There was a lot of hype when Jeff Brohm returned to Louisville after being the head coach at Purdue for the past six years. Brohm brought in a top-10 transfer class and it looked like the Cardinals could have a better season than fans previously thought. Instead of a 7-5 season, it looked like Louisville could win eight or nine games in the regular season.
It was all a fantasy at that point, but to get there they had to win Game 1 against Georgia Tech in Atlanta. Georgia Tech will be in its first year under head coach Brent Key, rather than an interim. Tech beat UCF in the Gasparilla Bowl, finished with a 7-6 record in 2023 and was a decent team overall in the ACC. A glimpse of that was seen in the game against Louisville, when Georgia Tech outscored Louisville 28-7 in the second quarter.
Tech did whatever it wanted against the Cardinals offensively in the first half, but Louisville's offense, with Jack Plummer at quarterback, struggled to find its footing. This will be the first time in four years that Louisville will have a new starting quarterback.
Louisville opened up the game in the second half, with Louisville going on a 26-0 run and Jawar Jordan's 74-yard touchdown run to close out the game.
This game showed what a good coach Jeff Brohm is, as he came back for a second half that the Cardinals completely dominated and got his team back on track. While this game showed some of the promise of how good some of these players are, it also showed some of the flaws, such as Jack Plummer and the lack of talent at receiver.
This was a good start to the Jeff Brohm era, giving Brohm a 1-0 start at Louisville.
