Jeff Brohm Talks Injuries and That “Virginia Will Challenge Us”

Jeff Brohm and Louisville are not overlooking Virginia ahead of the Thursday night ACC matchup

Louisville head coach Jeff Brohm held his weekly presser with the media, and talked about last Saturday’s win over Virginia Tech, and previewed the Virginia Cavaliers. Here is what Brohm had to say in his opening statement:

"“We’re excited to get back on the field Thursday night in front of our home crowd. It is another big football game that we have to go out and find a way to win. I think our guys have played hard here recently. We’ve worked hard to improve and to get better each and every week. We have to continue to stay on that same path. The team we are playing is very competitive. They’ve lost five games by less than four points, and they beat North Carolina on the road. They will challenge us, so we’re going to have to play well and practice well. It’s a quick turnaround, but I think our guys understand what’s at stake. Winning is very important and we have to go out and win the football game.”"

Brohm seems to be continuing his sentiment of the 1 game season, and seems to be on high alert with this Virginia Cavaliers team. Virginia has not been playing great football this year, but they are capable of it. They nearly beat NC State on the road, beat previously ranked #10 North Carolina on the road, lost to Miami by 3 on the road, but got kicked back to reality in their 45-17 loss to Georgia Tech last week.

Brohm knows that if the Cardinals come out flat and unprepared like the Pitt game, that they can lose. Any team can lose on any given night in college football and coach Brohm knows that. Louisville needs to focus on winning the rest of the games in the season, and beating the Cavaliers will be the start of that.

Here is what Brohm had to say about the short week, and playing on Thursday this week:

"“I think we can adjust and adapt to that pretty well,  we try to be forward thinkers in what we do and how we prepare. We have to get guys ready, but yet take care of their bodies and get them to the game healthy, fresh, and able to go full speed. Back to the question about the short week, we’ve had some physical games here. The path won’t be on as much, it will be a little more mental learning, but we will be on the field and we’ll go through all the same scenarios and make sure we’re not missing the boat on that at all. I think we’ve prepared just as hard and as long as we can without banging guys around on the field and being physical in practice. We’re trying to get guys to this game fresh and ready to play physically in the game.”"

Brohm also had this to say when dealing with injuries during a short Thursday week:

"“Well, it’s a part of the game, after the Duke game, we took some lumps as far as guys not being able to play and having to deal with some things that have popped up. There were key players that were out, but we’re going to continue to try to get them healthy and get them on the field. When that’ll happen, with a few of them, I’m not for sure. Some of them are day to day, some of them may be longer. I think we got out of this game as healthy as we could considering the circumstance. There were a lot of new people that stepped in that were fresh, that did well, and that are continuing to be healthy. We’ll work through it as much as we can, and every day is valuable. Even the guys that didn’t play have tried to get healthy as fast as they can, they want to get on the field. And some of them are suffering some pretty good nicks and bruises and probably more than that. So I give them a lot of credit that they want to go out there and help their team win, and the other guys are ready in case they can’t go do that.”"

Jeff Brohm seems to be keeping the injuries under wraps until Thursday, but he also seems to have a lot of faith in the players that would have to step up if players like Jawhar Jordan and Jarvis Brownlee can’t play. Jordan played last week but was not at full strength, Isaac Guerendo made up for that with a 3 TD game on Saturday. Guys like Storm Duck also stepped up on the defense, so Louisville has players that can step up on both sides of the ball, and Brohm seems to trust them. Especially after last weekend’s game.

Brohm likes to keep things like this a secret till usually the last minute, so we probably won’t know till Thursday. But Brohm is not letting the players look past Virginia and trusts everyone on his team to step up if they are needed to.

Louisville will kickoff against Virginia at 7:30 Thursday Night on ESPNU.