Jeff Brohm to Defect South
Looks like our time is up.
Jeff Brohm and @LouisvilleFB are in the process of finalizing a deal to bring Brohm back to his alma mater as head coach, sources tell ESPN. The deal would be for six years in the $35 million range. Brohm has been at @BoilerFootball the past six seasons.
— Chris Low (@ClowESPN) December 7, 2022
When Jeff Brohm was pursued hard by Louisville in 2018, he had just begun building something at Purdue. He had some top recruits in the door and more on the way. He has since admitted what we all speculated – that he was just not ready…at that time. And this says a lot about Jeff Brohm – a lot of good things.
He’s a loyal guy. He’s a guy who appreciates someone giving him a chance. And he believes in seeing things through. Hard not to respect all of that.
Jeff Brohm has been at Purdue for six seasons and the reports are rolling in that he’s finalizing his deal to head home to Louisville. When he turned it down the last time, I told my friends here at BS that I was confident he’d go back if and when it opened again. And here we are.
No, it doesn’t make sense from a facilities standpoint, or which athletic dept is in better shape or where the long-term earnings are highest. It only makes sense to make this move for one guy – the guy whose heart has always been in Louisville, Kentucky.
Jeff Brohm played at Louisville, his family is all there, and his dad, Oscar, has always wanted his son to coach at UL. Pretty hard to top that. I firmly believe that the only job he would leave Purdue for right now is the one he’s heading to.
Louisville is Coach Brohm’s “statue job,” as we like to call it here at BS. It’s the place where you’re already a legend and where they’ll probably build you a statue – especially if you turn out to also be a great conquering hero.
Sure, I’m disappointed by this loss. Purdue football is on an upward – and perhaps more importantly, fun – trajectory and we have Coach Brohm largely to thank for that. But the heart wants what it wants. The fact that family ties and a connection to his dad are winning the day for Jeff Brohm certainly doesn’t make me like him any less.
He gave Purdue six years, which in modern coaching is quite a while. He took a program that was quite literally one of the very worst in the Power 5 and brought them to four bowls in six seasons, back-to-back 8+ win seasons for the first time in a quarter-century, three wins over top-3-ranked teams, a constantly sold-out Ross-Ade, and to an outright division title and appearance in the Big Ten Championship Game. I know there are some perpetually-aggrieved boneheads on social media and message boards acting like he didn’t do enough but those people are wrong. Yes, I’ll be that blunt and definitive – they’re wrong. He did a lot and brought Purdue to a level in a relatively short time that many of us feared we would never see again. And for that, I say thank you. Thanks to Jeff Brohm for making Purdue football fun again.
I wrote the post after the destruction of Ohio State in 2018 and no title ever came easier for me – “Happy Days Are Here Again.” Those days aren’t as happy right now but the good news is that Purdue football and Purdue athletics is extremely well-run right now. We have faith in Mike Bobinski and the BoT to make the necessary moves to keep this train rolling.
We’ll have a lot more in the coming days.
