Louisville

1-1AP #23
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Louisville holds top 25 spot after close Ole Miss lossour readLouisville football dominates Villanova 59-13 in home openerour readThe Kentucky rivalry

ACC · Jeff Brohm, year 4 (29-13) · L&N Federal Credit Union Stadium · 60,000 · 46,385 avg in 2026

The nationAP #23up 1 from last week
The model#55 CFB ZeitgeistSP+ #33 (+10.0) · FPI #28
The marketLouisville by 1.5vs SMU · our model 35% Louisville · a number, not a pick

LastW 59–13 vs Villanova · Fri Sep 11 · Lincoln Kienholz 332 pass yds, 2 TD, 42 rush yds

Nextvs SMU · Sat Sep 19 · 3:30 pm ET · L&N Federal Credit Union Stadium · Louisville by 1.5 · series 0-4, lost the last 4 · Game preview

Updated Tue Sep 15 · through week 2

Zeitgeist staturePower Program III#67 all-time– holding
The era · 2014 through 2025

The CFP Era

12 seasons inside the CFP era, no bids yet — the era the program is still trying to break into.

Era record 90-63 12 seasons
Best season 10-4 2023
TRAJECTORY · quality-score line · AP rank dotted · CFP bids marked · coach regimes ribboned
Program Quality AP Rank (inverted) CFP Appearance
'14'16'18'20'22'24NOW
CHAPTERS · 12 seasons · tap to open the archive
'14 9-4 '15 8-5 '16 9-4 '17 8-5 '18 2-10 '19 8-5 '20 4-7 '21 6-6 '22 8-5 '23 10-4 '24 9-4 '25 9-4

Louisville's 2014–2025 record is 90-63. The era is still being written; the CFP line is the one the program is arguing for.

Era win %
.588
Ranked seasons (AP)
7/12
Best AP finish
#15

Program outlook

Jeff Brohm went 9-4, 9-4, and 9-4 at Louisville. Three straight strong seasons, three straight years finishing 4-4 in the ACC, no title game, no ranking. The program that produced a Heisman winner keeps winning nine games and keeps asking what nine games actually means.

Read the full essay — 3 more paragraphs

Louisville is the program that produced Lamar Jackson's 2016 Heisman season — one of the great individual years the sport has seen — and has spent the years since figuring out what that ceiling actually is. Howard Schnellenberger built the modern program and took it to the Fiesta Bowl. Bobby Petrino returned to give it an offense that could score on anyone. Jeff Brohm, a Louisville-born former Cardinals quarterback, came home to stabilize what the swings between those eras kept unsettling. The result is a program that wins nine games reliably and has never quite cracked the wall past it.

The 2025 season was more of the same: 9-4, 4-4 in the ACC, a Boca Raton Bowl win over Toledo behind quarterback Miller Moss, and another year watching Duke claim the conference title. Brohm's three-year record is the most stable stretch the program has had since the Petrino peak. The chip is that stability has started to feel like a ceiling — the fanbase split between gratitude for the floor Brohm has built and frustration that the floor and the ceiling have converged at the same number.

The 2026 season will test whether the steady-nine-win model can finally produce the signature game that changes the narrative. Louisville has the quarterback. It has the recruiting infrastructure. The ACC is not impenetrable. The question 2026 will actually answer: can Brohm turn the program he stabilized into the program that breaks through — or does nine-and-four become the defining sentence instead of the setup for one?

On the field

Quarterback-driven, points-oriented offense — from Petrino's vertical passing concepts to the RPO-heavy spread Brohm has installed. Louisville scores and has, across its modern eras, built its identity around the ability to put up points before the defense has to. Miller Moss runs an efficient version of that system. The fanbase is sophisticated enough to watch the offensive line as the leading indicator of which kind of season is coming.

program outlook · as of 2026-06-14

All-time record · Louisville

Louisville has won 53% of its games since 1914 — 62% at home, 43% on the road.

414-358-8 all-time · 82 seasons · 1914–2026

Home 249-147-5
Away 147-193-2
Neutral 18-18-1
2 g 1910s
5 g 1920s
3 g 1940s
33% 1950s
45% 1960s
50% 1970s
38% 1980s
52% 1990s
67% 2000s
63% 2010s
59% 2020s

Coaching Era · Louisville

Jeff Brohm

Jeff Brohm has held the program for 4 seasons — the era is established.

Era Jeff Brohm · 2023–presentPrev: Scott Satterfield (2019–2022)OC: Brian BrohmPrev OC: Lance Taylor (2022)DC: co-Mark Ivey / co-Steve EllisPrev DC: co-Ron English / co-Mark Hagen (2023–2025)
The full CFP-era story →The full coaching lineage →
4 years · era

Program memory

What this program never forgets

Most weeks vanish. These didn’t.

