Tennessee in 2016 beat Michigan State State and would later knock off both South Carolina and North Carolina in the same season but saterfield was gone before that could happen he was hired as the next head coach of Louisville and was seen as a guy who could stabilize the program recruit for the Cardinals and clean up the mess that Bobby patrino had made I remember being very optimistic for the saterfield hire at the time and Louisville would bring him in while the Mountaineers would replace him with Elia drinkwitz who would quickly become the Missouri head coach after but turning back to Louisville saterfield immediately made the Cardinals better in year 1 in 2019 the Cardinals were led by their new quarterback Malle Cunningham their Superstar running back Jon Hawkins and breakout receiver 22 Atwell the cards would host Notre Dame in week one and in that game they were pretty competitive and showed that saterfield was going to get the job done throughout the rest of the year the Cardinals would end up winning six games including a victory over number 19 Wake Forest on the road they go s and five in the regular season and then would beat Mississippi State in the Music City Bowl the team went 8 and5 and that is why the cards were preseason ranked going into 2020 20 while the 2020 season was crazy the Cardinals did not exactly live up to their hype they're ranked against number 17 Miami and that is when their awful defense showed in that game they gave up big play after big play and this would translate to four straight losses coming to Miami Pittsburgh Georgia Tech and Notre Dame while their defense would improve by the end of the season the Cardinals in general just couldn't really get things going they did beat Florida State Syracuse and Wake Forest but they also lost Road games of Virginia Tech and Boston College and got beat in a shootout by Virginia teag all in all the Cardinals went 4- seven in 2020 and it was a pretty disappointing season for them in 2021 Cunningham was once again back and he was pretty much the entire offense he was their best passer their best rusher and they really didn't have a go-to playmaker in the receiving game they lost their opening game to all miss and from there did exactly what you could expect of them they beat all the teams they should be but ended up losing to a ranked Wake Forest team a solid Virginia team on the road against NC State against Clemson and against Kentucky but as I said they beat who they should should have beaten and ended up getting to the first responder Bowl where they lost to Air Force on paper that is a terrible loss but if you actually look into it Air Force is probably the most underrated team in all of college football as they've been consistently winning a boatload of games but that stuff doesn't matter when the fan base is annoyed 2022 was going to be sder Field's make or break season Cunningham was back for another year and former Syracuse transfer jaar Jordan had started to step up at the running back spot they also brought in transfer Tyler Hudson at receiver and he became one of the best receivers in the ACC Louisville though was all over the place they got blown out in week one by Syracuse and then took care of UCF at home in week two that game almost was a loss after that they lost in the last minute to Florida State and even dropped a horrible Road game to Boston College on the first weekend of October throughout the first month the cards were 2 and three with three conference losses and it looked like saterfield was done but then he saved his job they went on the road and beat Virginia knocked off pit at home destroyed number 10 Wake Forest at home beat a really good James Madison team competed against Clemson and then beat number 24 NC State the cards went 5- one in those next six games with their only lot with two ranked wins and their only loss coming on the road against Clemson that was pretty respectable Unfortunately they ended up losing in their rivalry match up to Kentucky in the final game and while they did go seven and five no one wanted to end the season on a loss especially to a rival after that saterfield decided he was going to take the Cincinnati job the situation was very similar to something that happened in college basketball just two years ago after shakas smart continually underperformed at Texas he took a downgrade job to Marquette and basically avoided all the firing and messiness that is exactly what he did in this case as Luke fickle had now left for Wisconsin what's ironic is that Cincinnati would be matched up with Louisville in their bowl game in that matchup the Cardinals would destroy them 24 to7 and this was pretty embarrassing for saterfield but we're now done with him and we now get to talk about the guy who is the hometown hero who could save the program Jeff Braum Jeff Braum has always been a big deal in the Louisville area as he was a Star Quarterback for Trinity High School and then went on to play for the