After Jeff Brohm chose to stay at Purdue, Louisville's football coaching search opened up to new candidates including Memphis' Mike Norvell.

Memphis has one of the most productive offenses in the nation. The Tigers are currently sixth in the nation in points per game, putting up 43.8 points per game this season.

And he's not a one-hit wonder.

Last season Memphis was No. 2 in the nation in Scoring Offense, putting up 45.5 points per game including a whopping 79 touchdowns.

In 2016, Memphis was No. 15 in the nation, putting up 38.8 points per game.

And it's not all showy passing. Memphis averaged 6.4 yards per carry this season, rushing for 3,311 yards and 42 touchdowns. Louisville rushed for just 1,698 yards and 18 touchdowns this season.

I'm taking this as a positive. Norvell is just 37 years old, that's a mere child in coaching circles. And yet - despite his young age, he has already proven so much. In fact, he's probably proven more at age 37 than many coaches have at age 50 or more.

Louisville could have a young coach with a young staff with Adidas' ability and willingness to dress the Cardinals in style and flash. For a program in need of an image rebuild as well as a roster rebuild, being young, high-scoring and swaggy would seem to be an attractive combo.

Why do I think his youth is an advantage rather than a disadvantage? Norvell is a football lifer. He went from playing at Central Arkansas to being a GA to Tulsa from 2007-2010 to Pittsburgh in 2011 to Arzona State in 2012-2015 and then to Memphis in 2016.

Want to get excited about a coaching candidate? Read what USA Today wrote about Mike Norvell.

"There’s a strong case to be made that Memphis’ Mike Norvell is the next Dabo Swinney. He’s young, high energy, has recruited above the historical level of his program and is about to play for an American Athletic Conference title for the second consecutive year.

"On the other hand, you could argue he’s merely another version of Kevin Sumlin, who went to Texas A&M with great fanfare after he flashed at Houston but didn’t have enough defensive acumen or overall substance to flourish on the big stage.

Nobody is really going to know for sure until the 37-year-old Norvell, who is 26-12 in his career, gets that chance."

Could he be Swinney? If he could even be 80 percent of Swinney, what would that look like at Louisville?

Can he take the next step in recruiting?

While there is an admittedly small sample size, Norvell has shown the ability to land a four-star player. In his first class at Memphis (2017), he landed three four-star recruits. That's more than Baylor, Iowa, Iowa State, Duke, Texas Tech and Missouri had in their classes that year.

Sure, his 2017 class ranked was 62 in that first year, but the ability to convince elite players to give him a chance is key. Trouble is, Memphis didn't land a four-star recruit in the 2018 class and they finished 81st in recruiting.

The good news is that Norvell's 15 recruits for 2019 so far are ranked in the Top 50 nationally.