2016

Lamar Jackson's Heisman

Jackson becomes Louisville's first Heisman winner with one of the great dual-threat seasons ever

Moment of the season — so far · Louisville · 2026

Lost 38-41 at Ole Miss

Week 1 of 2026. The early statement — the game this season gets measured from, for now. It turned on one snap in Q4 — Lincoln Kienholz, a 51-point win-probability swing.

vs Top-10 (#9)

NFL Draft Pipeline

2023–2026

Louisville has sent 11 players to the NFL Draft since 2023 — none in the first round.

Steady. Reliable mid-tier pipeline.

11 picks · 0 in round 1
#40 Tyler Shough Quarterback · 2025 · New Orleans · #24/137 final season
#66 Ashton Gillotte Defensive Edge · 2025 · Kansas City · #67/426 final season
#82 YaYa Diaby Defensive End · 2023 · Tampa Bay · #16/387 final season
#46 all-time · 16 first-round picksthe talent factory →

More in this tab

Ladder finishHow far up the ladder this season got.

Season standing · 2026 · 1-1 · AP #23

Louisville is ranked 23rd (AP) at 1-1.

Ranked in the AP/Coaches polls, 16-25. National relevance achieved.

Sub-FBSBuildingBowlRankedContenderPlayoff
Coaching historyEvery hire and departure on record, not just the current era.

Coaching history

  • Hired Jeff Brohm2023
  • Hired Deion Branch (interim)2022
  • Scott Satterfield departs25-24, 4 seasons
  • Deion Branch departs (interim)1-0, 1 season
  • Hired Scott Satterfield2019
  • Hired Lorenzo Ward2018
  • Lorenzo Ward departs0-2, 1 season
  • Bobby Petrino departs34-18, 4 seasons
Coordinator lineageOffense and defense under each coordinator.

Unit lineage

Louisville’s offense and defense, by coordinator

FBS-relative efficiency percentile per season (2014–2026), same population as the Coordinator Mirror board. Dashed vertical lines mark a coordinator change.

Offense2014–2026
2014201620182020202220242026
2014–2015 · Garrick McGee2016 · co-Lonnie Galloway / co-Chris Klenakis2017–2018 · co-Lonnie Galloway / co-Mike Summers2019–2020 · Dwayne Ledford2022 · Lance Taylor2023–2026 · Brian Brohm
Defense2014–2026
2014201620182020202220242026
2014–2016 · Todd Grantham2017 · Peter Sirmon2018 · Brian VanGorder2019–2020 · Bryan Brown2021 · Bryan Brown / co-Cort Dennison2022 · Bryan Brown / co-Wesley McGriff2023–2025 · co-Ron English / co-Mark Hagen2026 · co-Mark Ivey / co-Steve Ellis
Elite (≥70th pct)AveragePoor (≤30th pct)
Gameday customsThe gameday customs unique to this program.

Rituals

Three gameday rituals — the ones outsiders never quite catch.

L1C4 (Love 1 Card 4 Life)

since 2000s

more

L1C4 — 'Love One Card Four Life' — is the universal Louisville fan-identity marker. The shortened acronym appears in merchandise, recruiting graphics, social media bios. Replaces 'Go Cards' between alumni in casual conversation.

Governor's Cup (vs Kentucky)

since 1994 · trophy game

more

Louisville-Kentucky for the Governor's Cup — the in-state ACC-vs-SEC rivalry that decides bragging rights across the bluegrass. Restored to annual play 1994 after multi-decade hiatus; routinely the most-watched in-state rivalry in TV ratings for Kentucky markets.

Lamar Jackson Statue (2024)

since 2024

more

Lamar Jackson's 2024 statue installation outside the stadium honors the 2016 Heisman winner and most-celebrated player in program history. Recruits walk past it on every campus visit. Statue installation events are season-ticket-holder rituals.

Cultural identityWhat college football loses if this program didn't exist.
Canon appearancesMoments that made college football's permanent record.

Featured in The Canon

#6
Lamar Jackson
The 100 Best Players of the CFP Era
Browse The Canon →
BowlsEvery bowl this program's played, and how it did.

Bowl / Postseason Ledger

Recent postseason (2014-2025): 5-5

Most recent: 2025 — win 27-22 (home). Last 5 postseason: 3-2.

20252024202320222021
Reddit blowupsThe plays that blew up on r/CFB.

r/cfb moments

1.9k
[Postgame Thread] Louisville Defeats UCF 20-14
Sep 2022 · r/cfb
1.5k
[Postgame Thread] USC Defeats Louisville 42-28
Dec 2023 · r/cfb

All-time top community posts · ranked by upvotes

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