Cardinals for a couple of years he was terrific for them and while he did go undrafted he made a mark in the professional football scene famously he was in the XFL and after getting hit really hard in the game many were wondering how he could suit up and he had his famous phrase let's play football Jeff would move on from playing to coaching and would head back to his Alma moer as the QB coach in 2003 after being pretty good at his job job Nick Sabin apparently wanted him to be his offensive coordinator at Alabama but he would deny that and then move up the coaching rank he went to FAU Illinois in UAB before he'd eventually take over as the head coach at Western Kentucky from 2014 to 2016 while he was there he had some great quarterback play helped establish the hill Toppers great terrific Air Raid Offense and won a good amount of games in total he won 30 games at Western Kentucky and combed a 22 and5 record over his last two years after that he was hired at Purdue to replace Daryl Hazel as the boiler makers had gone 9 and 39 in their past four years and in his first year Jeff would take them to a bowl game the boiler makers went 7- six and all in all he had a terrific career there he went 36 and 34 in 6 years at Purdue and even got them to the Big 10 championship game in 2022 on his resume he notably upset number two Ohio State in 2018 number two Iowa in 2021 and then number three Michigan State in 20121 as well he developed some star players such as receivers rondale Moore David Bell and Charlie Jones first round pick George carus and had some steady quarterback play and David Blau Aid no Connell and Jack plumber notably after the 2018 season there was something known as brumat where many Purdue and football fans around the country thought he was going to go home and take the Louisville job but as we've already covered in the video they decided to hire Scott saterfield instead with safield going to Cincy this would leave the opening for the Cardinals and now it was time for his long a way to return eventually he was hired by Louisville and their athletic recor said quote the Brams are synonymous with Louisville and Jeff has made a lasting impact on our city as a high school star college quarterback professional athlete and Coach what excites me the most about Jeff is he had success at the highest level and to put it simply Jeff is a proven winner there was going to be a lot of hype for braah at Louisville in year 1 but no one necessarily thought he'd have this much success he was expected to earn about $6 million over 6 years and that money is definitely going to pay off before we can talk about this year I want to introduce you to the players who have made Louisville football so successful this year the first is Jack plumber coming out of Gilbert Arizona plumber was a part of the class of 2017 and was a three-star recruit he signed on to go to purdo where he would first take over in 2019 and would throw for 1600 yards and 11 touchdowns before he would get hurt in 2020 and 2021 he would rotate between starter and backup and after seeing the riding on the wall decided to transfer to Cal he went across the country and threw for over 3,000 yards and 20 touchdowns and with the NCAA allowing players to have an extra year of Eligibility he since transferred to Louisville for Jeff brom's first year in his final year the next guy I'm going to introduce to you is jaar Jordan he's also from Chandler Arizona and coming out of high school he was ranked as the number 13 allpurpose back in the country he originally decided to go to Syracuse and after playing there in both 2019 and 2020 he did not see the field much and transferred to Louisville last year he broke out with 800 yards on the ground and so far this year has been arguably their most exciting offensive weapon he had a field day against Notre Dame this past week and has nearly 700 yard in8 tou touchdowns through the first half of the year and now to the guy who has single-handedly put the passing game on his back it's Jamari thrash coming out of lra Georgia thrash was ranked the number 200 wide receiver in the class of 2019 and would arrive at Georgia State hoping to make a name for himself with the Panthers he became one of the better group of five receivers in the country and in 2022 broke out with 61 catches for 1,122 yards and seven touchdown he maybe could have gone off to the NFL but instead decided to enter the transfer portal and join the Louisville Cardinals so far he has 30 catches for 519 yards and six touchdowns making him one of the better receivers in the country and the guy who has really helped Louisville's offense run those three guys are super important to the team's success so now let's talk about how they've actually done this year so after researching and reading a ton of Louisville previews I'd say that the average Cardinals or college football fan thought they'd win between five and eight games in year one for Jeff Braum personally I thought