Will Louisville have QB battle ahead of 2023 college football season? What Jeff Brohm said

When University of California quarterback Jack Plummer transferred to Louisville in December, the general belief was he was a lock for the Cardinals' open starting quarterback job.

Plummer has five years of college football experience. That included four at Purdue, where he threw for 3,095 yards and 21 touchdowns with a 62.5% completion percentage and 131.5 passer rating under head coach Jeff Brohm and offensive coordinator Brian Brohm, both now at Louisville.

But when Jeff Brohm spoke Wednesday during the Cardinals' National Signing Day news conference, he did not commit to Plummer being handed the starting job for 2023 just yet.

“Well, we'll always have open competition at every position,” Brohm said. “Jack does have a lot of experience. We're bringing him here for a purpose and a reason, and we'll give him an opportunity to do his thing. We also want to continue to develop everybody and make sure they're all ready to go.

“Jack obviously knows us and knows our system and has played a lot of football, so we feel good about him.”

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If the Cardinals do have a true open competition under center, Plummer's biggest threat for the starting job will be Brock Domann, who started multiple games in 2022, including the Fenway Bowl, in place of an injured Malik Cunningham, who exhausted his NCAA eligibility this season and is preparing for the NFL draft.

Domann, who hails from Colorado, has been at Louisville since 2021 but didn’t see significant playing time until this past season.

His first start as a Cardinal came against Virginia on Oct. 8, when he led the team to a much-needed 34-17 road victory when Cunningham was out with a concussion. The win turned around the season; the Cardinals rattled off four straight wins to finish 8-5 to make the Fenway Bowl. Domann started the last three games in Cunningham's stead and finished the season with 958 yards (76 of 141 passing), four TDs and six interceptions.

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That's earned Brohm's respect.

“You want to allow him to compete on the offense and do good things,” Brohm said.

The rest of the Cardinals' QB room includes Evan Conley, the backup in 2021, and Nathan McElroy.

And then there's early enrollee Pierce Clarkson, the four-star prospect who is the No. 20 quarterback in the country and the No. 27 overall player in California in the Class of 2023, according to 247Sports.com's composite rankings. He arrived on campus in January after throwing for 3,319 passing yards and 42 TDs to go with 676 rushing yards and nine more scores in his career at St. John Bosco, where he led the team to a California Interscholastic Federation Open Division state championship in December.

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But handing the job to a true freshmen would require Clarkson standing out during spring practice — the Cardinals announced this week the annual spring game will be held April 21 at L&N Federal Credit Union Stadium — and in the summer against veteran QBs who either know Brohm's system or have won in the Atlantic Coast Conference already.

Brohm is eager to see how things shake out.

"I've been excited about what I've seen to this point,” Brohm said about the Cardinals’ quarterbacks. “I think that getting them on the field, getting them game reps in spring practice as much as we can, in team settings where they have to make plays with a little heat on them will be very important. So, we're excited about that position and developing it.”

Reach Louisville football, women's basketball and baseball beat writer Alexis Cubit at acubit@gannett.com and follow her on Twitter at @Alexis_Cubit.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Louisville football coach Jeff Brohm hints at quarterback competition