To start Jeff Brohm era, Louisville is not playing coy about its need to beat Kentucky

Quick hitters from the lazy, hazy, crazy days:

21. Jeff Brohm. In the first summer of the former Louisville quarterback’s head-coaching tenure at his alma mater, the need to reverse archrival Kentucky’s recent domination of U of L in the Governor’s Cup rivalry seems very much on the Cardinals’ minds.

20. Brohm on UK. At ACC Media Days, the new U of L head man acknowledged that “Kentucky’s had our number. It’s important that, you know, we find a way to be competitive and find a way to win the football game.”

19. New U of L QB Jack Plummer on UK. During a recent appearance on radio station WHBE-AM 680, ESPN Louisville, the former Purdue and California quarterback said “just walking around (in Jefferson County) and people are like, ‘Hey, man, you got to beat Kentucky.’”

18. Ex-Scott County High School star Bryan Hudson on UK: The U of L starting center told the Gramlich and Mac Lain football podcast this week that every time “I go anywhere close to home, it’s nothing but (UK) blue and white. ... Going through this offseason, everyday (the UK game) has been in the back of my mind.”

17. The recent numbers. Kentucky has beaten Louisville five times in the past six meetings — and four times in a row by a combined margin of 179-57.

16. Brohm in “rivalry games.” Overall, Brohm is 6-2 as a college head coach against his team’s primary rival. In his stint as Western Kentucky head man (2014-2016), Brohm went 2-1 vs. Middle Tennessee State. As Purdue coach (2017-2022), Brohm went 4-1 against Indiana.

15. The Governor’s Cup home-field “disadvantage.” This season, UK and U of L will play Nov. 25 at L&N Federal Credit Union Stadium. In modern Governor’s Cup history, UK is 7-5 vs. U of L in Louisville, while the Cards are 10-6 against the Cats in Lexington.

14. Already at work. Brohm acknowledged at ACC Media Days that Louisville has begun getting ready for Kentucky. “Yes, we put in preparation (for UK) already,” he said.

13. WKU and conference realignment. When Oklahoma and Texas announced their impending move to the SEC in 2021, the aftershocks had a profound impact on Western Kentucky University. Ultimately, WKU found itself stranded in a depleted Conference USA that lost six schools to the American Athletic Conference and three to the Sun Belt.

12. WKU and more league musical chairs. Given what happened two years ago, WKU Athletics officials have had a keen eye toward potential ramifications from the current round of conference jumping that has seen the Pac-12 decimated by defections to the Big Ten and the Big 12.

11. A shot at WKU upward mobility? Whether the alteration of conferences in 2023 will lead to Western Kentucky having a shot to move up the league “food chain” is unclear. “I just think we have to focus on ourselves, be the best version of ourselves that we can,” WKU Athletics Director Todd Stewart said last month.

10. The left behind. For 2023-24, Western is one of five holdovers in Conference USA — with UTEP, Louisiana Tech, Middle Tennessee State and Florida International. They will be joined by new C-USA members Liberty, Sam Houston State, New Mexico State and Jacksonville State. Kennesaw State will join for 2024-25.

9. A stabilized league? Stewart sites a new media-rights deal that will see Conference USA contests carried on platforms (linear or streaming) owned by either ESPN or CBS as a reason “we feel better about (C-USA membership) than we did a year and a half ago. I feel like Conference USA has stabilized.”

8. Weeknight football. To enhance visibility for their games, Conference USA teams will play during the week throughout the month of October. For WKU, that translates into Thursday night contests vs. archrival Middle Tennessee State (Sept. 28) and at Louisiana Tech (Oct. 5) and Tuesday night games at Jacksonville State (Oct. 17) and vs. Liberty (Oct. 24).

7. “Incredible exposure.” Playing games at non-traditional times “will give us an incredible amount of exposure,” Stewart says. “There will be nights during the week in October when we will literally be the only college football game in the country being played. So Western Kentucky will be on in every sports bar in America.”

6. Walker Buehler. The Los Angeles Dodgers pitching star from Henry Clay High School is in a race to return from the “Tommy John surgery” he underwent last August on his right (and pitching) elbow to return to the L.A. active roster before the major-league baseball season ends.

5. A simulated game. According to the Los Angeles Times, Buehler threw one inning in a simulated game at Chase Field in Phoenix on Wednesday before the Dodgers played the Arizona Diamondbacks.

4. Velocity coming back. According to the L.A. Times, Buehler’s pitches reached 93 miles per hour during the simulated game.

3. A second “Tommy John.” Buehler also underwent surgery on his throwing elbow in 2015.

2. A change in delivery coming. Noting that he has seriously injured his throwing elbow twice, Buehler told the L.A. Times “there’s a part of what’s in my delivery that isn’t working. We’re going to alter how I train and how I practice to kind of clean up some of that stuff.”

1. Ahead of schedule. Buehler told the Los Angeles Times that it normally takes 14 to 18 months to rehabilitate from ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction (the formal name of “Tommy John surgery”). “If I step on a field (in a game) this year, I’ll have blown (the normal rehab time) out of the water,” Buehler said. “So I’m pretty proud of where I am right now.”

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