Louisville football hit 9-wins for the third straight year, a feat not accomplished since 2012-2014.
Louisville football looked to finish a season largely defined by unmet expectation with another win on Tuesday. The Cards blew out arch-rival Kentucky to close out an abysmal November, traveling to Boca Raton in hopes of getting their ninth, and final, victory of the year.
The Bowl of Beans battle against the Toledo Rockets had an atmosphere of uncertainty for the Cards: the roster is saying goodbye to many of its big names, including quarterback Miller Moss and wide receiver Chris Bell. The most troubling question concerns head coach Jeff Brohm, whose un-extended contract is drawing perspiration from an anxious fan base, especially in light of his name being entangled with an opening at Michigan.
Standout sophomore Isaac Brown, whose season has been plagued by injury, played on Tuesday afternoon, however, providing a much needed shot of hope, and much-missed offensive production, in a streaky game that was a microcosm of the team’s season.
Early birds
In the same manner the team began competition this fall, the Cardinals started out strong.
Keyjuan Brown broke an early 35 Yard run into Rocket territory, followed by a Miller Moss completion to Caullin Lacy, who also battled back to play after injuries late in the season.
Following a drive-saving sneak on fourth and one, Moss found Treyshun Hurry for an 18 yard touchdown pass, giving Louisville an early 7-0 lead.
The trouble with Toledo
Dual-threat Toledo quarterback Kalieb Osborne, starting for the first time in his career, would give the Louisville defense trouble as the game progressed. He goofed the first drive by fumbling the ball. Louisville football got it back on the 48 yard line after a stop with 8:32 left in the first quarter.
When Moss completed a scrambling throw for a first down, it appeared that the Cardinal offense was picking up where it left off against Kentucky, when it put up 41 points. The offense, however, was plagued by the same problems in the latter part of the first half in Boca that it had been all season.
Moss took two sacks in three downs, sandwiching a yard-less run that effectively stalled the Cardinals after the conciliatory long field goal attempt was blocked. The game’s momentum swung the Rocket way following the blocked kick, and it was all Louisville could do to hold Toledo to a responsive, successful field goal of their own.
Brown vs. Sherman, round one
Louisville went into the locker room up 7-3, but it felt like the Cards were just hanging on. They had failed to convert a single third down, mustered a mere fifteen yards on the ground, lost a fumble to the Toledo defense, and missed three opportunities to continue drives due to errant throws from Moss.
The frustration was evident at the end of the half, when Isaac Brown failed to convert a third and one run. The ball was whistled dead, but Rocket defender Avery Dunn continued to pull Brown by the neck while teammate K’Von Sherman fought him for the ball for a full three seconds after the play was blown dead. Isaac gave Sherman some chin music, causing his helmet to pop off and rewarding Brown with a personal foul.
This would be neither the last time that Brown and Sherman would lock horns, nor the only time that the officiating crew failed to penalize Sherman for a blatant dead ball foul. Â
Post-half heat
The beginning of the second half was truly discouraging. The Rockets absolutely rammed the ball down the Cardinal defense’s throat on the opening drive via their ground attack.
Toledo rarely needed three downs to earn a fresh set of four, and only a holding call that brought back a touchdown pass from Osborne slowed the Toledo downfield march.
As they had all year, though, Louisville’s defense showed up in a big way with their backs against the goal line: the Cards held the Rockets to a field goal attempt, which they missed, to keep the teams separated by four points.
Miller time… Brown town
The Louisville football offense appeared to remain in stagnation when they got the ball back. It wasn’t until Miller Moss completed a 28 yard pass to Lacy while taking a massive hit that the Cardinal attack got its second wind. Keyjuan Brown scrambled for a first down, after which Moss found Antonio Meeks for another touchdown, giving Louisville a 14-3 advantage.
The defense then forced a Toledo punt out of their own end zone, which Caullin Lacy returned to the Rocket thirty yard line. Another fourth down conversion on a Moss sneak set up Isaac Brown’s first touchdown of the day, growing the Louisville lead to 21-3 with 13:35 to play in the fourth quarter.Â
Rockets fire back
Louisville football appeared to have the game in the bag when the Rockets lined up for a desperation fourth and eleven heave. Osborne, however, wasn’t ready to concede the contest. He connected on a touchdown pass and subsequent two point conversion, shrinking the deficit to ten points with ten minutes to play.
After another three and out by the Cards, the Rockets got another field goal, making it a one-possession, 21-14 game.Â
Isaac’s sacrifice
I was honestly surprised to see Isaac Brown play at all in the Bowl of Beans. Given the lack of enthusiasm around the game, and the fact that his entire season had been defined by injuries, I think most of CardNation would have understood him declining to play.
Thank God he chose to suit up, though. Brown answered the eleven point Rocket swing with a 54 yard touchdown run with five minutes to go, giving Louisville breathing room at 27-14.Â
Not-so-special teams
Just like earlier in the game, though, and in several pivotal moments against Clemson, miscues on special teams gave the opponent a spark: another blocked Cardinal kick was returned for two points, making the score 27-16.
