LOUISVILLE, Ky. – As quickly as fall camp began for the Louisville football program, the preseason is already behind us. With UofL beginning classes next Monday, the Cardinals held their final practice of fall camp on Saturday.

As a final practice, Louisville played the third practice game of the fall camp. Like every year, they want to end the preseason with a strong result before officially preparing for the first opponent. According to head coach Jeff Brohm, the defense made the most of the last preseason practice.

“Today was a good day overall in terms of practice,” he said. “We learned a lot about our team today. The defense was dominant without question. They played really well, made good plays, forced turnovers and disrupted the offense.”

Unfortunately, this dominant performance by the defense came at the expense of the offense. Brohm even went so far as to say that the offense’s performance was “disappointing” and that it was “a slog” from start to finish.

“The offense had a really bad day,” he said. “It was a really dismal day for the offense. They had bad, negative plays and turnovers and there are a lot of things we need to work on. Hopefully we’ll regroup and understand what it takes to win against good opponents.”

“The defense was undoubtedly on the offense’s heels. From the first game to the end, it was a bitter defeat.”

While the third and final scrimmage of fall camp was closed to the public and media, Brohm pulled back the curtain a little and revealed what went wrong that day – and there was a lot. Unfortunately, it wasn’t because a good offense was defeated by a great defense – the offense just wasn’t prepared.

According to Brohm, the defensive line put pressure on the quarterback almost constantly. Quarterback Tyler Shough had a rough day and let his aggressive nature get the better of him by forcing too many throws. The various receivers, regardless of position, dropped too many balls. Brohm says there were a few explosive runs, but overall they didn’t get much done in the running game.

While the players certainly need to play more consistently, especially with the 2024 season so close, Brohm blames himself and the coaching staff for not doing a better job of preparing the offense for the final scrimmage.

“It’s not just the players, it’s the coach,” he said. “You have to have a plan for the opportunities you get that gives the players the opportunity to play against the odds as best they can. Not just calling plays for the sake of calling plays. It has to have a purpose, you have to get from one to the other quickly so you put yourself in a better position to make plays. I myself put the blame all the way down to where things need to be planned more strategically and our players need to be given a chance.

Fortunately, this poor offensive performance doesn’t seem to be a microcosm of the offense as a whole. It just seems to be part of the ups and downs of fall camp, where some days the offense performs better and others the defense is the tighter unit.

“We probably had two outstanding days on offense this week where we were really good,” Brohm said. “In the last practice game on Wednesday, we were as good on offense as I’ve ever seen. And today we were as bad as we’ve ever been.”

“Like I said, we need to practice better and make sure we’re clear on, ‘Hey, these are the things we can really rely on.’ Not getting too aggressive, not taking too many risks, but at the same time creating big plays. Today wasn’t good.”

There was, in fact, a bright spot in the final week of fall camp. After Louisville’s first scrimmage of fall camp, Brohm criticized the players who weren’t starting and said he wanted to see more playmakers emerge beyond the usual suspects.

While the final practice of fall camp was definitely one-sided, several players on the roster seem to have responded to their performance in the scrimmage and last week overall. It’s just a matter of maintaining that consistency.

“I think so,” Brohm said when asked if playmakers have emerged in the last two scrimmages. “I think some of our receivers have looked really good at times and played well. Sometimes our tight ends have stepped up and done a good job. But it has to be consistent. Some guys are consistent, some guys just need to be more consistent, so that’s important. … This is a good wake-up call for us and we need to refocus.”

The Cardinals open the 2024 season on Saturday, August 31 against Austin Peay at L&N Stadium.

(Louisville player photo: Matt Stone – The Courier Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK)

You can follow Louisville Cardinals On SI for future coverage by liking us on Facebook, Twitter/X and Instagram:

Facebook- @LouisvilleOnSI
Twitter/X- @LouisvilleOnSI
Instagram- @louisvilleonsi

You can also follow Deputy Editor Matthew McGavic at: @Matt_McGavic on Twitter/X