that was pretty reasonable as I had them winning seven games as well and we one they get a chance to Showdown with another ACC team as they would play against Georgia Tech this game would come on a Friday night and it was actually quite thrilling despite some horrible quarterbacking from Jack plumber the Cardinals ended up winning 39-34 after Haynes King and Georgia Tech could not complete the comeback the Cardinals Advanced to 1 and0 before in week two they'd play nine quarterbacks and a 56 to0 win over Murray State Louisville was exactly where any expected after the first two weeks but week three would actually cause some concern they AC set the play against Indiana on the neutral site Lucas Oil Stadium and after getting out to a 21 to0 lead it looked like all was well for the cards except in the second half they gave up 14 points to one of the worst teams in the country and Tav Jackson almost tied the game but IU came up short at the goal line and Louisville ended up winning 21 to4 while a win is a win many thought that Louisville was a fraud and it was definitely troubling momentum for them after that they beat Boston College 56 to 28 but once again that really doesn't move the needle as Boston College is also horrible in week five they'd play against NC State on the road and this was their biggest challenge to date on the road against the Pack Louisville ended up winning 13 to 10 and a close one and they're now off to a 5-0 start theyd be ranked number 25 in the country for a Saturday night Showdown with number 10 Notre Dame the stadium was sold out it was put in a prime time slot and many Cardinals fans were hoping they could take advantage of Notre Dame's previous loss to Duke that is exactly what would happen while the first half was slow Louisville truly broke out in the second half jaar Jordan had two big touchdowns the Cardinals defense played insane and Notre Dame's offense and program looked completely lost this was a major win from Louisville and they clinched bull eligibility during the first weekend of October in terms of the rest of their season they really do have a path to 9 or 10 wins this Saturday they're going to play against Pittsburgh and if you've been keeping up with the Panthers they are pretty awful this year while in some sort of Twisted weird way it wouldn't surprise me if pit pulled the upset here I think this is definitely a winnable game for Louisville and a game they absolutely should win after that they host number 17 Duke at home and while on paper that looks like a really difficult game the Blue Devils still may be without their quarterback Riley Leonard and this game's at home so it could be closed from there they get Virginia Tech at home which is still trying to figure things out and they also get Virginia at home who is awful honestly there is a real chance they could win all four of those games after that they go on the road to number 25 Miami and while I'd probably pick the Hurricanes to win this game after what Mario crystal ball did this past week I wouldn't be so shocked if the can fell off or if something stupid happened for them to lose the game finally they'll host the Rival Kentucky at home and just like the rest of these teams I'm not sure which Kentucky team we're going to get here the cats had a pretty easy schedule to start out the season and just got exposed against Georgia we'll find out if they're the real deal but for now on paper there's a chance that Louisville could win all six of these games but if I had to make my official prediction I say they only win four or five Duke Miami and Kentucky aren't awful teams and I don't think Louisville is that Elite that they can just easily Blow by all these teams I will say though my prediction is that they end up going 10-2 and playing a really good bowl game Jeff Braum has done a tremendous job in year one for the Cardinals has Louisville back near the top of college football and should be the coach of the future for them while their current 2024 class is a bit concerning Jeff Brum is definitely known as a recruiter so I think he's going to figure it out and with more momentum should be able to bring in some better commits I really love the future of the quarterback position as they have both Pierce Clarkson and Purdue transfer Brady Allen and it seems to me that the defense has actually been really solid so in my opinion Jeff Braum is going to build Louisville into a consistent top tier ACC team it's been pretty fun to watch them so far and I'm definitely going to be keeping an eye on them for the remainder of the year but if you're a Louisville fan what do you think what did I get right and wrong in this video what's your official prediction for the rest of the year and what are your overall thoughts be sure to let me know down below leave a like if you want to support today's video let me know what topic I should cover next and check out all my other videos on the end screen I hope to see you guys again soon that