Louisville football held a press conference yesterday for head coach Jeff Brohm for the first time after the Cardinals' crazy Transfer Portal surge. Louisville will be almost entirely new after adding 30 players from the portal and bringing in 20 from the 2026 recruiting class.
One position that is completely different is the quarterback position. The Cards lost Miller Moss upon graduation and lost Deuce Adams, Brady Allen, and Mason Mims to the Transfer Portal. So, with Louisville losing its top four quarterbacks from last season, Brohm went the portal route for the fourth straight season and landed two players this offseason.
Brohm thinks highly of his two portal additions and his 2026 4-star commitment, but yesterday, he made it clear that Louisville is set to hand the keys to Ohio State transfer Lincoln Kienholz.
Related: 10 biggest Transfer Portal commitments for Louisville football this offseason
Jeff Brohm sends clear message about Louisville football’s QB plan
Louisville brought in former 4-star Ohio State commit Kienholz, but also brought in an elite dual-threat option from West Georgia in Davin Wydner, and a 4-star true freshman in Briggs Cherry. Brohm has high expectations for all three quarterbacks entering the 2026 season, but when it comes to who he plans to start in Week 1 against Ole Miss in Nashville, he made that quite clear.
“Definitely, Lincoln wants to take the reins and play great football,” Brohm stated on Tuesday afternoon. “I definitely feel like Lincoln brings us a dimension we have not had before. He’s a very good athlete. He shows that every day, even now, up to this point, he can throw the football as well. He knows his time is now, and we're going to work very hard every day to help him play his best football as we get going into the season."
This obviously doesn’t come as a huge surprise, but Brohm is clearly leaning Kineholz's way to start Week 1 as he committed to Louisville with expectations to take over after being a backup for three years. Kienholz was a consensus 4-star recruit out of high school and ranked as high as No. 138 in the nation and the No. 11 quarterback in the 2023 class. He went on to finish his high school career with 9,100 yards and 104 touchdowns and committed to Ohio State after completing 66 percent of his passes for 3,422 yards and 46 touchdowns.
As Brohm stated, he is an elite athlete, adding 1,435 yards rushing and 24 rushing touchdowns. In his final two seasons in high school, he finished with 86 touchdowns and just 12 interceptions. He comes to Louisville ranked No. 18 among quarterbacks in the portal and No. 160 overall.
So, Kienholz comes to Louisville with an impressive resume, having played in a winning locker room and won the 2025 National Championship with Ohio State, but now it's his turn to be QB1. Brohm is high on this QB room, but it comes as no surprise that Kienholz is expected to be the main guy next season.
For all the latest recruiting news and updates for Louisville football, stay tuned.