This is your 3-2-1, where we break down three things we learned this week, two questions we have and give one prediction.
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THREE THINGS WE LEARNED:
1. Jeff Brohm isn't wasting any time getting to work.
Jeff Brohm was officially introduced as the new head football coach at Louisville on Thursday, and since Thursday, the new coach has met with the current team, has brought several staffers with him, and has hit the recruiting trail.
Let's recap what has transpired since Thursday:
Ben Perry, who was big piece of Louisville's defense this year, and is someone who is expected to have a bright future in a Cardinal uniform, initially announced that he would enter the transfer portal.
On Saturday morning, Perry confirmed that he would be pulling his name out of the transfer portal and will be staying in Louisville to play for Jeff Brohm.
The positive news didn't stop there, as later in the day, Purdue commit and local (St. Xavier) product Micah Carter flipped to Louisville.
Also on Saturday, we learned that 2023 four-star offensive lineman Luke Burgess made the trip from Indiana to Louisville to meet Jeff Brohm. Nothing is set in stone, but getting Burgess to meet with Brohm is a great sign for Louisville to keep Burgess in the fold.
Brohm then hopped on a plane to head to California to watch St. John Bosco play in the California State Championship. Brohm was on hand to watch Pierce Clarkson, DeAndre Moore, Aaron Williams, and Jahlil McClain, all current Louisville commits.
Brohm's staff is coming together, and a few of those staffers made the trip to California. Garrick McGee, Pete Nochta, and Ron English all joined Brohm on the West Coast in an attempt to keep the 2023 class in tact.
McGee and English will be leaving Purdue to join Brohm's staff at Louisville. Nochta was a recruiting staffer under Scott Satterfield, and with Louisville not having a full staff together, Nochta was able to go on the road to help. All signs point to Nochta remaining in Louisville to work for Jeff Brohm.
Two other staffers, Chris Barclay, and John Herron, were in Georgia to visit with four-star offensive lineman Madden Sanker.
Barclay was with Brohm at Purdue, and will be the Running Back coach here. Herron worked in the recruiting department, and like Nochta, Herron was able to go on the road to help out. Herron has deep ties to the state of Florida, and has been on staff at Florida and Florida State.
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2. Louisville players, coaches trudge ahead as Fenway Bowl looms.
The story lines around the Fenway Bowl are plentiful. With Scott Satterfield heading to Cincinnati, the talking points around the players who will play and the coaches who will coach have flown under the radar.
We now know that Malik Cunningham will not play, and will opt out to focus on NFL Draft preparations.
Kei'Trel Clark announced that he would be declaring for the NFL Draft, but didn't say whether or not he would be playing in the bowl game.
Standout wide receiver Tyler Hudson was not listed on Louisville's bowl depth chart, and because of that, you can assume that he will not play. However, Hudson has not made any sort of statement on his intentions.
Louisville will have to piece together a roster and a game plan, and will have to do so with just three full-time assistants still around. On offense, Tight Ends coach Josh Stepp is the only remaining assistant coach, resulting in the rest of the offense being coached by quality control staffers and graduate assistants.
On defense, Defensive Line coach Mark Ivey and Outside Linebackers coach Greg Gasparato are still in Louisville and will be heading up the defensive game plan. Derek Nicholson and Bryan Brown are off to Cincinnati, and Wes McGriff has left for Auburn.
Lance Taylor is the new head coach at Western Michigan. Pete Thomas, Nic Cardwell, and De'Rail Sims are all going with Scott Satterfield to Cincinnati.
3. Pair of women's teams get big wins.
The Louisville Volleyball team survived a five-set thriller on Saturday in the KFC Yum! Center, defeating Oregon to advance to the NCAA Final Four.
With the win, the Cardinals improve to 30-2 on the season and move on to their second consecutive NCAA National Semi-finals, which will be played in Omaha.
Claire Chaussee and Aiko Jones were named to the All-Regional team, and Anna DeBeer was crowned the Regional MVP.
Louisville will take on ACC foe Pittsburgh, a team that Louisville played twice during the regular season, splitting the two games.
On Sunday, the women's basketball team beat in-state rival Kentucky for the sixth-straight time. Louisville beat Kentucky 86-72 behind Hailey Van Lith's 21 points. Liz Dixon added 16 points, respectfully.
Jeff Walz's squad jumped out to an early lead and never let up. The Cardinals led by as many as 22 points.
TWO QUESTIONS:
1. Will things get any better for Kenny Payne and company?
Things are bad. Really bad. Louisville suffered another blow-out loss on Saturday as Florida State drummed Louisville 75-53.
Louisville is now 0-9.
The last six losses have been by 22, 27, 25, 19, 32, and 26 points.
Louisville has rolled over in the second half of every one of those games.
It's been hard to watch, and I don't see it getting any better.
Louisville is averaging 17 turnovers per game. They are shooting 37 percent from the field, and opponents are shooting 48 percent from the field against them.
The stats are bad. How it looks is bad. I'm not going to spin this. I'm not going to make excuses. And I'm not going to tell any Louisville fan how they should feel or how they should be reacting.
2. How does Jeff Brohm close out the 2023 class?
ONE PREDICTION: WKU QB Austin Reed will transfer to Louisville.
Louisville will have a new starting quarterback for the first time since 2019. Who will that be? One player who I expect to be in the competition is Western Kentucky transfer Austin Reed. Reed threw for 4,247 yards and 36 touchdowns, and is one of the best signal callers in the portal.
