Indiana football 2023 opponent preview: Louisville

Indiana football won’t have much of a respite after facing FCS Indiana State in week two. Week three will feature the Hoosiers making the short drive to Indianapolis for a neutral site matchup at Lucas Oil Stadium against Louisville.

They’ve done this before, only against a different group of Cardinals. This one is significantly more of a challenge, however. Especially now that they’re led by none other than Jeff Brohm, but we’ll get into that.

Here’s a few things you need to know about Louisville:

Names To Know

• HC Jeff Brohm
• OC Brian Brohm
• DC Mark Hagen
• DC Ron English
• QB Jack Plummer
• RB Jawhar Jordan
• WR Jamari Thrash
• CB Marcus Washington
• CB Marquis Groves-Killebrew

Scott Satterfield had a decent run as the head coach at Louisville after a few years at Appalachian State, but the fanbase always had its eyes set on the north for Jeff Brohm at Purdue. Satterfield took an escape hatch by accepting the Cincinnati job following Luke Fickell’s departure for Wisconsin and Cardinals fans’ dreams finally came true.

Jeff Brohm was a thorn in Tom Allen’s side for just about every one of his years in West Lafayette. Indiana won the matchup once, in 2019, at Ross-Ade Stadium. He’s brought pretty much that entire staff with him too.

On top of that, the Cards have one of the better transfer portal classes nationally, ranking in at No. 12, and bring in multiple four-star freshmen.

Jack Plummer spent four years under Brohm at Purdue before transferring to Cal in the wake of Aidan O’Connell’s emergence at quarterback. He’s capable and obviously comes with plenty of experience for whatever Indiana throws at him.

Jamari Thrash was First Team All-Sun Belt at Georgia State and should immediately factor into the Cards’ passing game. Marcus Washington and Marquis Groves-Killebrew were two four-star transfers to bolster the secondary.

As for what’s left from Satterfield? Leading receiver Tyler Hudson is off to the NFL but leading rusher Jawhar Jordan, who had 815 rushing yards and four touchdowns in 2022, is back. He’ll be aided by Maurice Turner, who had 314 yards as a freshman last season.

Tight end Marshon Ford was second in receiving yards last year with 434, and he returns under Brohm, who tends to get a lot out of tight ends in his offenses.

We’ll have a better read on the Cards down the road once they’ve played a few games.

Matchup Notes

Louisville will definitely look different under Brohm, which is not great news for Indiana given the aforementioned history against Purdue. This is also a matchup Indiana is reportedly trying to get out of in the future.

It’ll also be in Lucas Oil and I’m not entirely sure how energized Indiana fans will be to attend a football game in Indy compared to Louisville fans ecstatic that they finally got the guy they’ve labelled as a program savior for years now.