The Rockets found the end zone again on the following possession, closing the gap to 27-22 before failing an attempted two point conversion.
No call and a call back
Louisville got the ball back with 2:25 on the game clock and three time outs in Toledo’s pocket. There was fear that the offense would cough the ball up after failing to gain positive yardage, like I had seen in so many close games this year. I thought that Osborne would have the opportunity to win the game with a touchdown, especially after just witnessing the Cards go three and out on their last possession.
I, however, was wrong. Louisville kept the ball by keeping the ball on the ground, as Keyjuan Brown destroyed the Rockets’ rally with several sequential first down runs. It was then, though, when UofL was on the cusp of sealing victory, that poor sportsmanship and emotion threatened to put the ball back in Toledo’s hands.
Brown vs. Sherman, round two
Isaac Brown took a handoff, and, again, met K’Von Sherman. Sherman grabbed Brown’s facemask, forcing him out of bounds and tackling him to the ground a solid eight feet into the Louisville bench: a melee began.
Louisville’s sideline rushed to Brown’s side, tussling with Sherman in a sequence that resulted in four dead-ball personal fouls (three on Toledo, one on Louisville, none on Sherman, and, somehow, all offsetting one another). Watching it unfold was as infuriating as it was reminiscent: what happened to Brown was immature and dangerous, and any player with heart would have wanted to avenge Sherman’s cheap shot.
What makes it even more awful is that Sherman was permitted to play, in spite of multiple intentional, dead-play fouls, while Clev Lubin had been ejected earlier for hitting someone’s shoulder with his helmet. How many times, though, had the Cards incurred dead ball personal fouls, especially in important game moments, during the regular season, and was it worth risking the game?
It was truly disappointing to see a team that had been plagued by penalties all year long nearly snatch defeat from the jaws of victory after enduring multiple pushes from the Rocket offense. They would ultimately run out the clock without ever giving the ball back, but it wasn’t without nearly destroying 58 minutes of effort with a few seconds of reactionary stupidity.Â
Echo of the quote hear ’round the world
Miller Moss got all kinds of hell for associating this season’s penalty problem with a larger, cultural issue within the program. Now don’t get me wrong: what Sherman did to Brown was inexcusable, blatant, and intentional. It was the second time on Tuesday that he had gotten away with what should have been, at the very least, a dead-ball, personal foul. But the way that Louisville responded could have cost them both the possession, and, possibly, the ball game.
Louisville football shot themselves in the foot, the way they had so often this season, in several ways against Toledo. Thankfully, though, the bullet wounds were not severe enough to keep Louisville from limping across the finish line a victorious 27-22, finishing 9-4 in 2025.Â
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Brohm and beyond
The trophy ceremony was a strange spectacle. Keegan Michael-Key and Beverly Schnellenberger were there to award head coach Jeff Brohm the Bowl of Beans, which he hoisted proudly to a nearly empty stadium. I couldn’t help but think that Michigan had probably never needed to entice attendance by making admission a canned good drive, and that the Wolverines have played 300 straight home games with attendance exceeding 100,000 spectators.
You can’t blame Louisville fans for not traveling for this one, though: 1,040 miles is quite a trek, especially when your team went from being ranked with possible playoff participation to facing a MAC opponent two days before Christmas, at 2 PM.
Still, though, their hometown hero is now at the top of the list to coach at one of the premier programs in the history of college football, and his contract remains woefully un-extended.Â
The Schnellenberger accord
If Brohm is enticed away from Louisville, I don’t think that money will be the reason why. He famously drives a 2004 Honda Accord to this day, the first car he ever owner. My car is five years newer than that, and I drive an old car. I think that Brohm truly loves football, however, more than he loves money, by far.
The question will be if loving football means chasing a national championship in his hometown, where he gave up a professional baseball contract to play quarterback long before players were compensated?
Where his coach, Howard Schnellenberger, predicted that the University of Louisville was on a collision course with a title, time being the only factor? Where he inherited Howard’s job and could make his prophecy reality?Â
Or does it mean moving to Michigan, where football games draw crowds of six figures and are, undoubtedly, the main event of Wolverine athletics? Where people live and breathe football, the games always sell out, and national championships aren’t dreams, but expectations?
Before receiving the trophy Tuesday night, Brohm turned and kissed Beverly Schnellenberger. Was it a kiss that sealed the pursuit of her husband’s covenant with UofL, or a kiss saying goodbye to that dream?
All eyes are on Brohm, even if none made it to the game on Tuesday. How tragic would it be if the hometown hero’s final game in Cardinal red were one that he won, but nobody showed up to watch? It’s never worked out for a Louisville coach who left the program, and Brohm, like any coach at a top-tier school, would have nothing but problems as a Wolverine. Empty stadiums, however, would likely never be one of them. Â
